Wildlife Diary and News

16 May 08 We thought it was cool but by the time we had sawn the very last of the East cord (SA did most of it this morning) and then rescued a tall, skinny Whitebeam from the clutches of a much bigger Hawthorn, all three of us were in need of some nice cool drinks to wash down the delicious Apple Pie Cake. Mmmm!

14 May 08 Warmer again, but still cool enough to stack some of the Sycamore we dropped last year and to layer a few more Hazel stools. One in particular now has 6 different branches pegged down to root in 6 different directions and it looks a bit like an Octopus (with a couple of tentacles missing).

Then we removed the giant wooden 'mushroom' from the Transformer Triangle and replaced it with 'The Passage of Life' by the local woodturner. This magnificent piece of installation art starts with a large wooden egg - the start of all Life. Through the egg a funnel represents the Passage of Life, which leads back to a number of generations rooted in the Tree of Life, sustained by Mother Earth. Eat yer heart out, Anthony Gormley!

If you would like to see (and buy!) some of his wonderful woodturning, including wood from Groves Coppice, (or his wife's beautiful beadwork jewellery) you are invited to The Institute at Thornton Dale near Pickering on Sat 31st May and Sun 1st June (10am - 4pm). Admission is free and a percentage of proceeds will go to CAFOD.

This evening is devoted to setting up displays for tomorrow's final CREST Conference at Sneaton Castle, Whitby. Now that we have completed the EU funded 2-year Project on CREating Sustainable Tourism, all we have to do is present the conclusions, introduce additional work by Kingston University - and then convince the rest of the population that we all need to decide where we all go from here. Unless we just settle for yet more talking and no actual action, of course, in good old EU tradition.

12 May 08 At least 10°C cooler today with a sea fret reaching inland all the way to Sleights. Presumably, another mile or two further inland and the sun would be splitting the flagstones again, but not here. Not today.

This morning SA and ID (SAID? Or IDSA?) layered whatever was available in the Third Hazel coppice (not much) and then returned to the Second coppice to extend it still further. I joined them after lunch and we layered the Hazel by the hedge in the SW corner, creating a new, lower extension to the First Hazel coppice. Then we were joined by a local couple who are also working on their wood nearby and gave them the Grand Tour.

09 May 08 SA cut more pegs and cleared more space where the Hazel branches will touch the ground when layered. It's hot again (my car says it was 23°C this afternoon, which is about 76° in real Fahrenheit), so hot that all three of us spent the afternoon getting scratched by Brambles as we worked in short sleeves. This kind of work among the Brambles is usually winter work when we are all well wrapped up. By late afternoon we had doubled the area of the Second Coppice, assuming (of course) that all the layered stems take root...

08 May 08 Almost too hot to use the small rechargeable strimmer to tidy up the edge of the drive, but Flag lay in the shade and watched me slaving away in the midday sun, so what does that tell you about sensible dogs and mad Irishmen? The Major Oak is now in full green leaf, while the leaning Ash is only just beginning, so: 'Oak before Ash, only a splash.' In other words, expect a dry summer.

After my first lunch under the Raftings I took the poor hot dog to Beck Hole for a shady stroll alongside the cool Murk Esk, which we both enjoyed. I just stood and looked at it, he went and just stood in it. Then we walked to the wonderful Birch Hall Inn for a drink and a Beck Hole Butty (with slabs of home cooked ham, of course) and enjoyed the many conundrums pinned up around the front bar, including:

No. Sorry. You'll just have to work it out for yourself or, better still, call in at the Birch Hall Inn, buy a drink and a snack and ask nicely! You can even make a donation to their favourite charity and they will set the model train running around the top shelf for you. See www.beckhole.info

In the early evening it was cool enough to take the big strimmer and cut the wood path for the first time this year. And then collapse.

07 May 08 The dawn chorus is glorious every morning, with one particular Song Thrush somewhere in the orchard singing the praises of 'Baked beans, baked beans, baked beans!' for over an hour before breakfast. (Thinks: Talking of baked beans and breakfast: when exactly did baked beans become part of a 'traditional full English breakfast')?

The Sparrowhawk came back for another helping this morning but flew off empty taloned.

Hot, calm and sunny again today as SA removed redundant bits of anti-deer defences from around various now-well-grown trees, ready to be used on the many tasty young Hazels we will be layering over the next few weeks, not to mention cutting some wooden pegs for the layering. BC and I joined in for our first salad lunch of the year, together with Botham's wonderfully light quiche and paradoxically heavy port pie. Then we all set about de-brambling the places around the Hazel coppices where the longest Hazel stems will be pegged down to root themselves, before being severed from the parent stool. This is the traditional way to replace missing Hazels in a coppice or, as we are doing, to expand the coppice area without the cost of buying additional young trees. By 3 o'clocks we had managed to actually clear some spaces, cut some pegs and layer some Hazel branches into those spaces - effectively increasing the Second Coppice by at least a third. This called for a celebration so we drank lots of cool drinks on the patio and enjoyed the first Magnum ice creams of the summer.

As we relaxed, the first House Martins flew overhead. They were not circling the house in an excited celebration, so I suspect these ones were just hawking over the nearby River Esk and accidentally drifted into my airspace.

06 May 08 This morning all the live food I have been offering for years at the feeding station brought rewards when a magnificent female Sparrowhawk swooped down, chased one of them around the bush below and finally flew off with it firmly in her talons. Well Done, Sprawk! Pity about the Dunnock, though... Still and all, the wood is in good shape if the top predator is breeding there, as she clearly is. Thanks, Dunnock, your sacrifice is much appreciated.

NB: This is a politically correct bird feeding station, catering for all avian users regardless of their colour, gender, musicality, race, species, sub-species or sexual orientation and in the name of universal love and forgiveness any hint of intolerance will be punished very severely in most unpleasant ways!

05 May 08 Yesterday I encountered my first family of young birds in the wood, when a dozen (mainly juvenile and rather short tailed) Long Tailed Tit crossed the path by the Second Hazel Coppice. One of my favourite birds at any time of year, but a whole family of them on the move in my wood was extra specially good.

Today I cut the grass while SA sawed some more cut Blackthorn stems to 4 foot lengths and stacked them onto the loose cord with the others. BC arrived in time for lunch and we all agreed that it was rather too hot for our usual soup. Our first non-soup lunch of the year was followed by sawing and stacking the rest of the Blackthorn, then sawing some of the East cord into firelogs for the woodshed and then drinking very large volumes of very cold fruit squash while collapsing in chairs on the patio and sunbathing. It must be in the high 60s, the sky is clear, the sun is hot and there is no wind. Summertime? On a Bank Holiday Monday, too!

04 May 08 My first family of Long Tailed Tit 'tseeped' their way through the wood, with up to ten rather short-tailed Long Tailed youngsters calling loudly as they kept in tough with their partents.

03 May 08 I don't usually wave at the many steam trains going past in the bottom of the dale, but today I made an exception for Sir Nigel Gresley on his (her?) trip to Whitby. An A4 Pacific Class locomotive and one of only 6 left in the world, Sir Nigel is from the same Class as Mallard, the fastest steam train in the world when it broke the record with 125mph in 1938. Just one more trip from Pickering to Whitby again tomorrow and then poor old Sir Nigel is off to the National Railway Museum in York for mothballing. Never mind, poor old Nige, there will be other steam trains keeping the tradition alive, with a total of over 500 return steam trips from Pickering via Grosmont to Whitby this year. Last year the North Yorkshire Moors Railway also had frequent steam trips on the same route, and carried well over 300,000 passengers from Pickering to Whitby and back. That's equivalent to 100,000 cars with 3 passengers / car and is (but don't tell anyone) an almost perfect Park and Ride system already! Now all we have to do is put back the 10 miles of track from Pickering to Malton that dear old Dr Beeching closed, and then we can run trains right through from York to Whitby...

Talking of Dr Beeching's short term economic sense and long term major mistake that cost far, far more in the long run: rural Post Office closures. 'What's a rural Post Office, mummy?'

02 May 08 SA selected four perfect Hazel sticks from the First Hazel Coppice, ready for marking off as our new medieval standard measuring stick for all cordwood: 4 feet long. This was the ideal length for every piece of cordwood for centuries, easy to handle for loading and unloading carts, and divisible into either six 8 inch firelogs for small bedroom grates, or four 12 inch firelogs for living room grates, or three 16 inch firelogs for kitchen grates (and most modern woodburning stoves), or two 24 inch logs for grand ballroom grates, or even one 48 inch firelog for the vast warming room fireplace of Fountain Abbey. In the past I have cheated and cut all my cordwood to 4 foot 6 inch lengths (ie three 18 inch firelogs) to suit my particular model of woodburner but, really, one ought to do these things in the time honoured way. Especially as later this year we will be doubling the length of the East cord from 8 feet to 16 feet and should make all the other necessary changes before starting this autumn to cut wood to fill it for burning in the winter of 2010/11.

For BC, SA and I it was warm work after lunch sawing the Blackthorn into the new medieval 4 foot lengths and building a temporary loose cord by the Second Hazel coppice. Orientated North / South, this loose cord will present both cut ends of every piece of cordwood to direct sunlight either morning or afternoon, thus drying it out faster and making it lighter to carry down to the woodyard in the autumn. As the medieval folk well knew, when you are doing all the work by hand (or foot), it makes sense to find the least energetic methods! We had our 3.30 o'clocks sitting out on the patio (first patio 3 o'clocks of the year) and letting our bones feel the heat of the full afternoon sun. We weren't the only ones to appreciate the heat, with the first Grasshopper (Cricket?) rasping in the grass by the pond. Also the first Broomrape flowering. Summer at last? Wonderful!

April 2008 Weather Summary. Precipitation 97mm (3¾ inch). Temperatures: Maximum 19°C (66°F), Minimum -4°C (26°F). Actual today 58°C (56°F). A very mixed month, with every indication of Spring having arrived and some lawns cut for the first time this year, then reverting to sharp overnight frosts, then milder and wetter, then cold Easterly winds for many days, giving way to better weather, then more rain before becoming Spring like again.

