Weather Summary for June 2007

Max 26°C (79°F). Min 4°C (40°F). Rainfall 167mm (6½ inches). Dry, warm and sunny until mid-month, then the 'June Monsoon', with seemingly endless rain. To begin with this fell on dry ground and was absorbed, but after several days everything else was just runoff. The Met Office declared this the wettest June since records began.

30 June 07    A drier than expected morning, with a very pleasant outdoor lunch at the River Gardens, Sleights. Last Monday the river level rose and rose until it reached the top-but-one concrete step on which the wooden cafe stands, higher than the cafe owners had ever known in the past 30 years. Today the river is back down where it ought to be and everything is back to normal. Except more rain is expected tonight and tomorrow...

Whitby Tourist Information Centre (TIC), with its half million annual footfall, was almost leased off to a multi-national coffee outlet for 30 years, but everyone in Whitby kicked up such a fuss at this short sighted 'let's balance the books for this year and to hell with the future' proposal that Scarborough Borough Council has been forced to 'review' their decision. Thank goodness! Their website now has a Questionnaire seeking the views of visitors and local residents alike (it is entitled 'Residents' Survey' but that is a mistake) so please click here and fill it in anyway. Thank-you.

29 June 07    A tiny, tiny Froglet hopped down from my pond edge and set off across the patio towards my conservatory. Clearly its sat nav was fawlty, so I picked it up and popped it into the beck. See you in a few years!

It has been so wet and horrible and I have been so busy that I haven't had the opportunity / weather / energy for any grass cutting at all this week. So now I am a week behind again, while the grass still grows longer in leaps and bounds.

27 June 07    Sunny and showery, then sunny and showery. Again. SA trimmed the Willow in the beck this morning, as well as snipping off some more invading Blackthorn from the Second Hazel Coup. After lunch BC and I help him (while it was sunny) saw up some more of the 2 year old cord and stack the resulting logs in the woodshed. By late afternoon the cord was noticeably smaller and just over 1/12th of the woodshed is now neatly filled with firelogs. Not to mention (while it was showery) rolling up a whole stack of corrugated cardboard into cardlogs in the Stickery.

26 June 07    Only another ½ inch of rain last night, which gave the river a chance to drop a little before high tide. This morning I was able to drive from Sleights to Ruswarp ('passable with care'), noticing that the Fire engine was parked in the River Garden pumping the flooded car park and grounds back into the river again. At Ruswarp the railway bridge (and the pub!) were still there, but with masses of trees and branches caught up in the bridge piers. By early afternoon the River Garden was open to the public again, pretty much as usual. Very impressive!

I spent the afternoon in the Saleroom at Whitby, waiting for several Tom Whittaker (Gnome Man of Littlebeck) items to be auctioned. Smaller, un-marked items went for £10 or £20 each, but anything with a gnome carved on it was much more. Click here for details...

25 June 07    Over ½ an inch of rain fell overnight, it rained all morning and most of the afternoon as well and, in desperation, I have begun to tidy the office. Well, I always managed to put it off while the weather is good enough to go out and do something interesting, but after several days of rain I have run out of excuses. Glastonbury is over now, but Wimbledon starts today, so what do you expect?!

By tea time there had been another inch of rain since last night and when it finally stopped I took the camera out for a drive to record the spectacular flooding. Clearly the rainfall on the moortop had been a great deal heavier. From Sleights bridge I have never seen the River Esk so high in 19 years of living here, nor in the many visits since 1975. The Salmon Leap weir has disappeared completely and the swollen brown waters just charge down the valley unchecked, spreading out ⅓ of the way across the field towards the railway line, leaving the line of bankside trees isolated in midstream.

At Briggswath the back gardens of the houses are flooded and the River Gardens are more river than garden, with just a few yards of the car park nearest the road still above water. The Road Closed signs are out and the far chicane is surrounded by water, so no chance of driving to Ruswarp via The Carrs (from Alder Carr, a habitat type indicative of frequently flooded valley bottom).

At Ruswarp (via the long way round) the lowest floor of Ruswarp Mill is flooded, as is Waterloo Cottage on the far side of the river. The underside of the railway bridge decking is just 1 foot above the standing waves created by the big branches and tree trunks jammed against the legs of the bridge. A bit more water or a few more trees and there may not be a railway bridge in the morning. The view from the French windows of The Bridge pub is downright scary, with the picnic benches in the beer garden already standing almost seat deep and the river rushing headlong just beyond the flimsy little fence.

In Whitby, the rate of flow in the river is spectacular. Even though it is low tide, it's enough to make some of the pontoons dip - and high tide will not be until 1am. Not many people in Ruswarp nor Whitby will be sleeping soundly tonight...

24 June 07    A short stint in the wood this morning, snipping off the Blackthorn suckers which are threatening to invade the 2nd Hazel coup. These began life as hedgerow plants, but have been leaving the hedge line and advancing sideways for years. Now some of them are big enough to shade out the Hazel, so it is time they were halted. Only the little ones are being attacked while it is still bird breeding season, but the bigger ones will require some serious attention this winter.

An excellent Sunday lunch at Netherby House in Sleights today, ancestral home to Brenda H English and, slightly more recently, her brother Hugh. Both are now long gone and the old village doctor's house cum surgery cum pharmacy is now an award willing hotel, which still displays some old medicine bottles and jars in their new dining room.

In late afternoon the showers became heavier with one particular one, which probably only lasted 10 minutes, trapping me in the conservatory until it was over. The rain gauge then read 4¾ inches so far this month, so I emptied it out (it only holds 5 inches maximum) to make room for whatever else may fall in the last week of the month. I think I have only ever had to do that once before. Still, it is the Glastonbury pop festival this weekend (as wet as ever), so I suppose all England ought to be on flood alert!

A hysterical young Green Woodpecker swooped across the woodyard and landed on the electricity pole by the path, still screaming frantically. It clung there for a few minutes, calling all the while, before flying off into the wood, still yaffle-ing. Was it 'Mummy, Daddy, where are you?' Or was it more 'I've just escaped from a Sparrowhawk'? Either way, I think the poor wee thing has been emotionally scarred for life and will require a long term social worker...