30 Apr 08 Heavy rain overnight (it didn't waken me!) apparently, with another ¾ of an inch of rain since yesterday evening. Now clear and sunny, the ground is really soggy all around the wood and even the diverted path is now waterlogged again. There hasn't really been a lot of rain this month, but perhaps the lower temperatures, cool East wind and cloudy skies have all reduced the normal evapo-transpiration rate of all the soil / grass / shrubs / trees so much that nothing really dried out after what rain there was? Very odd.

A single Siskin, the only one I have seen here in many months, finally got the hang of the Grey Squirrel resistant bird feeders and became an almost permanent occupant of the peanut feeder. SA and ID surveyed the soggy wood and after lunch BC and I joined them to check that the neighbour's top ditch was still diverting the runoff past the wood. Then we moved the other stack of Blackthorn and potential walking sticks from the 2nd Hazel Coppice, restacking it just the other side of the path and hanging all the sticks from the Stick Tree (Crab Apple), while SA lowered all the remaining Blackthorn stems to a much safer height. The first Ladies Smock is in flower by the side of the beck in my garden.

29 Apr 08 The find summer weather continues so Flag and I strolled across the main road, past the gas main related road works, to the River Gardens. Our riverside afternoon tea was greatly enlivened when a rowing boat approached upstream from Ruswarp, complete with creaky noises and oars waving in the air. Flag had no idea what it was but clearly it was absolutely fascinating and just had to be investigated - but I wouldn't let him, so much whining and consternation (from him) added still further to the excitement. Luckily the rowing boat turned around and glided off downstream again, watched intently every inch of the way by a very frustrated Golden Retriever. I saw Swallows and House Martins over Whitby yesterday, but still none that I have seen in Sleights...

28 Apr 08 I cut the grass (almost all of it) this morning, while SA released a hunched Holly from an overbearing Hawthorn in Dykeside. BC and I joined in after lunch and trimmed even more from the Hawthorn, leaving a happy Holly with a clear view of the sky above and to the South. We then trimmed back a bit more of the fallen Apple, which had been shading the lower bridge approach and keeping the path there very muddy.

25 Apr 08 This morning SA added a few more anti-deer defences to Flag's Folly, including spinning CDs and a loose bisection of the fenced circle with a bit more wire fencing. After lunch I struggled (and failed) to debug the data entry sheet for the Whitby Visitor Survey, while BC and SA moved the tangled heap of Blackthorn and Sycamore poles which we cleared from the 2nd Hazel Coppice, and restacked them neatly outside the coppice to season. By the time they had done all the hard work, I had emailed the problem to a whizkid in the next village, so I was able to join them for cold drinks and sticky buns in the conservatory. Naturally!

There are now more than 14 spikes of Early Purple Orchid flowering in Bank Orchard.

24 Apr 08 A boring office morning, followed by the first SUMMER weather of the year! The cool, easterly wind has finally gone and is now warm, dry and South Westerly, while the cloud is high, light and fluffy and the temperature is well above 60° and the garden is warm and the conservatory is too warm to have the door closed. Yes, I think this is really what we have all been waiting for!

23 Apr 08 SA sawed yet more wood from next winter's cord and stacked it in the woodshed (and if this spring wasn't so cold and miserable, I wouldn't keep burning it now). After lunch we all split a goodly stack of drums from last year's Tilhill's leccy line clearing up by the top bridge and ended up feeling much better about the recent introduced abolition of the 10p tax rate. Yes, Prime Minister - just put your neck on this chopping block, please...

In my recently delivered copy of the RSPB's Birds magazine, Simon Barnes describes the satisfaction of watching a pair of Sparrowhawks displaying above a wood. The display of any top predator indicates that all must be well with the ecosystem: if the vegetation wasn't right, then there wouldn't be enough food for the prey species and if the prey species weren't right, then there wouldn't be enough food for any top predators. So last week's display by a pair of Sparrowhawks above Groves Coppice is the ultimate seal of approval which confirms that 'All is well with this wood.'

22 Apr 08 Most of the day was spent with the web designer at Easingwold (near... well actually, it's not near anywhere, but it's somewhere between York, Malton and Thirsk) finalising the templates for the new www.VisitWhitby.com website, due to be launched in a few weeks.

Fancy a sudden holiday at Groves Dyke? There has just been a cancellation for the next 2 weeks, which means they are now half price...

21 Apr 08 It was a cool, grey few days but the Spirit of the 40s event went off smoothly. This morning SA and I went to replace our leaky wellies, but only my size was in stock so while I got a nice new pair of steel toe capped wellies, all SA got was a nice new tube of bicycle tyre repair glue...

I cut all the lawns that hadn't been cut since last year while SA and ID fenced off Flag's Folly, in an effort to keep the Roe Deer off the circle of young Willows long enough for all 12 Willows to grow tall enough to weave them into a giant 'living basket'. At the moment, only 8 Willows are alive and the other 4 have all had their bark flayed off by Roebuck scratching the velvet off their little antlers. The fence is not a high one, just a very confined area which, it is said, Roe Deer don't like to enter because they have so little run up room to jump out again. By late afternoon all the grass was cut and the Willows safely ring-fenced.

As we finished the fence the sun was actually shining and my first Curlew of the year gave its bubbling call from the fields above. Ahhh wonderful - that is the tingle-factor of the North York Moors!

18 Apr 08 After yesterday afternoon's rain, my rain gauge now reads 2½ inches so far this month. SA spent the morning moving the cordwood we felled over the last week down from the orchard to the drive, where it was cut into cord lengths and driven around to the woodshed. On a walk up the drive just after lunch the first Early Purple Orchids (2 spikes) were in flower in Bank orchard. BC and I joined in after lunch, unloading the cordwood and stacking it against the pole barn for sawing into firelogs some wet day. Then we went back to the SW corner of the wood and felled the remaining few Hawthorn and Blackthorn, chucking it over the hedge and adding it to the bonfire heap. All this involved a fair bit of slipping and sliding about on the wet muddy slope, leading to SA to utter the immortal words: 'I'll be glad when I've had enough of this!'

Despite all this, it was SA who heard the sound of a vehicle near the top of the wood, so we finished by walking up to find out who was doing what and exactly where they were doing it. Someone, presumably the electricity board contractors who made such an awful hash of my fence when the left last year, had just been back again, hammered in a couple of extra fence posts (wrong type, being untreated instead of tannalised or something like creosoted), stapled the sheep net to them and tightened that section of fence so much that some of the square holes are now much elongated and a sheep could get its head stuck. The two big holes in the ground which they they left behind last time were also left this time. Still, mustn't grumble, I suppose...

On the way back down again there was much scolding overhead as a Sparrowhawk was mobbed by just two tiny birds, but making enough noise for a sizeable flock.

17 Apr 08 A morning of office work, laundry and sawing logs, followed by a wet afternoon of more office work. A Sparrowhawk soared high over the wood, which suggests a nest nearby. The Whitby Beacon Town Forum's visitor survey from last summer is now being keyed into a spreadsheet for analysis...

The first Cowslips are in flower in my wildflower bank beside the steps, with a total of 5 flowers.

16 Apr 08 Another wonderful dawn chorus this morning. It's dry and almost sunny today but with a chill easterly wind. A Long Tailed Tit keeps fluttering at my windows, presumably picking off bits of cobweb for its nest. The (only) first Rowan in the wood is just opening its leaves and the Hazel coppices are greening over nicely.

SA continued jungle busting the SW corner and after lunch BC and I joined in. SA cut down the Blackthorn and Hawthorn scrub, passing it to me to throw over the hedge into the orchard where BC stacked it onto an old bonfire site for burning at the end of the summer. Ah, such teamwork! BC also worked out an easier way we will be able to layer Hazel stems into the newly cleared area: rather than try to layer down the hill from the existing First Hazel Coppice, why not layer up the slope using the Hazels in the hedge at the bottom of the slope? Double doh!

By 2.45 we were ready for our 3 o'clocks, so we retreated to the conservatory for cold drinks and Chelsea Buns. Most of the hard work in the SW corner has now been done, with just a bit of light scrub and a couple of stacks still to clear.

14 Apr 08 White over with frost early this morning, but then brightened so much that SA and I were too hot as we started clearing the Blackthorn / Hawthorn / Sycamore scrub in the SW corner. After a good, warm morning's work we came back for lunch and the weather was still almost spring like. Walking up the drive in the early afternoon I heard my very first Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming this year. Ten years ago they visited the bird feeding station on a daily basis and could be heard drumming at least every week. Five years ago they stopped coming to the feeders but could still be heard every month. And now? This is the one and only drumming I have heard in the whole of 2008, so far. Since the wood is getting more wood-like every year, why are there fewer Woodpeckers? The only regular now is the Green Woodpecker...

After lunch BC and SA changed tack and instead of diverting the runoff from the path, they diverted the path to dryer ground. Now why didn't we think of the sooner? Doh!

Overnight frosts are forecast every night this week, which as far as I am concerned is an ideal excuse not to cut any more lawns until next week. Anyway, with the Whitby and District Tourism Association's (see www.visitwhitby.com ) 'Spirit of the 40s' weekend in another 4 days, there just isn't time to cut grass.

12 Apr 08 After yesterday afternoon's heavy rain and all the snow / sleet we had last weekend, my rain gauge is now reading about 2 inches of rain (ok, 'precipitation') so far this month. Yet dry, warm and sunny enough again today to dry a big load of washing on the line and the first Gean (Wild Cherry) tree is in flower in the wood.

Sleights bridge over the River Esk has now sprouted traffic lights, as Transco (or whatever they're called this week) digs up the end of the Briggswath road to locate a gas leak and replace the old (copper?) pipes with nice new plastic ones. No rush - gas has only been leaking there for 6 years!!! Good thing there's lots more where that came from. There isn't? Woops! So why should we all bother to save energy, when the national agency responsible lets it leak for 6 blooming years? Sounds a bit like Yorkshire Water in the 1990's when we had the big drought, made all the worse because 33% of all their treated water was leaking out through their own rusty mains pipes: 'too expensive to replace them, so we will just build a new reservoir in Farndale and flood half the daffodils, farms, etc - and in the meantime if it lasts much longer we plan to evacuate the whole population of Bradford city.' They never did say where to...

11 Apr 08 Today saw the welcome return of ID for a bit more Bank Vol-ing. This morning ID and SA toured the wood and dug a second drain to keep the water off the 4th Hazel Coppice. BC and I admired the flow when we joined them after lunch and we all used the 2-person saw* to take a few drums off the fallen Apple tree which shades the muddy path near the bottom bridge. A Great Tit was also sawing wood, the Green Woodpecker yaffled from further up the hill and the Chiffchaffs did exactly what it said on the tin.

This done, we were just clearing up when the lovely, mild, dry, sunny spring day gave way to a very heavy and prolonged downpour. Good thing we got into the conservatory with afternoonsies just in time!

*Not being allowed to call it a 2-man saw anymore, reminds me of the lunchtime menu at the Milford Arms hotel in nearby Rosedale Abbey, which used to offer a 'Non-sexist plough-person's lunch' on its menu. Good for them for such a brilliant send up of political correctness!

10 Apr 08 More meetings, followed by a lovely stroll along the beach at Sandsend with Flag and SH. This time the cream stayed on top of our hot chocolate as we sat outside and enjoyed the view and the mild, sunny weather.

09 Apr 08 Sunny and mild again this morning but overcast by afternoon. SA prepared the line of a new open drain to clear the runoff from above the Forth Hazel Coppice and after lunch BC and I joined in the digging. Flag, true to form, did his own thing elsewhere, but we had noticed that the major excavation at the foot of the Leaning Ash has now grown so big that he has started a second one nearby! SA suggests it may be a ventilation shaft, perhaps?

After a couple of hours of slutch and glar, we had removed the lower branches of an intrusive Hawthorn and dug about 15 yards (c14 m) of diagonal ditch across the muddy path and through the woodland to direct all the runoff away from the poor young trees. I think we have just saved the largest Hazel Coppice on the whole estate (all 20 or 30 of them).

The first Ramsons (Wild Garlic) are in flower just up the drive and my yellow Forsythia is also in flower. Now is this Spring or isn't it?

08 Apr 08 Spring again! Lovely sunny morning so Flag and I trespassed on my top neighbour's land again to try and sort out the ditch which is still spilling out and flowing into my side neighbour's land. A bit more digging and banking moved the water along another 20 yards of ditch, but then it reached an even lower point and continued to spill over his field a bit further along. I stopped work at that point and followed the almost non-existent ditch to a dry stone wall where it should have gone under. There is still a 6 foot drop on the other side of the wall, to an open ditch running across the slope towards the main road. This suggests that the culvert under the wall has been blocked for a very long time, the upper ditch has silted itself up and now the water has to spill over the side instead of getting away cleanly. Methinks a little chat is needed...

My first Hawthorns are now in leaf and the Hazels are just beginning. The first Fritillary now has 2 big white flowers in Groves Dyke orchard.

07 Apr 08 White again this morning, but more a layer of hailstones than of snow. Less sun but the temperature is high enough to melt it all away by mid morning. A good day to catch up with the paperwork in the study, I think.

06 Apr 08 The dale is covered in snow this morning and all looking very pretty. But the sun is strong enough and the temperature high enough to melt it all away by midday, leaving everything wet and soggy. A 15-minute bird count of my feeding station gave: Blue Tit 4, Great Tit 4, Robin 2, Longtailed Tit 2, Blackbird 1, Chaffinch 1, Coal Tit 1, Dunnock 1 and first Blackcap 1 male (1115 to 1130am, ⅜ cloud cover, bright cloud, sun and snow showers, 1 inch of snow overnight, Force 2 Northerly, thawing).

04 Apr 08 SA and I checked my top neighbour's drain again and only a little water is still leaking from the side into the wood. I have warned my alongside neighbours that I have only moved my top neighbour's problem off my land and onto theirs. After checking the drain, we split all of the drums cut from the storm thrown Sycamore in the SW corner, and stacked the firelogs onsite to season. No point in carrying them while they are still full of sap, as they will be only half the weight in a year from now.

I went off to swim while SA sawed and stacked a bit more of the East Cord. After lunch we walked the dogs and cleared a bit more of the Apple and Holly trees which shade the muddy approach to the lower bridge. After such an energetic few days, we decided this was a bit too much like hard work and soon retreated for a cold drink and a sticky bun. Just goes to show how much work BC does, when not away at the Grand National!

03 Apr 08 SR turned up this morning with the refurbished 'Groves Dyke' sign which used to hang on the back of the gate (in case it was ever closed to keep passing farm animals out). Carved for us in Oak some 15 or 20 years ago by Chris Checksfield, assistant to Tom Whittaker the Gnome Man of Littlebeck, it had been badly weathered, damp and moss encrusted. SR has now brought it back to pristine condition and attached it to the entrance railings of Groves Dyke. It's sister sign is still on the sunny side of the small gate to Groves Bank and is surviving well. I remember watching Chris Checksfield carve these two signs from a long piece of sawn Oak, starting at one end and then sawing it off, before starting the other house name on the remainder. That way, there was no need to try to make the individually carved letters fit within a given length. Very clever! Dry, calm, mild and cloudy this morning, so I did the first grass-cutting of the year. Two hours later and half the lawns are almost under control again. By cutting every other lawn, I have started the rotational cutting regime which is so good for wildlife (and my back) - and it also means that if the snow and frost do return this weekend, I may only have killed half the grass...

By afternoon the clouds had gone and the sun was shining strongly, as the washing dried on the line and I recovered on the patio.

02 Apr 08 SA and BC sawed their way through about a third of the East Cord, stacking the results into the woodshed and filling a 6th of it with well seasoned firelogs for next winter.

01 Apr 08 An afternoon run to Staithes followed by a dog walk on the beach at Runswick Bay. This will be the first time I have taken the dog on a beach for about a year, ever since the vet said Flag had 'destroyed' the cartilage in his front legs with years of obsessive digging. But a year of relative rest and a daily dose of the latest super drug and he is much, much better. As clearly demonstrated by his recent disappearance to the village one mile up the hill, where he play with somebody else's children in somebody else's garden for several hours! If he can manage that, then he can jolly well have the occasional little gallop on the beach - which we will both enjoy.

At Runswick Bay the tide was almost high, so not too much beach to gallop on. Which was probably a good idea. We forgot our tennis ball (didn't we?) so had to make do with throwing and fetching a small-ish round-ish stone, which required a lot of barking at because it didn't perform properly. After a short run we sat outside the cafe and admired the magnificent view. The weather was dry, mild but windy enough to blow the cream off the top of my mug of hot chocolate - is that Force 5 or Force 6 on the Cadbury Wind Scale?

March 2008 Weather Summary. Precipitation 83mm (3¼ inch). Temperatures: Maximum 15°C (58°F), Minimum -5°C (23°F). Actual today 9°C (48°F). A windy month with the equinoxial gales falling on a very early, cold, wet Easter bank holiday weekend. Dry mild and sunny otherwise, with clear, cold nights throughout much of the month, before becoming much wetter in the final week.

31 Mar 08 Clear skies last night and a touch of frost this morning, but that soon cleared as the warm sun rose higher in the clear blue sky. I hope the Frogspawn survived the frost ok... First Chiffchaff of the year were calling in the wood today. The problem of water running down through the wood was almost as bad this morning. SA and I went into the field above the wood to see what was wrong and found that a dry stone wall had collapsed and eventually blocked the drain which used to run under it (years ago, by the look of the grass covered marsh which had been created). The water in the drain which used to flow under the wall was now forced over the side of the drain and into the top of my wood.

We came back down for the right tools and admired the wet and silver-shining ground beneath the Forth Hazel Coppice, with most of the Hazels (and many other trees elsewhere) now standing in waterlogged soil. If left like this the trees would die, so we went back up with bow saw and secateurs to cut back the long neglected hedge overhanging the ditch, and spades and fork to clear the ditch and the culvert under the wall. Within a couple of hours the water was once again flowing along the ditch, under the tumbled down stone wall and away along the ditch and past the top corner of my wood. Relax, trees - you have just been saved! We estimated that probably well over 50 young trees could have been ruined or killed by the water had we done nothing.

After lunch we were joined by BC and we all set off to cut up and remove a large wind fallen Buddleia from a friend's garden in Sleights.

30 Mar 08 First Frog spawn this morning, with about a bucketful in mid-pond but no sign of any Frogs. Stayed calm, dry and sunny all day with a Yaffle calling up in the wood as I sawed a few more firelogs from the dead Sycamore. The wet sections of the path I have now traced uphill to the field above the wood where the drain across my top boundary has begun to leak under the fence and into the wood. A little bit of spadework required tomorrow to get the water back on track and I'm sure my neighbour won't mind.

29 Mar 08 Calm, dry and sunny this morning with 27 little Froggy snouts all purring away in my pond. By mid afternoon it was back to cold, wet and windy again. Another front passing?

28 Mar 08 Not, it has not sprung! Wild, wet and windy again this morning, easing to less wet and windy by afternoon and eventually dry, calm and almost slightly sunny by tea time. The morning was spent reading the Whitby Gazette, then swimming and then after lunch BC and I shampooed the downstairs carpets. Not a lot of woodland managed today but at least we managed to remove lots of woodland mud from indoors!

It may have sprung! Clear sky, warm, sunny and calm again with c30 Frogs purring in the pond this morning. Another load of washing out on the line and then I took Flag for a proper walk. If he can run after a deer for 1 mile uphill to Aislaby and then spend the next couple of hours playing with children in a garden, it suggests that his poor leg joints must have recovered enough to be taken for a decent walk. I decided against the beach and dropped off the food standard plastics at a local farm for conversion into land drains before going on to Hawsker and the old railway line.

We walked a mile or two along the old disused railway / new National Cycle Network towards Robin Hood's Bay and returned once the gradient began to drop. Got to think of those poor old knackered knees (mine, not his)! The sea is calm, the inshore lobster potting boats are working again, the fields are full of lambs, a few cyclists passed by and the clear blue sky was filled with the sound of a single solitary first Skylark. This is really quite pleasant. I may do it again one year...