22 June 07    Another proper summer day, just like June is supposed to be. This afternoon the Bank Vols (BC & SA) and I toured the wood to see just what needs to be done and in what order. Then we used the 'new' two-handed saw to turn most of the remaining Poplar into firelogs & stack them in the pole barn, before moving the sawhorse to the woodyard and beginning the major task of turning the cord of 2-year old wood into firelogs and stacking then in the new, improved woodshed.

This was hard work for a hot day and required lots of orange squash and ice cream...

21 June 07    Hot, dry and sunny today, but I just had to go to Whitby so the grass cutting was completed this afternoon. Now every lawn has been cut and my normal rotational mowing is back in step again after my holiday break. This way, I only have to cut half the lawns early in the week and the other half later in the week, so it isn't too exhausting for me and the whole garden doesn't change from wildlife friendly lawns to close-cropped desert overnight.

The Nuthatch was feeding silently this morning and the steam train was shuttling back and forth up the valley with lots of steam and puffing. Very pleasant.

20 June 07    Yes, another ¾ of an inch of rain did fall last night, but without any great damage. My rain gauge now reads just over 4¼ inches of rain so far this month - which is about 2 month's normal rainfall, except most of it fell in 24 hours! Today is now dry, warm and sunny, which is a nice change from the cool, clammy sea roke which has plagued Whitby for several days.

SA and I examined the Groves Dyke hedge and ditch. The hedge is growing and recovering well from its hedge-laying just a few months ago. The lower and middle section are growing strongly and all the laid species are knitting together well, with only handfuls of Goose Grass and Convolvulus to remove. Near the upper end of the laid section one whole, aged Hawthorn has died completely, even though we winched the whole root ball over without part-cutting any of the stem. We cut Hawthorn slips or 'Quicks' from further down the hedge and pushed them into the ground to fill the gap (Hawthorn's traditional name was Quickthorn, because it grows so quickly from slips) and we will give the root ball another year in the hope that it may yet recover.

The upper end of the hedge we had planted with young Beech trees, which were now overgrown by Grass,  Rosebay and Thistle. This section we weeded and then, severely scratched and stung, we retreated to the raftings to get out of the sun and have a cool drink. Orange squash. Honest!

Then a tour of the wood to check on a Wild Cherry which SA had noticed was 'bleeding' sap profusely from a point on the trunk. No wound was visible, but the outflow was considerable and the sap had congealed in a heap at the base of the tree.

19 June 07    A 15-minute bird count from my conservatory this morning revealed: Great Tit 3, Dunnock 2, Marsh Tit 2, Grey Squirrel (Tree Rat!) 2, Blackcap 1, Blue Tit 1, Chaffinch 1, Coal Tit 1, Robin 1, Wood Pigeon 1 and the out of sight Blackbird is still spending hour after hour in beautiful song, somewhere just beyond the pole barn. (0945 - 1000, ⅞ cloud cover, Dry, calm and mild).

More dire warnings from the Met Office about further torrential downpours expected overnight, but this time it will be falling on already saturated ground...

18 June 07    Dry, bright and sunny again, with a distant Roe Deer feeding in the field above the wood, a silent Nuthatch feeding on the peanuts and a greedy Blackcap feeding on the fat cake. Strimmed half of Groves Bank grass this morning, had lunch in the shade of the raftings and then BC delivered an antique two-handed, rather rusty crosscut saw. We sawed a hefty log to check its teeth and, despite its age, its teeth are near perfect and still sharp enough to go through an 8 inch Poplar log with ease. They just don't make them like that any more! Leave a modern bow saw blade out overnight and the morning dew is enough to blunt it straight away.

17 June 07    Dry, bright and sunny again but visitor numbers were down for the Whitby's Spirit of the 40s weekend, organised by Whitby and District Tourism Association. Doubtless, the pictures on national tv news programmes of a few bits of Yorkshire under 3 feet of water have given everyone the message that 'All Yorkshire is flooded' and many have just stayed away. Ah, the power of the media...

15 June 07    The Met Office was right! It's been pouring all night, so the first job was another round of all the drains and ditches, gutters and gullies to keep them all flowing as freely as possible. Found a recently dead Mole on the path around the slippery wood - perhaps it had been flooded out of its normal underground tunnels & expired on the surface? Oddly, the ditch by the newly laid hedge was completely dry, which suggests that the dry ground is managing to absorb almost all this rain. The rain gauge was showing 2½ inches after breakfast. Time for a swim in Whitby indoor pool, I thought.

When I got there a fire engine, blue lights flashing, was parked outside trying to drain several feet of rainwater from the plant room - trust Scarborough Borough Council to organise a flood in a swimming pool! No swimming today, then, so Bank Vol BC and I spent the afternoon burning the huge woodyard bonfire while the fire risk was so low. It is great to be able to stand in the dry, under the nice new woodshed roof, and just dash out occasionally to tend the fire. And only one match required! The big blue water butt, without any guttering at all, is now full just from the drips off part of the new roof.

After lunch another round of drains and ditches, and this time the Dyke orchard ditch was flowing strongly. The heavens stayed open until mid-afternoon, with ¼ inch falling in just 30 minutes. By late afternoon it had almost stopped raining and the gauge showed 3½ inches, all in the last 48 hours and most of it in the last 12 hours. Not bad, Met Office, just a little bit less than predicted.

14 June 07    Just a bit too grey and drizzly to give some of the lawns their next strim, or to rake up all the hedge trimmings from yesterday - so I just took the afternoon off, lit the wood burning stove for the first time in weeks and read one of my new books. What a pleasant afternoon! Perhaps I should do this more often? What do most retired people do?

A brightly coloured Jay investigated the feeding station while I was having coffee in the conservatory. Jays always look so unlikely that some people assume they must be an escaped tropical bird. Bright pink overall, with black and white bits here and there, and then a vivid blue flash on the wing, Jays are native to the UK and a member of the Crow family.