Back home for lunch and the damn dog disappeared off up into the wood and had to be shouted and whistled back again! Then Solarec, the solar panel firm, turned up to repair the storm damaged plastic screen on the Groves Bank panels. This took a couple of hours, including a full check and service of both systems. The solar panel business, it seems, is just 'steady' and not the 'fantastic growth' I expected. Why? I asked, now that energy costs are rocketing as the gas and oil run out. 'VAT' is the simple answer. Yes, we are all being 'encouraged' to reduce our Carbon footprint by the Chancellor increasing (yes, increasing) the Value Added Tax on solar panels from the 6% we paid 20 years ago, to a full 17.5% now! How's that for encouraging us all to do something about Climate Change, which (the government insists) is an even greater threat than terrorism? If the government (this one or any other one) really wanted to send out a clear and simple message to every single one of us to reduce our Carbon footprint, it only has to declare 'Zero VAT on all green energy products from midnight tomorrow'.

But it doesn't. So it doesn't. So who cares? Let your grandchildren fry! Is the government bothered? Do they look bothered? Let the whole world fry...

PS: Just to put this in perspective, today is also the Grand Opening Day of Heathrow airport's brand new Terminal 5, where the state of the art baggage handling system failed to handle the baggage, the passenger information system failed to inform the passengers, dozens of flights had to be cancelled and thousands of eager passengers remained angrily on terra firma. How much has the UK just invested in this new, super-efficient, 'an end to queuing' Terminal 5? Only £4.3 billion. That's £4,300 million, or £4,300,000,000, all invested in helping us to create more carbon dioxide - pity we can't knock a bit off VAT on green energy equipment instead, to encourage us to reduce our carbon dioxide. In fact, for the same amount of money, I suspect we could have fitted every single building in the British Bloody Isles with several free solar panels and some decent insulation. But no, let's just go on investing more and more money to make the problem worse and worse for our poor part-cooked grandchildren. After all, we do have to get our priorities right, don't we? More 'cheap' flights to top up our skin cancer and boost our liver damage or leave a slightly better world for our children's children? Now that's a tricky one, isn't it? We may have to think about that one for a while...

26 Mar 08 Cloudy but still dry and calm, with rain forecast for tonight - so perfect for the final bonfire. SA prepared a small heap next to the big heap in Dyke orchard and after lunch BC and I joined in and lit the small heap. This one was a few yards further away from the Apple trees and could be kept at a reasonable size by slowly adding more material from the bigger heap.

Four Roe Deer were in the wood this morning and the Jays were calling loudly. The small traditional Daffodils are all fully out and looking a picture, while the modern, leggy Daffs are sadly windswept and hailbattered.

25 Mar 08 A clear and frosty night followed by a clear, calm and sunny day, which was surprisingly warm if you stayed in the sunshine. A pleasant bit of firelog sawing and woodshed labelling (with the Langdale roofing slates I bought from Skelwith Bridge on my Pudding Club trip to Cumbria a few weeks ago) and then a full load of washing out on the line. After lunch Flag and I walked along the Toll Road at Grosmont, before checking that the sticky buns at Hazelbush Cafe in Grosmont were still up to standard. Good news: they are.

24 Mar 08 Bright and sunny again, but cool enough if you happen to be in the shade. We logged up the fallen Apple tree (a tall, skinny one which blew down a week or two ago) and added it to the cord, then used the two-handed crosscut saw to turn the big fallen Ash limb into half a dozen firelogs. Too fat to use, they still need splitting.

Then off to Whitby to look at a small Sliver Birch tree with a serious lean. Since it is leaning over a big flowerbed full of Daffs, we decided to leave it until next winter when we can dismantle it bit by bit, as well as re-balance a couple of its neighbours. That's what comes of growing trees in a very windy garden on top of the West Cliff!

After a special lunch we came back to splitting and stacking the drums of fallen Sycamore, as well as splitting a few long lengths of the very dead Sycamore alongside. Heavy hail showers drove us under various Holly trees for shelter, but not even the biggest, thickest Holly beside the General Oak was hail proof. It is waterproof, but just not hail proof. I wonder why?

23 Mar 08 Oh, ok - that snow! Nice and white outside this morning but not cold enough to let it accumulate all day. Less windy, dry and sunny. The Whitby Gazette has photos of what the West Pier was like yesterday - click on http://www.whitbygazette.co.uk/news/Heavy-seas-lash-town.3905974.jp

Wild and windy this morning, but also dry, sunny and not too cold despite the Force 6 North Easterly sending the clouds scuttling across the sky. I sawed and stacked a few logs in the woodyard and took Flag out for a little walk after lunch, not to mention a sticky bun at Victoria Farm Garden Centre. A quick look at the West Pier in Whitby around high tide, to see the big waves washing along the length of the extension's lower deck.

Then I pottered about the house for an hour or two while Flag dug holes in the woodyard - or so I thought. When I called him in the late afternoon there was no sign, so I went searching up through the wood. Nothing. Back home to check the answering machine (nothing), the road junction verges (nothing), then back up the wood as it was getting dark and all around the fields above the wood. Bloody dog - and I thought he had finally got sensible in his old age! And the snow is expected this evening...

Then a message on the answering machine from someone in Aislaby saying that he was in their garden. I rang back to say I was on my way, by which time it was snowing heavens hard. We swopped him for a bottle of wine and I got him home looking just a bit subdued and very tired. After a sleep and supper he is fine again. I am almost recovered, too. But I do need some more chocolate!

Easter is particularly early this year, the earliest since about 1930, and the next time it will be this early will be in the year 2158. That is why Countryfile this Sunday will be about Whitby and the role that our Saint Hilda played in the 664 AD Synod of Whitby when the Celtic Church and the Roman Church met at Whitby Abbey to 'agree' how to calculate the date of Whitby. Even without the help of Scarborough Borough Council, they managed to fudge the decision and came up with an eternal British Compromise which satisfies no one. It is something to do with the 3rd full moon after the 2nd high tide after the 4th Friday before Christmas Eve - or something equally bizarre. That is why nobody ever knows when Easter is going to be next year, why school spring terms and school holidays are always chaotic, why the British tourist trade never knows when the summer season really begins, and why this year there are two Easters in one financial year! In other words, it's all Saint Hilda's fault.

After a morning in the wood splitting and stacking the drums from the fallen Sycamore, us Bank Vols had an early lunch and set off for Danby (the Danish village, from the days of the Vikings) to look at a hedge we have been asked to lay at the end of this year. High on Danby Low Moor, in the teeth of a Northerly gale, between wintry showers of rain, sleet and hail, by an isolated farmhouse, we were shown a very gappy 25 yards of ancient and modern Hawthorn, young Sycamore and an Oak. It forms one side of a small vegetable patch, with dry stone walls on the other three sides. Yes, it does look do-able (with a bit of root-laying for the ancient Hawthorns, but I would hate to be working up here when the weather is really bad!

Then we dropped down to the shelter of a surprisingly busy Moors Centre, the National Park's visitor centre, where we were delighted to meet the staff I used to work with many moons ago. We toured the recently refurbished exhibitions, admired the art exhibition and had a very welcome cup (yes, cup) of coffee in the staffroom. Very civilised!

Home by Oakley Walls, Stonegate Beck, Egton top and a visit to James Godbold's forge and showrooms to admire his superb workmanship. Then back by Betty Backside lane to Aislaby and home for another coffee as the hailstones fell and the forecast of 4 inches of snow tonight and 20 foot high waves pounding the Whitby shore seems even more likely. It may be the Vernal Equinoxical gales but this year it just happens to be Easter Bank Holiday weekend as well. Thanks a bunch, Saint Hilda.

You will have gathered that it has been raining almost all day and I spent the morning in a meeting and the afternoon catching up with the website. The delay in signing up to the online booking system has finally been sorted and now it is up and running again.

19 Mar 08 Dry, overcast, calm and cooler so we prepared for an afternoon bonfire. The small traditional Daffodils in the orchards are all in full flower now, with a carpet of Primrose and Wood Anemone below. The Dog's Mercury is well out and in insignificant flower.

Once we had all arrived the a match was struck and the accumulated heap in the woodyard began to burn nicely. A Green Woodpecker yaffled from up in the wood as we worked. Once the bonfire was reduced in size, we carried the lop and top down from last autumn's coppicing just behind the woodyard and added that. By late afternoon it was all smouldering nicely and we topped it off with the very large but now rotting Elm chopping block to damp it down for the night. Rain was forecast overnight and by morning the Elm block should be a bit more manageable and the fire should be out.

17 Mar 08 SA and I took the megaloppers, the pole saw and the two-handled crosscut saw to carry on dismantling the stove-ready Sycamore. We removed lots of Ivy, cleared a bigger working space in the Blackthorn spiney, cut back the bushy Holly growth around the stump of the fallen tree to see just what (if anything) was still connecting it to the stump. By lunchtime we had sawn off the thin end of the big stick, roped-up the thick end just in case it tried to roll off the stump and down the slope, and were ready for BC to arrive and help do all the heavy work!

After lunch the three of us cut several more lengths off the main trunk with the crosscut, while the RAF taught nearby Aislaby village a severe lesson with several low level runs including one that was so very low and so incredibly noisy that poor terrified Flag would still be running, if only he had any idea of which way was 'away'. I wonder what Aislaby has done to annoy the RAF so much? At least, we assumed it was the RAF...

The wind is now in the North, wintry showers arrived as we recovered in the conservatory and the Frogs have given up and headed for the depths of the pond again.

The Heritage Coast Project Officer tells me that BBC TV's 'Countryfile' are in the Whitby area this week to record several items for the programme on Easter Sunday morning, including one on why Easter is so early this year and another on Runswick Bay. I hope he gets a chance to ask John Craven why 'Countryfile' appears to be the only BBC programme that is never repeated - especially when it is only ever shown on Sunday mornings, when all right thinking countryside enthusiasts are out of doors in the actual countryside actually doing whatever it is - and not watching the virtual one indoors.

16 Mar 08 Yesterday Flag started a major new archaeological dig under the leaning Ash tree. This is clearly a major undertaking and presumably is backed by the British Museum, with additional sponsorship by one of the larger multinational opencast mining corporations. Smaller roots up to an inch thick were chewed through, while bigger ones were dug around on both sides until a way past was possible. By late today whatever was down there had left and the dig was abandoned. I do hope it was something a bit larger than a Wood Mouse...

I cleared a way down to the smaller Sycamore trunk (below the recent windfall Sycamore now ready for splitting) which had landed into a newly developing Blackthorn spiney. This tree is long dead and already perfectly seasoned for firewood, so I sawed off as many branches as possible and heated the house and the hot water with them that evening. Some Frogs in my pond, but not up to much now that the weather is overcast and cooler.

14 Mar 08 Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day! No, it's not Oklahoma. Just North Yorkshire in the Spring.

Flat calm (for the first time in weeks), a clear blue sky, warm sun and just a lovely day to be out in the wood. SA prepared for a busy afternoon of chain-sawing and after lunch BC and I helped as he neatly and very expertly sliced the Big Sycamore Stick into manageable 18 inch long 'drums', ready for splitting into next year's firelogs. We roped the bigger drums to stop them rolling off down the steep hill and onto the drive below, before moving them to safe and level ground. This leaves the thickest part of the fallen trunk (still hinged to the shattered stump) as a very nice bench seat in this corner of the wood and I'm sure we can spare the odd upturned drum as a small coffee table or footrest.

12 Mar 08 Still blustery but the predicted storm missed this area. SA started sawing the old cordwood into firelogs and stacking them neatly into the woodshed. By lunchtime the sun was out, the wind had eased a bit and the first pair of Frogs were mating in my pond - but still no spawn. This afternoon we de-brambled the wildflower area of Groves Dyke garden and were then joined by ID who needed a grand introductory tour of the wood, followed by a bit of cordwood sawing and stacking. Followed by drinks and sticky buns in the conservatory.

Yes, that is correct. Last year's Foot and Mouth outbreak was caused by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) - the government's own department responsible for avoiding Foot and Mouth Disease! You just couldn't make it up, could you? See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7290078.stm for all the pathetic details. So who will resign for costing us all £ millions, not to mention all the farm animals slaughtered, the farming businesses destroyed and the rural tourism industry hit yet again? Don't worry, though - the government has already spent even more £ millions of your tax money via the National and Regional Tourist Boards, the Regional Development Boards, etc, etc to try to undo the very expensive damage they have already done. I wonder why UK taxes keep going up every year..?

10 Mar 08 Wild, wet and windy this morning, just as forecast. SA retreated to the Stickery to sharpen the crosscut saw ('doing the filing') while I retreated to the Study to catch up with the heaps of paper. Not my idea of proper tree work!

After lunch and just under ¾ of an inch of rain, the wind dropped and the rain ceased so we took the newly sharpened saw up to the almost fallen Sycamore and, using its 'hovering' position to our advantage, started to saw off 'drums' of future firewood. Starting at the thin end, we shortened the big stick by a few drums before even the super sharp saw started to struggle with the thicker trunk (it wasn't us, you understand). From here on, we agreed, it would have to be a chainsaw and that will have to wait for drier weather and much less slippery footing...

09 Mar 08 I tried to use the big two-handled crosscut saw on the not-quite-fallen Sycamore, but it proved almost impossible. Hardly surprising, as the clue is in the name! So the Sycamore continues to hover just above the ground... Mild, dry and sunny again (if a mite windy), but the big storm is due to hit the SW of England and Wales tonight.

Our newly laid hedge is now starting to leaf, as is the Hazel in the wood and the Elder by the leaning Ash.

07 Mar 08 By lunchtime SA had roped the not-quite-fallen Sycamore to good anchorages well uphill. After lunch BC and I helped to add the small winch to the 'shark's fin' branch but even this didn't quite do the trick. Between us we removed a couple more 'leg' branches and weakened the badly split hinge from the stump, all with long distance tools, but still the 2 tons of trunk remains about a foot above ground level...

SA saw the first Dog Violet in flower just above the first Hazel coppice, on 05 Mar 08..

It may have been weakened enough to collapse over the weekend, but it sounds as if Monday is going to be a very wild and windy day, even up here, according to Met Office predictions for the South West. If you have any hatches, better batten them down before Sunday evening!

Already? No, of course not! But I was in the Lake District for a couple of days, including 'Up the Duff - Pudding Night at Lucy's Cafe' in Ambleside. Wonderful! Not to mention the lovely bright, sunny day I drove across, the drive up over the still snowy (shady side only) Wrynose and Hardknot Passes, the breakdown wagon winching somebody's over-eager 4x4 back onto the road while I did Traffic Duty (no problem - there wasn't any up there), the Cake Walk to Chester's, the stroll around the back of Loughrigg Tarn, the 3 Buzzards having a 'domestic' high overhead, the Lemon Meringue Pie, the Chocolate Brownie Mousse, the Banana Upsidedown Pudding, the Pineapple Eaton Mess, the Bread and Butter Pudding (made with croissants) and even the Chocolate and Orange Pudding with Cranberry Sauce. I think I'll just go and lie down now. Again. See: http://www.lucysofambleside.co.uk/on_a_plate/uptheduff.html

Still no rain in my rain gauge and still no Frogspawn in my pond. SA has cleared most of the undergrowth from alongside the approach to the lower bridge, where an Elm had fallen years ago, flattening an Apple and cutting the path off from almost all wind and sun. This clearance should help to dry out the muddiest section of the path and make getting around the wood a lot easier.

03 Mar 08 SA and I used the two-handed crosscut saw to tidy up the stump of the Oak branch I had taken off a couple of days ago, then we sorted out and stacked the lop and top, the future walking sticks and the future firewood. Just before lunch a search for any more storm thrown timber revealed a big mature Sycamore lying across one side of the First Hazel coppice. So that was the crash we heard! This was the companion tree from the same root as the one which fell into the neighbour's field a year or two back, which suggests that the root was a bit too rotten. We rescued what Hazel we could by removing Sycamore branches and continued this work (now properly equipped) after lunch.

The most useful item was the pruning blade (back on the telescopic polesaw again), which let us remove the bigger Sycamore branches while standing safely several yards uphill of the big trunk. As before, this trunk (20 inches diameter at the base) is suspended horizontally about 3 feet off the ground and liable to settle and/or roll as the vital branch (whichever one it is) is removed. By mid-afternoon we had stripped it down to just a couple of major 'legs' (branches) to stop it rolling down the hill, and a big 'shark's fin' branch that we can use as a lever to winch the whole trunk off its snapped stump and safely down onto the ground. The dead branches are now stacked ready for firewood this winter (it's not spring just yet!), the green branches are stacked for firewood next winter (or better still, the one after that) and only the Big Stick still to go. With any luck, it will do what its companion did last time, and just settle down onto the ground all by itself over the next few days...

The Nuthatch called loudly from the nearby Captain Oak for most of the day, the sun shone and the wind was still blustery and veering towards the North, with just a token flurry of snow. A half dozen Frogs just sat in the pond, in a half hearted sort of way.

02 Mar 08 A lovely sunny but windy day again. Flag and I worked at the top of Bankside, trimming off a large limb from a 25 year old Oak which had tilted under the uneven weight. Best without this one in a strong wind, I thought, as I sawed it off with the pole saw blade mounted on a short handle for the occasion.

Lesser Celandine flowers line the main drive, the first Dog's Mercury flowers are out (not that you would notice) and the Hawthorn hedge we laid last month is just starting to bud - which is always a great relief. On the way into Whitby the new purple and white 'Crocus River' is beginning to show on the short grass verge for many hundreds of yards along the length of Mayfield Road. 'Well done' to Whitby in Bloom, runners up in last year's national competition, for this superb original idea to brighten the journey into Whitby!

01 Mar 08 The gales blew themselves out last night and this morning a 8 inch diameter branch from high up the leaning Ash tree was lying on the path just below the first steps. Long dead, it will be a very useful bit of extra firewood before too long. No other apparent sign of storm damage, but that may take a day or two to materialise...

Delivered several boxes of the 'Whitby Guidebook' to Goathland, Steam Railway and Grosmont today. 50,000 copies arrived from the printers yesterday, 5,000 up on the print run of previous years, and all the work of the Whitby and District Tourism Association and its energetic volunteers. If you can't get hold of the guidebook, do take a look at their website www.VisitWhitby.com

The mild, calm and sunny weather is back again and so are the Frogs, with 21 pointy little snouts purring away in my pond by early afternoon.

February 2008 Weather Summary. The Met Office says it was the sunniest Feb on record. Precipitation 25mm (1 inch). Temperatures: Maximum 14°C (58°F), Minimum -8°C (18°F). Actual today 9°C (48°F). Mild, dry, sunny and windy early and late in the month, with 10 days of calm weather mid-month when a large anticyclone (high pressure) became established and gave warm sunny days and clear frosty nights.

Yesterday and today have been much cloudier and cooler, with not a Frog in sight. Still blowing half a gale (Beaufort Force 4) if not three-quarters (Force 6). These very strong winds kept us out of the wood itself and we spent the afternoon sawing wood in the scant shelter of the big hedge next to the car park. There was a big crash from somewhere amongst the trees as something big and heavy gave in to the strong winds, but all will be revealed when it is safe to go exploring again...

When the earth moved last night it was my first earthquake at Groves Dyke. Just before 1am there was the sound of a dog having a 10 second scratch while leaning up against the chest of drawers and making it rattle, except the dog was closed in the cloakroom downstairs, the chest of drawers can't rattle because it doesn't touch anything, so I decided it must just have been the wind rattling the window. Except there wasn't any wind. Sleep again. This morning all was revealed on the News: it was 5.2 on the Richter Scale, the most powerful earthquake in the UK since 1984 and the epicentre was well over 100 miles away in Lincolnshire. Either the rattle (rumble?) was the quake itself, or the sound of my stainless steel chimney liner vibrating within the chimney block and leaving a thin layer of grit on the furniture in the spare bedroom. And I was in Liverpool for the last big one, which was centred just 50 miles offshore in Liverpool Bay and made the whole house (and city) shake.

It didn't do it for the Frogs, either. About a dozen in my pond again today, purring sweetly but still no frogspawn.

SA sorted some of the Tilhill Ash logs in the pole barn and after lunch BC and I joined him to dig up the last of the Blackthorn walking sticks from the second Hazel coppice.