This morning there had been just ¼ inch of rain in my rain gauge since the 1st of the month, but by tea time that had increased to ½ inch. A Severe Weather Warning from the Met Office is predicting up to 4 inches for the Midlands and Yorkshire...

13 June 07    A morning meeting to prepare, amongst other things, for the international conference which we are hosting in Whitby - in less then 3 months! CREating Sustainable Tourism (CREST) is an EU funded project to help isolated former fishing villages around the North Sea. That is all the meetings planned for this week, which (thankfully) was not quite as many as last week.

This afternoon the drizzle was never far away but Flag and I trimmed all the hedges. Just a light short back and sides to keep them looking neat, without disturbing any nesting birds within. Major surgical re-shaping will have to wait for the winter months.

12 June 07    Two meetings today, the first to try to improve Whitby Tourist Information Centre. SBC wanted to make a 5% budget saving this year, by leasing-off 66% of the TIC as a cafe for the next 30 years. Howzat for investing in the town's dominant industry? Then a routine committee meeting of Whitby Town Council.

In between meetings, it began to drizzle just enough to convince me not to start hedge trimming, so I walked the dog on the old railway line instead. But not too far.

11 June 07    Completed the strimming of anything still unstrum, including the path around the wood. Some lawns are almost ready for cutting again, but I will try to get them back into a rotation again as soon as possible. That might give me a chance to trim-up all the hedges, not that I want to dig too deeply into them for fear of disturbing any nesting birds.

A pair of Collared Doves, the first I have seen for weeks, flew around the gardens, a Green Woodpecker yaffled from the wood while young Robins, Great and Blue Tit explored the feeders. Rain tomorrow, it says, which will be the first this month...

One meeting this evening to hear the two top men of Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) trying to convince Whitby Town Council that we would be better off staying with them, than going for the proposed North Yorkshire-wide Unitary Authority. Sorry, fellas - as far as I'm concerned you've had 33 years to do the right thing by Whitby and you still haven't managed it yet! Next week we get a visitation by the top man of North Yorkshire County Council to try to convince us that their option might be better than Scarborough's. Now that's a difficult one...

10 June 07    What a lovely summer's day for a nice drive around the lower Esk Valley! I must do this more often...

09 June 07    Bright, warm and sunny once the morning mist burned away in the sun. A male Green Woodpecker clung to the yat stead in the woodyard, yaffling anxiously. Methinks there may be a few youngsters about, giving mum and dad a worrying time!

08 June 07    Yesterday was cool and cloudy and I spent much of the day at Sneaton Castle (www.sneatoncastle.co.uk) with the Whitby 50+ Club, finding out more about climate change and how it will affect us all. Presentations from the Carbon Trust and from the Stockholm Institute at University of York. We all had a good time, a nice lunch, played Climate Change Bingo and got a free low energy light bulb each. So that will be ok then.

Thought for the day: There is no Planet B.

Today was the AGM of the Captain Cook Tourism Association (CCTA), held at Great Ayton where young James Cook went to school in what is now a museum of his childhood. Cool and cloudy when we left the coast, warmer and sunnier as we went inland across the North York Moors. The EU funding for our brochures has ended, as all available money is now going to the new accession countries of Eastern Europe. Good for them, I say. Their need is much greater than ours, without doubt. But it does mean that the CCTA had to decide today to become a mainly web-based organisation, which costs far less than one which prints, stores and distributes tens of thousands (ie tons) of paper brochures. So please visit www.captaincook.org.uk to see what you may be missing in not getting a pretty brochure from a Tourist Information Centre.

Glorious sunshine for a lovely run back down the Esk Valley from Commondale, via Oakley Walls, all the way to Whitby. And not a single Wheatear in 25 miles of minor moorland roads. There used to be one pair holding territory every half mile or so, 'way back in the early 1990s.

Another thought for today: If you wanted to live in a fair world, you have come to the wrong one.

06 June 2007    Yesterday morning was cool, grey and misty in Whitby, mild with weak sunshine in Sleights but hot, dry and sunny in Pickering - what a difference moving just a few miles inland can make, when there is a sea roke laying along the coast! I cleared out the laundry (long overdue) and spent the afternoon cutting the grass on all the Groves Bank lawns. Silage, anyone?

I see the 'Lonely Planet' guidebook has just described Whitby as '...bloody wonderful!' More info... and then click on Whitby Top Town...Again...and Yet Again!

Today SA moved and stacked some of the sawn Ash from up in the wood, down to the woodshed and then we had a very enjoyable stroll around the wood to see just what needs doing and in what order it needs to be done. We noticed a mature Sycamore (rotten) has toppled into a neighbour's field and will have to be cleared. Just when did that come down?! We also watched a Roe Deer stroll across a field and planned how best to clear more growing space for the best of the young Oaks. Not forgetting that we also layered a couple of Hazels by pegging-down a suitable rod from each into nearby clearings. What a nice change from roofing the woodshed!

04 June 07    As yesterday, a cool, grey & misty start but by mid-morning the sun had burned-off all the mist and it was back to hot and sunny again. This afternoon SA completed the woodshed with a few more bits of trellis, while I cut all the Groves Dyke grass, the sides of the drive and the grass verge at the bottom. Then we moved the water butt and placed it under the low end of the new  woodshed roof. The ground runners for stacking the fire logs were finalised and then the whole site cleared of all building materials. Another little project completed! So all we have to do now is saw up all the nearby cord of 1+ year old wood and stack it inside the new shed...

02 June 2007    Hot! Hot and sunny! Far too hot and sunny! It's almost 20°C, which is 70°F in real money! Oh no - its TDH again... (Too Damn Hot). Ok, so I have just driven over 1000 miles (but my little Renault Cleo was giving me 52.9 miles per gallon) and I had only driven it 6000 miles in the last 12 months (the national average is 12,000 miles / year) - so it can't be all my fault!