26 Feb 08 More painting. Wild and windy again, but mild and dry. First Frogs: by lunchtime there were over a dozen little pointy noses sticking up out of my pond, all purring amorously to each other. Spawn tomorrow, I would suggest...

25 Feb 08 We celebrated SA's return by digging up a few more Blackthorn walking sticks from the Second Coppice, but found it a bit too cool and windy to stop work for long. After lunch BC joined us and the full compliment of Groves Bank Volunteers (the 'Bank Vols') was gathered for the first time in a couple of weeks. In the afternoon we worked on the fallen Elder branches just beyond the newly laid hedge.

23 Feb 08 More painting. Wild and windy again outside, but still mild and dry. Yorkshire Water's contractors arrived, located, dug down and stopped the leak from the water main further along the main drive, all within 24 hours of reporting. 'Probably frost damage' they said - not to mention a very old cast iron pipe. The first Lesser Celandine is in flower on the bank below Groves Dyke garden hedge.

22 Feb 08 After lunch BC and I completed the painting of the kitchen and dining room walls, while the mild blustery winds blew around outside at near gale force. By late afternoon it was trying to rain for the first time in well over 2 weeks.

21 Feb 08 The mild weather arrived overnight and by midday the ice gauge had reverted to being a rain gauge, the bucket-shaped canine lce lolly reverted to being a dog drink bucket and the pond was almost open water again. Yesterday it was -8°C and today it is +11°C, a very dramatic temperature rise of 19°C in just 24 hours. Late in the evening I saw my first Toad as it walked across the back yard.

20 Feb 08 Woops - red sky in the morning as well, so all shepherds should be warned.* A lazy morning recovering from yesterday, then a swim, a bit of shopping and home via Ruswarp, where the River Esk is frozen right across just above the weir. The Canadian canoes from nearby East Barnby Outdoor Centre had been in the water today and must have been doing a bit of real Canadian ice-breaking just upstream.

After lunch I sawed the final length of large diameter black plastic pipe lengthwise & rearranged all the pipes in the ditch, ready for the change in the weather as this lovely big high pressure area slides away to let the rain return. The ice covering my pond hasn't thawed for several days now and this morning it was completely impossible to smash the ice on the plastic bucket for Flag to have a drink, presumably because it has frozen completely solid from top to bottom!

19 Feb 08 Minus 6°C according to my car, when I set off at 0730 to go to the Yorkshire Tourist Board annual conference in York. A lovely drive across the sunny moors until I met the thick fog near Pickering, which lasted all the way to York, lasted all day as well, and then all the way home again until I got back onto the moortop, when it cleared away to reveal another delightfully red sunset and a relatively balmy -2°C.

Conference Snippets: The UK is the 6th most popular tourism destination in the world. Tourism is Britain's 5th biggest industry, directly employing 2.1 million people. 'Yorkshire' is second only to 'London' as a regional tourism brand. Tourism in Yorkshire generates £6 billion / year. VisitBritain (formerly called the British Tourism Authority) is funded by £50 million of government money, soon to be cut by 20% (how's that for really backing the UK's 5th biggest industry)? The VisitBritain.com website gets 20 million visits / year and has 12.2 million overseas enquiries.

18 Feb 08 An even harder frost last night, down to -7°C. I tried and failed to break the ice on the plastic bucket that Flag drinks from in the yard. Only after many blows with the pointy end of the yard brush did it finally shatter, revealing a layer almost 2 inches thick. That prompted me to try the ice on my pond, which proved to be only slightly thinner at 1.5 inches thick.

Redecorating day today, so the morning was spent in clearing out all the smaller items from Groves Dyke kitchen and dining room, washing down the ceilings and walls, and installing all the various dust sheets, steps, paints, brushes, rollers, trays, tubs, cloths, etc, etc. NOT my favourite job but BC arrived to help and by mid afternoon we had made so much progress on both the ceilings that we even did the bathroom one as well!

By late afternoon the sun was sinking and so was the temperature. Magnificent red sky, enough to delight whole flocks of shepherds, and a good night to settle in by a glowing woodburner.

17 Feb 08 A very hard frost overnight but the clear skies soon let the sun warm everything up. I dug out 6 Blackthorn walking sticks, then re-stacked one section of the woodshed. First lunch on the patio, quite unheard of so early in the year, but it was shirt sleeves, sandwich (cold) and a cold drink while enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Opened the Stickery this afternoon for the first time. My new chimney still hasn't arrived, so I just managed with the smoky interior as well as possible.

15 Feb 08 Overcast yesterday and today, but still calm, dry and mild. Today BC and I pruned the horizontal Apple branch overhanging the main drive from Bank orchard and then we took down the last of the shattered Blackthorn (flattened by the storm thrown Sycamore 2 years ago), thus finally freeing up the whole of the 2nd Hazel coppice. Just a young dozen Blackthorn stems to dig out (so that the horizontal root becomes the handle) as traditional Blackthorn walking sticks.

13 Feb 08 Another hard frost overnight and then another bright, warm and sunny day. Dozens of Redwing still swarm amongst the cattle in the fields beside the disused Whitby to Scarborough railway line, now part of the National Cycle Way.

Catch of the Day - A Tail of Fat Cats, Spoilt Brats and No Sprats It is alleged that Whitby trawlers (and others) are now buying their EU quotas of North Sea fish from (amongst many others) a UK premier league football club. This really does illustrate the sheer stupidity of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy, which has consistently achieved too little, too late. We have already had the madness of:

12 Feb 08 This morning I moved the big, plastic, half drainage pipe out into the sun and added the necessary mastic to change it from an underground land drain into an overground ditch lining. The birds are singing, the flowers are up, the Pussy Willow is out and the sun was warm on my back - so it must be spring.

11 Feb 08 SA and I spent the whole day working in the wood, cutting down and removing almost all of the invading Blackthorn in the second Hazel coppice, while a Green Woodpecker yaffled occasionally nearby. It was pleasantly mild, dry and sunny and a good time was had by all. By mid afternoon only a couple of larger stems remain to be cut, there are lots of potential walking sticks and a goodly habitat pile of lop and top. Not a bad day's play!

Of the 22 Post Offices being closed in the whole of North Yorkshire, 5 of them (Ruswarp, Sandsend, West Cliff, Helredale and Fylingthorps) are within 5 miles of Whitby - which seems quite a high proportion. Despite all the inaccuracies in the Post Office Limited report, both Ruswarp and Sandsend Post Offices will close next month - on the grounds that customers can get to the next nearest Post Office relatively easily. Anyone tried walking up Ruswarp Bank? Or Lythe Bank? Relatively easy, indeed! And they said that there was a bus service every 20 minutes from Sandsend to Lythe, then admitted that it was actually every hour, then argued that it was more frequent from Sandsend to the West Cliff Post Office - even though it's all the same bus! Never mind, the Post Office Limited executive who is implementing the closures throughout the UK is only carrying out government policy. I heard them speak at the Ruralnet conference last year and the impression I came away with was 'with ruthless efficiency'. Is this the same government who claimed a few years ago that all their decisions would be 'rural proofed' so that people in the countryside would not be disadvantaged compared to their urban counterparts? So the government removes the profitable transactions from all Post Offices (so fewer customers), gives those transactions to a bigger shop miles away (increasing the pull of the rival town), now closes down a village's post office (the mainstay of the village shop), which results in the whole shop closing down, and the village loses it one and only shop. How's that for Rural Proofing? Don't worry, they will say, 95% of the population will still be within 3 miles of a Post Office - even if they are elderly, don't have a car, may not have a bus service at all, no longer have any village shop, and now it's only a 6 mile round trip walk with a long 1:5 hill in between. Come on Prime Minister, let's see you do it! CPRE calculate that the closure of over 1,000 rural Post Offices this year will generate over 1 million extra car miles annually. How much extra CO2 will that be, PM?

10 Feb 08 Another lovely spring day, celebrated with a nice drive from Aislaby to Egton top, down to Grosmont, up Fair Head to Sleights Moor and back to Sleights. Later in the afternoon a warm, enjoyable walk on Aislaby Moor revealed a thin shroud of mist along the coast. Ah, it pays to be a mile or two inland when there is a sea roke!

09 Feb 08 A pair of Jays played tig through the treetops at the top of the wood, calling loudly as they went. Lots of Crocus are now in flower in Dyke orchard, as well as several clumps of Snowdrops and a few clumps of Daffodils. The Willow by the Twigwam is now starting to leaf and a Kestrel sunned itself at the top of the leaning Ash. No sound of any Frogs in my pond today, so I dragged most of the pondweed and blanket weed out before any spawn appears. It would be a shame to have to do it after any spawn has been laid. This lovely clear sky suggests a cold night tonight.

08 Feb 08 Mild and dry again, so we carried on clearing the Blackthorn from the second Hazel coppice. SA and I felled a few substantial stems, while BC (who has an eye for these things), worked single-handedly on the smaller potential walking sticks. By late afternoon we had freed half a dozen Hazels, created a goodly Blackthorn habitat pile and rescued several very nice Blackthorn walking sticks and staves, all full of kinks, which will be ripe in a year or so. We also prepared another section of half pipe to line the ditch. My new improved, non-flickering computer monitor arrived today and (hopefully) will not need to be slapped at frequent intervals to clear the grey tartan pattern off the screen to reveal the words within.

06 Feb 08 Yesterday was another nice day, spoilt only by too many meetings but improved by a very enjoyable lunch at the Coliseum cafe (Cherry Tomatoes on Brochette, followed by pancakes) with good company and a nice drive to Staithes.

Today SA continued clearing the invasive Blackthorn from the Second Hazel Coppice, later assisted by BC and me. We also blocked up the tiny holes on the big black drain pipe, before relaying it in the ditch alongside the drive. More warm sun, clear sky, no wind and lots of birdsong. In late afternoon I heard my first Frog croaking (purring!) in my pond.

04 Feb 08 Yesterday all the snow had gone, except for a little strip at every hedge back. The wind has dropped and the mild, dry weather has returned. I explored Hollywood again and then descended downstream to Tanglewood, which is even more impenetrable and well worth another visit.