And anyway, if the government does close 1500 rural post offices in the next few months (as promised) that alone will create another 30 to 40 million car miles of extra traffic every year, as all those disappointed rural customers will then have to drive to their nearest urban post office instead (calculated by CPRE, the Council for the Protection of Rural England). Good innit?

01 June 2007    Just back from a tour of Scotland (click on any of these underlined hyperlinks), including lunch on top of Cairngorm, Loch Garten Ospreys (then scroll down), Black Isle Red Kites, Moray Firth Dolphins, Ythan Estuary Eiders, Montrose Basin Shelduck, Firth of Forth Puffins, North Berwick Gannets and lunch up a tree at Alnwick Garden. Hot and sunny today, with occasional sea roke along the coast. The lawns are calling urgently...

Weather Summary for May 2007

Max 25°C (76°F). Min 2°C (36°F). Rainfall 67mm (2⅝ inches). Dry, warm and sunny until mid-month, then wetter, with the occasional cold day.

19 May 2007    Warm, sunny and very windy today. Patio chairs, the big (furled) parasol and the barbeque are all lying elsewhere on the ground - but the new roof on the woodshed is still exactly where we put it! The big leaning Ash tree has finally produced a few green and tufty branch ends, while the Major Oak has been fully clothed for what seems like weeks.

Yesterday morning the Green Woodpecker and a pair of Jays were down on the newly cut lawns and the woodyard, doubtless checking up on the standard of grass cutting, or perhaps just feeding on all the freshly exposed edibles. SA tidied-up the woodyard and added some trellis and stacking bars to the new improved woodshed, while I just got distracted with far too many other things.

Yesterday evening I and (and few other campaigners) were in the audience for BBC Radio 4's Any Questions, chaired by Eddie Mair live from Caedmon School in Whitby. We each had our topical questions (but with a local twist) ready for the team of Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister, aware of climate change & not building anything unnecessary on a Zone 3 flood plain), Will Hutton (Work Foundation think tank, ex-editor of The Observer newspaper and keen on social enterprise), Sayeeda Warsi (Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for cities) and Graham Taylor (ex-pupil of Caedmon School, ex-Curate of Cloughton, sorry 'ex-Vicar of Whitby', and fiction author). What a wonderful panel, so articulate and so able to discuss lots of our local issues with national significance. And did they?

No, 'cos all the audience questions actually selected by the editor were just bog standard topical questions which could have been asked by anyone in any city anywhere in the UK. Pity.

17 May 2007    Since the 14th, when the rain gauge showed less than ½ an inch of rain, there has been another 1¼ inches. It has rained mainly at night (thank-you Met Office) with dull, mild and mizzly days between. The soil is damp again, the grass is growing like billy-o, the earthworms are active and a couple of Song Thrushes have time enough on their wingtips to spend hour after hour in duelling duets from either side of the garden. Eat your hearts out, banjos!

Today SA and I completed the new corrugated plastic roof (all 24 x 8 feet = 192 sq feet of it) on the woodshed in the woodyard, and the job's a good'un. A few rails laid across the corrugations will trap fallen leaves, encourage moss growth and gradually build-up a very thin (and lightweight) grass roof, which will look much better than the clear plastic sheets. Perhaps just a bit of moveable side-panelling to keep any driving rain off the firelogs still to be cut from the cord and stacked within? Although it now has a much better overhang, so perhaps no sides are required... Certainly the big plastic water butt can be set under some low end guttering, just as a fire precaution.

13 May 2007    Yesterday, afternoon tea at the River Gardens in Sleights was a T-shirt and sun hat affair, not at all what the Met Office had predicted. Today it is cloudy but still mild and pleasant for pottering in the wood, collecting a few more straight Hazel rods for 'flower arranging' as wedding decorations. Grass cutting this afternoon, with some of the wild flower bank, the beck lawn, the dog lawn and all of the path around the wood cut before the rain is due...

Still a few problems with email and with web access, so if in doubt please phone 01947 810220 until I get it sorted.

11 May 2007    Cooler and cloudier with occasional light showers. A flock of c20 House Martins are circling high over the garden and the river, occasionally joined by my first Swifts of the year (1 pair). The two and only remaining Elm trees, both youngsters c25 years old, are now in seed but the Grey Squirrels (Tree Rats!) are busy stripping them to eat and scattering the twigs and leaves on the drive below. Never mind, soon they will be eating the eggs and young of all our songbirds, instead...

The very first Ash leaves are only just beginning to unfold, while the first Bugle and first Red Campion are now in full flower. The Blackcap was feeding on the fat cake again this morning.

9 May 2007    Yesterday the first ton of gravel was delivered before 8am and the second ton about an hour later. I got the first spread before breakfast and the other one spread before 10 o'clocks. NOT my usual morning routine, but the run-up to my pole barn / car port now looks a lot better. The afternoon was spent in Scarborough, buying my new set of government 50% funded low energy light bulbs from B&Q, and then attending a training session about the new online accommodation booking scheme. It seems a far better system than the one I had via Yorkshire Tourist Board (which they have recently abandoned). The new booking system should be up and running in the next month or so.

More Bank Vol activity in and around the improved woodshed today, with SA adding the finishing touches to the new log racks and then BC & I helped to put on a bit more roof. We got rained off in the late afternoon so finishing the roof will have to wait a few more days.

5 May 2007    My first Swallow flew through my airspace this afternoon, although I had seen one over Victoria Farm Garden Centre a few days ago. No, sorry, I can't remember which day. This afternoon I began to pick and shovel away the steepest part of the drive-in to my car port / pole barn, ready for 2 tons of gravel to be delivered on Tuesday (as well as the rest of the woodshed roofing sheets). It's all been a bit busy recently:

Yesterday the Bank Vols finished the log rack within the newly re-roofed (almost) woodshed. Also the Whitby Town Council elections were counted and I have been elected to help represent Ruswarp Ward. Thank-you for your support, I'll wear it all the time (Goon Show c1960)! The day before that a trip to Dalby Forest (near Pickering) was interesting, with their brand new Eco Visitor Centre and highly scary (looking) mountain bike trial track. Then on to their re-sited bird feeding station by the big lake on the Forest Drive, before afternoon tea at The Everley (where I introduced the Gnome Man carvings to the rest of the group), then to Forge Valley Birders' Car Park (to show what CREST Whitby is creating at Victoria Farm and at Ruswarp Duck Landing, etc) and home via the recently completed eco-friendly Youth Hostel at Lockton. All good examples for September when Whitby will be hosting the international conference for CREST (CREating Sustainable Tourism) at Whitby Youth Hostel.