Today was a lovely Spring Day, with lots of birdsong from Blackbird, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Great and Coal Tit. SA and I worked on removing invasive Blackthorn from the Second Hazel Coppice, selecting a few suitable bits as potential Blackthorn walking sticks. We continued after lunch, creating several ways through the unwanted Blackthorn spiney (hence 'spinny') and opening up the poor battered Hazels which had been flatted by the big Sycamore which came down in the big February gale about 3 years ago. An excellent day's work, enjoyed by all concerned and especially Flag and Bruno as they were a safe distance from the main drive and free toad roam for the first time in weeks.

02 Feb 08 Don't worry - England has been reconnected! The temperature crept up to just above freezing, the sun shone and there was only a slight wind, so I ignored the wood and pottered about indoors for a change. By early afternoon the snow on my drive had melted and the low level roads were completely clear, so I went into Whitby to buy some paint* and do some shopping. No sign of any power cuts around here, they seem to have been on the southern edge of the North York Moors at Kirbymoorside, Farndale and Rosedale. The moortops still look well covered in snow and I have heard stories of Goathland folk who struggled to get in or out of the village yesterday afternoon and evening.

On my walk around the wood this morning the tracks in the snow included Rabbit, Roe Deer, Pheasant, Heron and Golden Retriever.

*Now that proper Chiffon Haze is no longer available, the new gloss colour for all painted wood in Groves Dyke will be Dutch Gold 6 (Ref Dulux 10YY 78/146). Don't worry, the colour is nothing like gold and it looks remarkable like good ole Chiffon Haze...

01 Feb 08 A dry, mild and less windy morning when SA sawed cordwood and added it to the already extended cord. Then rain, then sleet and then snow and still a bit windy, but not yet cold enough down here to stop most of it turning slushy. Only about 1 inch of snow in my garden, but I'm sure there is a bit more on higher ground, causing a few snow drifts once it blows off 192 square miles of moorland and piles itself up against the odd wall, stream or bridge!

By tea time England was cut off from Whitby, with all four roads closed and at least a few stranded motorists may be spending the night unexpectedly at the Flask Inn half way between Whitby and Scarborough. Proper winter weather, at last! This is exactly what it is supposed to be like in Jan and Feb - or used to be. The electricity is still on (as you can tell from this) and everyone is as snug as a bug in a rug. My wood burning stove is warmer than toast and the room thermometer swears it is 22°C (74°F), so it must be true.

Weather Summary for January 2008: Maximum 13°C (56°F), Minimum -3°C (26°F), Rainfall 117mm (4½ inches). A remarkably windy month which started dry, became wet, then got mild, then even wetter and then colder and then dry again.

31 Jan 08 Wild, wet and windy last night and this morning, then a lovely dry, mild and windy afternoon followed by another wild, wet and windy evening and night. During the nice bit I had a lovely drive over the moors to the outside and back again.

30 Jan 08 Another nice day, if a bit too windy for really safe bonfires. SA sorted most of the unsorted lop and top into another very neat heap and later BC and I lit a small fire and we all fed it little by little until one heap had gone, then another, then another. Once that one was dying down, a second small fire was required nearby to deal with the un-strimmed brambles which had been under that stack. With that one also dying down, I lit the big Baked Apple Tree heap from last winter. Even in that relatively sheltered spot, the whole thing just went up in seconds with a strong wind fanning the 20 foot high flames and threatening to bake yet another neighbouring Apple tree. Hot enough to light the long grass, these grass fires sped up the bank towards the lowest edge of the wood, slowing down and eventually stopping only where the slope levelled out a little. Just as well really, as the heat was far too intense to get anywhere near enough to beat them out. Wow! That was just a bit too much like an out of control blaze, rather than a carefully managed bonfire!

Today the first Daffodil is flowering on Bank orchard and the first Hazel catkins are out on one of the hedgerow trees just above the orchard. Toasted Hazelnuts anyone? Do they go well with baked apples? But best of all, we have now completely finished the hedge laying for another winter. And just in time, with heavy rain forecast for tonight, followed by gales and possible blizzards over the next few days. Ah, Spring!

29 Jan 08 All this dry wind and weather has dried out the orchard enough to work safely on the steeper slopes, so I took the promise of rain later today as a good opportunity to burn 3 of the mini-bonfires from the hedging. Bonfire 1 was the lower of the double ones, and once it had almost burnt away I pushed the upper heap down the slope and onto the embers, before letting that one die down and then carrying the 3rd heap across the slope, armful by armful until it had gone as well. The wind was getting stronger by late morning, so I stopped adding to the embers and just let them burn out as I sorted out a bit more of the lop and top heap and added it to the next bonfire, which we might light tomorrow if the wind drops...

28 Jan 08 SA continued to tidy up the hedging lop and top while I carried cordwood for sawing and stacking in the woodyard. A nice lunch, a short walk, a visit by the local solar panel people to give a second estimate for the insurance company and suddenly the day was almost over. Never mind, it was a nice day.

27 Jan 08 And suddenly its a lovely spring day again! How very odd! Dry, bright, sunny and mild, with the first Snowdrops in both orchards today and the pair of Kestrels soaring and calling high over the wood again.

26 Jan 08 Yesterday SA carried yet more wood from the hedging site back to the house. After lunch BC and I helped to fell the final young Ash tree and lay the final 4 yards of hedge, including another Deer Bolt. This one is made from a skinny Ash sapling which we persuaded to 'loop the loop' with a few stout pegs. I'd like to say that the hedge laying is now complete for this winter - but there is still a goodly heap of lop and top to stack and burn. In fact, there are still half a dozen nice neat bonfire heaps, all still waiting for just the right combination of wet and calm weather...

Today I noticed the first Primroses of the season on Bank orchard, as the mild, dry gales continued to batter the tree tops. This gale is from the West, thank goodness, so we are all well sheltered down here at the bottom of the dale. Unlike the bird feeding station we set up at Victoria Farm Garden Centre, where only 2 Rooks braved the blustery conditions to appear for the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. The 1 hour count from my conservatory for my own garden this morning was: Long Tail Tit 14, Robin 3, Blackbird 2, Blue Tit 2, Chaffinch 1, Coal Tit 1, Dunnock 1, Great Tit 1, Wood Pigeon 1. Not to mention Roe Deer 2 (walking through the coppice just beyond the woodyard), Rabbit 1 and Grey Squirrel (Tree Rat!) 1.

24 Jan 08 Dry, sunny and not very windy, which is a very welcome change. Two more loads of washing out on the line before lunchtime, while Flag basked in the sun, a Treecreeper dashed up a tree and 14 Long Tailed Tit swarmed all over the fat cake feeder.

The strimmer went to Malton for its annual service - and probably not a month too soon. The rate my Daffs are growing (3 buds forming nicely in Dyke orchard) it looks like the grass may need cutting before too long. And how long is too long? About 6 inches or 4 weeks, whichever is the soonest! En route, some big fields are still flooded and the River Rye is still several feet higher than the surrounding land, so fingers crossed that the flood banks do their job. In Old Malton village the car park near the Priory has been pumped back into the river and the massive pump and hoses are standing ready for the next time.

Leoni's Coffee Shop in Malton provided a superbly decorated Latte, as ever. Simon the owner was UK National Champion Barista for 3 years running (and 8th in the International Championships) and I can see why he did so well. Back over the moors at dusk, which is now almost 5pm, with a setting sun, a rising full moon and swiddening smoke drifting over from somewhere near Fen Bog. I think I should get out more...

23 Jan 08 Two Kestrels called 'Kee-kee-kee-kee' while circling high over the wood this morning, but the path around the wood is still too wet and slippery to carry any logs down to the woodyard.

SA carried more wood along the drive from the hedging and after lunch we laid another several yards. That just leaves a 20-year old Ash to fell, another Deer Bolt to create and a couple of yards of Quicks to plant - not to mention half a dozen small bonfires to light. Let's hope we get everything done and dusted before the Daffs are up.

22 Jan 08 Frost overnight locked up much of the water and today the river has dropped and the sun is shining again.

21 Jan 08 Wet, wet wet! Another inch of rain since yesterday, bringing my rain gauge up to 4 inches so far this month. SA moved most of the useful timber from the hedge laying site up to the pole barn for sorting, sawing and / or stacking as required. After a morning in Ruswarp (where the river is already brink-full) and a drive via Sandsend (runoff from the fields has flooded right across the road, leaving one lane un-usable) to Staithes (some minor flooding on the coast road), SA and I did a round of the beck and also the ditch on the Eastern boundary, checking and removing any blockages so that everything was flowing freely.

Then we used the rechargeable saw to cut the largest diameter pipe (14 inches?) lengthways, thus doubling the length available and making it easy to keep an eye on. Once split, we laid the two sections end to end in the lowest section of the boundary ditch to carry more water into the culvert under the road, rather than leaking out through the bed of the ditch. (Ditches are like leaky roofs - they always have to be repaired in the pouring rain, since they don't leak during all the dry weather). The resulting flume was quite spectacular and we speculated about extending it up to the top of the wood so that we could float logs down it to the woodyard... or perhaps not.

There are now 121 Flood Warnings in the UK and it looks like Tewkesbury may be going under again. No one should underestimate the debt of gratitude which the North of the UK owes to Tewkesbury, as all the flooding in Carlisle / Doncaster / Sheffield and Hull was largely ignored by the national media (London based, of course) - until we all discovered that the national News Editors and their families all live in Gloucestershire. Suddenly, flooding was important and now it's all over the front pages!

20 Jan 08 And today, surprise surprise, it's back to mild, grey mizzle again. Cleared up all the bits of branches in the orchard from the high pruning last week and then removed a plastic bag which the wind had snagged high up in a tree. This extending pole saw with the interchangeable heads is just the thing!

After lunch I skated about on the slippery slope of Bank orchard, tidying up the lop and top from the recent hedging and also moving the useful bits of timber (either potential walking sticks, hedge laying posts or cordwood) down onto the drive for easier carrying.

19 Jan 08 It's Spring! Not a cloud in the sky, full sun all day and only a mild breeze, so quick! Two loads of washing done and out on the line by mid-morning, not to mention the dog bed and bedding propped up out in the sun for a proper airing. What a wonderful change! Pity about all the dozens of Flood Warnings in Wales and central England, but up here we are all making the most of this lovely weather.