2 May 2007    The Bank Vols worked on the new woodshed today, with SA removing the old (and crooked) log racks this morning. After lunch BC & I joined in and helped to put the re-used corrugated plastic sheeting onto the newly raised roof. By tea time almost half the shed was roofed & it all looks very smart.

The Early Purple Orchids (all 8 of them) in Bank orchard are past their best, while the Major Oak is practically in full leaf now. The leaning Ash, on the other hand, is still not showing even a partly open leaf - so definitely 'Oak well before Ash, in for less than a splash.' NB: Leaf burst on Oak trees is triggered by temperature, while that on Ash is triggered by day length - which explains the huge difference this year, with the warmest April in over 300 years!

Stand by your water butts, I think we may be in for a very dry summer...

Weather Summary for April 2007

Max 22°C (70°F). Min 0°C (32°F). Rainfall 5mm (⅛ inches). Actual at 09.30 today: 10°C (50°F) with ⅛ cloud cover, dry and bright but with a Force 2 Easterly breeze. An exceptionally mild and dry month with numerous warm or even hot sunny days - with cool, clear nights. Towards the end of the month Easterly winds kept the coastal fringe cloudy and cool.

30 Apr 2007    A brave failure: at a full meeting of Scarborough Borough Council today one Whitby councillor proposed to suspend Standing Orders and postpone the construction work on the office block in Whitby marina until after the local government elections and a reconsideration of the on-shore plans by the new SBC. She was defeated by something like 35 votes to 15. Isn't democracy wonderful?

28 Apr 07    A bit cooler and cloudier today, as the Met Office prepares to declare this the warmest April in 200 years of UK met records.

Yesterday us Bank Vols completed the framework for the new woodshed roof. It is looking very respectable, with all its parallel verticals, horizontals and right angles. Most unusual, as I never really went in for that kind of construction before. But then, I didn't have a well equipped retired engineer on the team before!

This evening Ruswarp Ward is DONE and I celebrated with a spectacular fly-past of the first House Martins of the year. Welcome back, guys!

26 Apr 07    Flag is still progressing nicely, thank-you. His head and tail are still up, but he still takes it easy and spends lots time just lying in the sun and watching the world go by. Good idea. I should try that sometime, instead of days spent pounding the pavements of Ruswarp and Mayfield with Whitby Town Council election flyers.

Yesterday NEDL's latest bunch of contractors spent the day all over everywhere, climbing leccy poles, laying out cables from pole to pole, replacing the transformer in the wood, shouting from pole top to pole top, with 2 big vans, 2 van-based cherry pickers, a pick-up and several private cars parked all over the yard, the drive and the neighbouring area. What fun. 'We are upgrading all the overhead wires in the area' said the boss proudly 'And yours are going up from 25 kilowatt to 50 kilowatt capacity'.

Oh good. Just as I am reducing my electrical requirement from the National Grid by fitting low energy light bulbs, installing thermostatically controlled radiator valves and flushing out the central heating system (each one of these actions will reduce my electrical demand by 10%), not to mention the existing solar panels, wood burning stove with back boiler, loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and double glazing - just as I need even less electricity, NEDL have decided to ensure that we can all use twice the amount of electricity I used to have! Brilliant, or what? How's that for an integrated carbon reduction policy!

Still, as SA said, it will be useful when I start to export all my excess home-generated electricity to the National Grid!

Yesterday the Groves Bank Volunteers (the 'Bank Vols') and I poured the concrete for the new legs of the new roof on my woodshed. SA & I had finished digging the holes last week, when my usual hole digger choose that week to go off on sick leave.

24 Apr 07    Yesterday afternoon a friend, recently trained in Raki, spent a few minutes holding Flag's bad leg, joint by joint, while the healing energy flowed from her hands into his damaged tissue. No, I don't believe a word of it either, but - this morning he limped across the lawn with his head up, tail up and wagging as it used to, had a mini-scamper on the grass and then tucked into his breakfast. Explanation? Raki works? Or the wonder drug is suddenly starting to take effect (after 10 days of no apparent improvement)? I don't know. Do you?

23 Apr 07    Cloudier, duller and damper these past few days, but still very mild. Hardly a trace of precipitation in the rain gauge. Flag was only moving about 3 times a day, when I insisted that he got up and limped tail down, head down, to the nearest bit of lawn and back. Any visits from little doggy friends did cheer him up a bit, but at least the pain is keeping him very still, which is just what the vet ordered.

21 Apr 07    Bright, dry, warm and sunny again. Flag managed a short walk around the lower part of the wood this morning - but then suffered for it afterwards. Then his little friend came to visit and that really perked him up a lot. Then I took him in the car to Victoria Farm Garden Centre, just outside Whitby, to watch me refill the bird feeding station in the car park there. Lots of cars, people & movement, which he always enjoys. My first Swallow flew over the garden centre and a Skylark sang from invisibly high in the sky.

This afternoon I strimmed half of the lawns, avoiding the Primrose flowering on the top terrace, the 6 Cowslips in the wildflower bank and the 10 Bluebells by the silt pond. A Kestrel perched on top of the leaning Ash, a Bank Vole and a Wood Mouse scuttled and bounded (respectively) below the feeding station and small birds were notable by their absence, with just 1 each for Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Wood Pigeon - and 2 for Robin. I think they must all be on eggs...