18 Jan 08 Mild, mizzley and breezy but SA completed the tidying-up of all the lop and top from all the hedging. After lunch BC and I joined in and we all laid another 7 yards of hedge, including the removal (by bow saw) of a fairly substantial Ash tree. By 4pm we had had enough of skating on the slippery, muddy slope for one day (afternoon?) and we retreated to the conservatory for 4 o'clocks (it was just too hot indoors, with the wood burning stove). Today's temperature has been 13 or 14° C, which is almost 60° F, which is almost my definition of Spring - which it almost is: the Daffodil shoots here are at least 3 inches high, the Robins at the feeding station are beginning to squabble over territory, and it is still broad daylight after 4pm. In January?!?

Still, why not? As we enjoyed our coffee, an optimistic ice cream van drove through the village with its chimes playing 'If you go down in the woods today...'

Solarec, who fitted the solar panels up to 20 years ago, will be delighted to replace the broken glazing for a standard £245 per panel, which includes a full service for the whole system. Over the past 20 years of faultless and undamaged performance, I think that works out at an average of £12.25p per year - AND the solar system has halved my hot water bills throughout that 20 years! The phone number for Solarec UK, should you be convinced by now, is 01924 272233 and I am delighted to give them this unsolicited and unrewarded free plug.

16 Jan 08 A wet morning but IJ, DT and I had a great tour of the moors. The view from Ravenscar was as spectacular as ever, then a circular tour (it wasn't meant to be!) of Harwood Dale en route to the Birdwatchers' Car Park at Forge Valley National Nature Reserve between Scarborough and Pickering. What a great show of birds they have there! Chaffinches by the dozen, lots of everyday species and a very nice Nuthatch and an even nicer Great Spotted Woodpecker, all just a couple of feet from the car windows.

By the time we got to Hutton le Hole the rain had gone and we had the whole of Blakey Rigg to ourselves, with superb views down into Farndale. The Lion on Blakey must have assumed that we'd walked all the way and provided us with wonderful lunches to match. We did what we could with them after just a morning's sitting in the car, and then drove home via Fat Betty Cross, the Trough House road over to Little Fryup (not more food!), past Danby Castle and down to Duck Bridge. The River Esk was too high to use the ford, so we crossed further upstream at Danby and then home via Poverty Hill, Oakley Walls and Stonegate Beck. Total number of cars seen between Hutton le Hole and the Guisborough Road? Less than 20 - and most of them were parked up having lunch at the Lion on Blakey!

15 Jan 08 Yesterday SA managed to complete the extended cord frame and also sawed and stacked all the logs, while I just lay about. Hopefully, the cord extension will also accommodate the few remaining young standards in the undone bit of hedge.

Today was very wet, with another inch of rain (now just over 2 inches so far this month). I had a restful morning in the conservatory watching the 10 Long Tailed Tit on the peanut cake, not to mention the pair of Bullfinches beyond the beck. A quick round of drains, gutters and ditches to check that all is well for any further downpours.

A passer-by asked 'What has happened to your solar panels?' and, sure enough, something has! It looks as if the recent Southerly gales (an unusual direction, to which these houses are very exposed) have broken the glass or plastic panels on the Groves Bank one. A flying branch, perhaps? You will be pleased to hear that the solar panels on Groves Dyke Holiday Cottages are completely unaffected! Come back Solarec, I need new glazing please - although this is the very first repair they have required in well over 15 years. Don't worry, my household insurance company say the solar panels are included under 'Storm Damage'.

13 Jan 08 Wild and windy this morning, but dry and with a mild wind from the South. 'Blow the wind Southerly, Southerly...' Perhaps not. Flag trotted back and forth as I carried the last of the super long cordwood from the hedging site to the patio. Some of them are super fat, as well! I think I should really have split them before carrying them, but too late now.

12 Jan 08 Yesterday afternoon I visited Pocklington village for the first time. It's bigger than I realised and well worth another visit next time I am half way between Thirsk and York (which may not be for a while). Also yesterday, the lengths of flexible, large diameter black plastic pipe were delivered for lining the ditch down alongside my drive, but the ditching will just have to wait until the hedging is complete.

Frosty overnight and this morning was bright and sunny, so I completed some high pruning of the Apple trees which curve so invitingly over my drive. So now the poor old [recycling] bin lorry can get up here more easily next week, without scratching its flashing lights on the top of the cab. Don't worry, the Apple branches still curve invitingly over the drive - but now they are a bit less heavy and don't hang quite so low.

I started to built a bit of an extension onto the cord frame, to take the extra logs from the hedging.

10 Jan 08 Wet and windy, so I tackled yet another drawer of the filing cabinets in an effort to get the office back under control again.

The UK government announced today that it was giving the go ahead to creating new nuclear power stations - conveniently ignoring the facts that: 1. We already need to spend £56 billion (yes, that is £56,000 million) just to decommission and clean up the existing UK nuclear industry and its waste; 2. We still don't know how to make safe the existing 50 year's worth of nuclear waste (other than by storing it for hundreds or thousands of years); 3. Most UK nuclear power stations are on low lying coastal sites and will be flooded by rising sea levels (and who is ever going to agree to lots of new sites in more populated areas?); 4. Every ton of concrete for any new building actually creates another ton of carbon in the process (and new mass generation stations of any sort all require hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, thus cancelling out much of their 'low carbon' claims); 5. Nuclear will not power road nor air traffic, nor oil nor gas fired central heating systems, nor is it suitable for our baseload generation, so even doubling the UK nuclear industry will only reduce our national carbon output by a mere 8% (much better to put the investment into energy conservation and efficiency measures instead, which could give us a very quick and easy 50% carbon savings); 6. Uranium is imported into the UK (thus our nuclear power is just as vulnerable as our oil and gas power - and there is only 30 year's worth of uranium at present rates of world use), and finally: 6. George W Bush hasn't even learned how to pronounce 'nu-clear' yet...

Never mind, a nice wet walk at Grosmont as the weather improved, followed by coffee and a very sticky bun at Victoria Farm Garden Centre, made everything better again.

09 Jan 08 Woops, it's catching up time again! A Sparrowhawk flew high over the wood this morning, perhaps starting to claim its territory for the coming season.

This morning SA tidied up a large area of scattered reject stems and branches from the recent hedge laying, sorting out potential stakes, cordwood and bonfire material into neat heaps and interrupted only by a few showers. There were a just few slushy bits of road on my way back from Scarborough and after lunch we both worked on tidying-up a bit more. Two small bonfire heaps are now ready for the right burning weather, with two more areas of rejects still to sort out.

We used the nice new mega loppers which SA found to replace the old and disintegrated ratchet-ing mega-loppers. Excellent! Just ask for Wilkinson Sword's Large Bypass Loppers with 'Power Gear', which cut through stems up to 45mm with remarkably little effort - anything smaller than 45mm is only bonfire fodder anyway, and anything they can't cut through is thick enough to be future firewood. Good, innit?

The young Ash saplings which I left as occasional song posts 19 years ago, are now up to 8 inches diameter and we sawed them into lengths suitable for carrying to this year's cord in the woodyard.

07 Jan 08 Today SA and I completed another 4 yards of hedge laying, including a fancy bit of Blackthorn stems intertwingled [lovely word thank-you, Mrs D] into an arched Deer Bolt on the regular track of Roe Deer crossing the main drive. This means that our superb 'stockproof' hedge now has a large purpose built hole in it, to let the wildlife cross the hedge line as normal. Never mind, it's a nice reminder of High Close and Grasmere in the Lake District!

8 Long Tailed Tit on the peanut cake today, all at one time - it looked like a very odd Hedgehog, with 'spikey' tails sticking out in all directions.

06 Jan 08 An absolutely perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, full sun, no wind and just perfect for a bit of pottering up in the wood and then a bit of raking-up by the hedge laying.

04 Jan 08 A dry day, less cold but still windy. Having advanced only 1 yard last time, SA and I laid a whole 4 yards today. There is an awful lot of lop and top to burn, but that can wait until the steep slope is less wet and slippery. There is also a lot of substantial firewood and we had carried nearly 20 long lengths of cordwood up to the patio by mid afternoon.

A male Sparrowhawk flashed through the feeding station this morning and late this afternoon there were 8 Long Tailed Tit on the peanut cake.

03 Jan 08 Snow? What snow? Ok, so my lawns were slightly covered (but still light green) and Pickering and Guisborough (20 miles South and North of Whitby, respectively) make the regional TV News with their driving problems, but down here in the bottom of the dale the roads were all clear and I drove into Whitby (and back!) without any problems.

It snowed on and off for much of the day, so I returned to my least favourite job of sorting out one of the office workstations (now that it is accessible again). Only 2 more to go - not to mention the shelves and the filing cabinets...

02 January 2008 Happy New Year everyone and apologies for the gap - when I did try to catch up on line, my new-ish flat screen monitor keeps being taken over by an all grey tartan pattern. No words, no pictures, just an all grey tartan. Which dastardly Scottish clan can this be, mounting these cyber-space raids into the North of England? Computer rustling, or what?

A special Hello and Thanks to B S & K S in Essex, who enjoy Whitby in general and like reading this page to keep in touch with events up here.

Yesterday was wet all day (just what Flag needed after a hard day's hedge-laying) and so I got to grips with clearing out the office for the first time in a long time. By late afternoon everything on the floor had been moved / opened / examined / sorted and either recycled or binned. I can now confirm that the office carpet does indeed, as rumour had it, extend to the far corners of the room. Yes, both of them. But sufficient unto the day is the whotsit thereof, so I shall now wait patiently for another wet day before I attempt to deal with all the other heaps of paper on top of the worktops...

Today was dry and cooler, with an Easterly wind. SA and I spent the morning tidying up the lop, top, potential stakes and potential cordwood resulting from our rapid advance hedge-laying a couple of days ago (Look out, the tartan terror has just struck again! Keep pressing 'Save' every few minutes...). After lunch SA chain sawed away an Ash stump which was getting a bit too chunky and deeply rooted into the dry stone wall below. Aggh...!