20 Apr 07    It's cooler and cloudy today. But never mind, the Whitby Gazette has published our latest News Release (below) and the front page story is that at least one influential local councillor has suggested that the new Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) should 'reconsider' their plans for the office block in Whitby marina, once they have got re-elected on the 3 May. As my father used to say: 'Live, old horse, and you will get hay... Honest.' Of course you will. No doubt about it... Jam tomorrow...

Sorry, but I think a definite decision by the current SBC to Cancel the Carbuncle now would be far safer...

If your organisation would like to join WADCO, please contact any of the above; or phone Whitby 811275; or email www.relax@grovesdyke.co.uk

18 Apr 07    Yet another lovely day! I see that so far this month the max temperature has been 70°F and that there has been not one single drop of rain. When is the hosepipe ban due?? This really is April, innit? At this rate, I wonder what August will be like?

SA & Bruno worked on digging post holes for the new woodshed roof, while Flag & I lazed about in the sun (and one of us chewed the super bone). Flag did bury it in a very shallow hole this morning, as I discovered when he appeared with a red raw nose - yes, he dug the hole with his nose! Obsessive, or what? Once Bruno arrived, he decided it was safer unburied again, so the poor old nose got even redder. Rudolph!

I helped to dig the postholes, but I still haven't got over the fact that when I really do want some holes digging in the woodyard, the master digger dog is no longer able to dig them! How unreasonable is that?

By late afternoon 3 pairs of postholes each 2 feet deep were ready and, just in case any passing Hedgehogs are determined to fall in, we even put a branchy branch escape ladder into each, until Phase II starts next week.

16 Apr 07    This morning the sun had burnt off the mist by 10 am and I started cutting the grass, completing half of Groves Dyke, most of my back lawn, the top terrace and half of the wildflower meadow by the steps (leaving the first Cowslips to set seed, of course). SA delivered more limestone gravel for the woodshed re-roof and then the chimney sweep cameth and wenteth.

The dog is still improving and we even managed a stroll to the bottom of the drive and back again.

15 Apr 07    Another very pleasant and restful day, with an al fresco meeting on the patio to plan our next move to Save Whitby - Sink the Office Block!

14 Apr 07    Flag looked a bit better this morning and was quite satisfied with a faltering trip to the nearest lawn and back again for a lie down to recover. By noon he had brightened up a little and I gave him a lovely big bone to keep him amused and take his mind off his pain. But no, he wouldn't just lie there and chew it, would he? He absolutely had to carry it to the woodyard and hide it safely - but at least he didn't try to bury it!

We had a very restful day, enjoying the warm sun, listening to the birdsong, watching the wildlife (and not even chasing the Tree Rats off the bird feeders), and just pottering around the lawn. By mid-afternoon the rest and the wonder-drug made him feel well enough to bring me a tennis ball, which is about the first sign of 'normal' behaviour he has managed since yesterday.

The big Sycamore in the paddock opposite is now in full leaf, the first of its species. Up in the wood, it looks like the Oak is going to beat the Ash by a long stalk (but then it is Grand National day today).

13 Apr 07    The sea mist has come this far inland, but was burned off again by mid morning. Flag had enjoyed his usual stroll around the wood before breakfast, but once fed and rested, was remarkably reluctant to get up or move around. Thinking he had pulled a muscle, I pottered about indoors while he took himself off to bed again. By midday he was unable to get up out of his beanbag without assistance, so after a brief excursion to the lawn and back, I let him rest.

By mid afternoon he was still reluctant to move, but a visit from a little doggy friend or two soon cheered him up and he even had a little scamper on the lawn. BC & SA, the Groves Bank Volunteers (Or 'Bank Vols' for short?) and I pruned the big white Buddleia (we were told it would be purple!) and dragged the bits to the bonfire site, decided how to re-roof the woodshed and then began sawing up the last of the bought-in Poplar logs.

At the local vet's evening surgery Flag's front leg joints were diagnosed as 'seriously damaged'. A lifetime of running, followed by two years of obsessive digging, have finally taken their toll. He had a shot of morphine to ease his immediate pain and will be on some new pain-killing wonder drug (with no side-effects) for the next few years. This will also help to repair a little of the damage to his joints, but his long walks and hours of digging are well and truly over. Yes, he can still go for walks, but only short ones. Yes, he can still dig (because he enjoys it so much), but only for 5 minutes a day. Yes, he can still go on the beach, but only for short sessions. And no more endless running, just for the sheer hell of it. But for the next 5 days it is to be strictly 'lawn exercise only'.

Poor old Flag the Wag, but that does explain his recent behaviour of just lying by a partly dug hole and barking at it - it was sheer frustration at not being able to dig it any deeper! You really have dug yourself into a right hole this time, poor old fella, haven't you?

12 Apr 07    Yet another lovely day. Flag and I swept the drive and the yard before going for a swim and then home again for a late lunch out of doors, watching the steam train go past. The Broomrape is out (I can't really say it is flowering, since it's a parasitic plant without any chlorophyll) and the Chiffchaffs are going nuts.

 A friend is getting married and she asked if I could supply tall thin bundles of Willow rods to decorate the village hall. There isn't enough Willow of the right size and shape in the wood, so BC and I experimented with making a Hazel one. Not so much coppicing as flower arranging, really. By the time we had finished the bundle was 6 inches in diameter and tall enough to reach the upstairs windows. Not every wedding has one of these unique decorations, you know...

The Yorkshire Tourist Board are going through a reorganisation process of some sort (again) and will be transferring to a new online booking system next month. The old system is still available for a couple of days and will then cease to exist. No great loss really, as it was a difficult system for the suppliers and also difficult for the customers. Which is a bit like the National Health Service, really. If it isn't working any better after the last reorganisation, let's just reorganise it again and then we can really confuse everyone. And when we have reorganised it often enough, we'll all be back where we started. But totally confused and a great deal poorer. Let's all hope that the Yorkshire Tourist Board aren't going to follow the NHS...

11 Apr 07    I'm sorry to go on and on about them, and you know they really are my favourite Borough Council (even if they are near the very bottom of the national league tables of all UK local authorities), but guess what the hell they have just done now?! 40p a pee! Yes, that's right. Scarborough Borough Council will now charge you 40 pence to use the Super Loo public toilets in Whitby town centre! That's a 100% increase on last year's charges. And you don't have much choice, as they have already reduced, closed, demolished or sold off almost all the other public toilets in and around Whitby. They are building some new ones at the Beach Management Centre (bottom of the Whitby Cliff Lift), but that should have been completed in time for summer 2006 - and it STILL isn't ready! And then... and then they have the cheek to say 'the proposed Water Resource Centre [the Carbuncle in Whitby Marina] will include some much needed public toilet facilities'!!!

On a trip to Scarborough this morning I am delighted to say that Jugger Howe Moor appears intact, so I still don't know where this moorland fire 'near Scarborough' is. There was a fire near RAF Fylingdales, which is as 'near Scarborough' as Kirbymoorside is - which is actually about 30 miles away. Sorry, BBC News - I'm not sure I trust you quite as much as I used to...

Warm and pleasant enough for lunch on the patio, with the afternoon spent pottering in the garden.

10 Apr 2007    I am delighted to add the CJS Giggles section to this website. This is a huge compendium of good, bad and indifferent jokes faintly relevant to the countryside. Previously published on the Countryside Jobs Service website (www.countryside-jobs.com) they now have a new home on this website. Click here for Groves Dyke Giggles or track them down via the Other button on the header, above.

09 Apr 07    Cloudier today, but still warm and dry. Flag had a boring morning as I spent 2 hours grass cutting, then a break for lunch out of doors. After a nice walk up the drive, back to another hour of grass cutting and stacking a the remaining logs from the 'Cupresses' (as they were always called here) felled by the electricity company. And then, thank goodness, taking a break with some unexpected but very welcome visitors. A Smooth Newt hung about in the pond while dozens of Tadpoles wriggled on the sunken birdseed accidentally swept into the pond.

A Green Woodpecker yaffled up in the wood as I surveyed the day's work: All of my side cut, except for half the woodyard and half the settling pond, and half of Groves Dyke cut. Not bad, especially since much of it was having its first cut for 6 months.

On the national news this evening, '8 square miles of heather moorland destroyed by fire in North Yorkshire'. Two of the fires are 'way over in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, near Masham while the third is here in the North York Moors National Park 'near Scarborough'. Since it can't be the moor near Ravenscar (still not recovered from the major fire there a couple of years ago), it can only be Jugger Howe Moor, as it's about the only moor left near there!

Jugger, by the way, is a corruption of Jaeger (German for 'hunter'), a reference to one of the breeds of packhorse pony used on the moors in ancient times. The other popular breed was the 'Gal' or Galloway pony.

08    First Comma Butterfly by the woodyard this morning as Flag and I pottered in the wood, enjoying the warmth of the sun and listening to the steam trains chuffing back and forth on their new run from Pickering right into Whitby. Brilliant - a Park and Ride by Train that actually works! And they all leave their cars right outside the National Park at Pickering!

The spring has well and truly sprung, the lawns need cutting, birdsong is everywhere and where is Ogden Nash when you need him?

A small Toad tried to wriggle down into the gravel by the door of my conservatory. As the sun got higher and hotter, the wriggling became weaker until I picked it up and popped it into the marginal vegetation of the pond.

07    Lunch in t-shirt and floppy hat at the River Gardens in Sleights. A salad, too. In fact, I think that should be first salad of the year, certainly out of doors. A very noisy couple disrupted everything with their dramatic arrival and their loud conversation. This Greylag Goose and Mallard Duck could be heard approaching noisily as they flew upstream, splash-landed by the picnic tables and then walked across the lawns, still chattering loudly to each other. Flag was keen to join them (probably with a big wooden table in tow!), but I persuaded him not to.

JW brought back the lump of recently felled Ash, but this time as a beautifully turned and perforated paper-thin lampshade, just as I had requested. I told you he would do something more useful with it than just burn it! A few days ago he had come for a lampshade fitting and 'returned' the small piece of Hornbeam from the saplings by the steps - only now it was an exquisitely turned, wavy-edged, eccentric (ie not circular) little vase - with a tiny band of the original bark all the way around the rim. Just perfect. The next time he and G are having a sale of their craftwork at Sleights School I will advertise it here, as they both deserve a wider audience for their skills and charity fund-raising.

06    A lovely, warm, dry, sunny day for loafing about, swimming & then helping SA & BC saw the last of the felled Ash poles, the last of the hedge-laying stems and a few other odds and sods. Very pleasant. The tame daffs are well past their best while the traditional ones are still looking fairly impressive. A carpet of Wood Anemone and Dog Violet fills any daffy gaps.

Today's Whitby Gazette carries the story of SBC's embarrassing retraction on Radio Cleveland and gives the full story.

05 Apr 07    The story was carried on 'Today' but with an interesting editorial twist. We need to stress that our Joint Chair group entirely supports all the harbour users who want better facilities. The only split is between what most of Whitby wants (a small block of modern toilets / showers and drying rooms) and what Scarborough Council plans to force on us: a very large 2-story block of modern toilets / showers and drying rooms and 11 office units and a large function room and yet another cafe!

Sink the Whitby Office Block!

Click here for the Today interview (07.23 am):  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/thursday.shtml

The senior officer of Scarborough Council who made the untrue claims on Radio Cleveland about their non-existent petition of 'many thousands' of signatures in favour of their plans, issued a retraction statement which was read out at the same time on today's Breakfast Show.

Well done Radio Cleveland for forcing SBC to back down so quickly. We know we are in a propaganda battle, so every sound bite matters even more than usual. What we still need is a national public outcry from everyone who loves Whitby, to the Town Hall, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 2HG or Tel: 01723 232323...

Today, I think, is the first day of this year when the temperature climbed above 15°C (60°F). It did get close a few weeks ago, but today it is: Spring!

04 Apr 07    The interview we recorded yesterday was broadcast on Radio Cleveland this morning and Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) then had a senior officer on to respond. He claimed on-air that SBC had a petition of 'several thousand' people in favour of their proposed marina office block. But we could prove this was untrue (SBC archived Planning Committee minutes on the SBC website) and asked the BBC to follow this up. They did and SBC's retraction will be broadcast on tomorrow morning's breakfast show, at about the same time.

This kind of mis-information is not unexpected. Just for the record, we had a petition of 2462 against the building, while SBC had a grand total of 421 exhibition feedback forms, emails & letters, of which only some were in favour. Apparently they have now tried to dismiss us all as 'just a few individual troublemakers who didn't get what they wanted'. Now that's no way to describe the Chair of Whitby Chamber of Commerce, nor indeed any of the other 5 pillars of the local community, is it? Perhaps the real truth is that a few individual troublemakers within SBC didn't get what they wanted?

This afternoon we were interviewed for tomorrow's BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme and we will have to wait and see what SBC have to say about that...

Another joint chairs meeting this evening & more midnight oil tonight, but I did notice the first Violets and the first Dandelions in full flower alongside the drive today, the Hawthorn hedge laid at the front of Groves Dyke lawn is now in leaf and the male Blackcap is still intent on eating a whole fat cake all by himself. And why not? It's a very long flight from Africa! First Peacock Butterfly.

03 Apr 07    Here is the News Release we sent to the national media early this morning:

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02 Apr 07    A fine, bright, sunny day with birdsong from all directions.

01 Apr 07    Recent bio-security directives from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) may spell the end of hedge-laying on English farms. Traditionally the lop and top removed during  hedging was burned on site or carried to a more suitable place for burning. As part of the hedging process, the ditch alongside the hedge was also cleared out at the same time and the silt piled along the top of the ridge on which the hedge grows, as a useful fertilizer. 

Sadly, this centuries old tradition is now at risk, thanks to the latest ruling by DEFRA. Lop and top is now classified as 'agricultural waste' if it is moved off site, and an 'agricultural waste transfer license' must be obtained before it can be moved. Agricultural waste can only be moved by a DEFRA licensed 'approved agricultural waste carrier' and it can only be taken to a DEFRA approved 'agricultural waste disposal site'. If it is burned at the original location then the fire must be started without the use of any other inflammable materials such as old cardboard, scrap wood, petrol, diesel, etc, as under existing legislation this 'industrial waste' cannot be 'transported' without a transfer license, nor 'disposed of' anywhere that is not an approved industrial waste disposal site.

Nor must the silt from the newly cleared ditch be put anywhere within 2 metres of the hedge line, as this boundary strip MUST be left 'uncultivated and unimproved' to encourage wildlife! Nor can the silt be moved off site (ie more than 2 metres away) because that would then require an agricultural waste transfer license. Several thick glossy booklets (probably printed on recycled paper) have been published by DEFRA to explain the new directives. Any failure by a farm to comply with any single part of the new legislation may mean the loss of all their DEFRA Single Farm Payment, which is now the only agricultural subsidy still available.

Now I know that you know that today's date is the 1st April and that you have already realised this highly improbable tale would make an ideal April Fool Joke. Sadly, the real April Fool Joke is that this legislation is real. It was introduced throughout England a few weeks ago and I have just been saving it for today.

No wonder the poor English farmer feels that they have just been DEFRAcated on. Again.

Single Farm Payment? Some of them still haven't been paid last year's yet and are only surviving on commercial bank loans to stay in business! Last week a Commons Committee published their report on the whole Single Farm Payment debacle and concluded that it has cost the UK tax-payer several hundred million pounds extra, because of the complexity of the system, the inadequacy of the software, the incompetence of the management and the refusal to listen to the farmers who advised that the proposed system was just far too complex. You will be delighted to learn that all the top civil servants involved in the decision are continuing with their careers as normal and the Secretary of State responsible, Margaret Beckett, has been promoted to Foreign Secretary, where she will be capable of doing even more expensive damage to the UK's economy. Good, innit?

My traditional and wildlife-friendly hedge-laying will continue, as will my on site bonfires of lop and top, lit with whatever waste materials are available and appropriate, as will my ditch cleaning and tipping the silt onto the hedge bank - but only because mine is a garden, not a farm. I get no subsidy whatsoever from anyone for managing it in favour of tradition and wildlife, but I believe strongly that it is the right thing to do. How on earth have we let the Law of Unexpected Consequences actually prevent the farmer from benefiting wildlife as I do, on the grounds of (believe it or not) 'benefiting wildlife'? Madness!

Weather Summary for March 2007

Max 14°C (56°F). Min -3°C (27°F). Rainfall 37mm (1½ inches). Actual at 09.30 today: 8°C (48°F) with ⅞ cloud cover, dry and bright but with a Force 2 Easterly breeze. A fairly dry month with a promise of spring early on, but this was set back by overnight frosts. Towards the end of the month Easterly winds kept the coastal fringe misty and cool.

31 Mar 2007    The male Blackcap continues to feed  voraciously on the 'peanut cake' (made of tallow and ground peanut flour), which suggests that he may actually have flown all the way from Africa, rather than be an over-wintering bird. At least 2 Chiffchaffs are calling incessantly up in the wood and I am told that the Curlew are back on the moors.

At Victoria Farm Garden Centre I see that some kind person has added more wild bird seed mix to the feeding shelves, which is exactly what we hoped. Overhead my first Skylark song came from invisibly high, suggesting that Spring is well on its way - but my car says the temperature is still only 8°C.

30 Mar 2007    After lunch BC, SA, dogs and I prepared the last big bonfire at the far end of Bank orchard. All the recent branches chucked on top were carefully removed, cut down into short lengths and then used to set the older, brambly heap going once they themselves were alight. The cool easterly breeze carried the flames into the heart of the older stuff, until the whole heap was roaring in a very satisfactory manner. Once the bonfire formed the characteristic doughnut shape (ie having burned everything in the middle until there was only a hole with nothing left there to burn), it was just a case of pushing everything from around the unburned edges into the hole, until there was nothing left at all, save a few embers and a bit of woodash. Very satisfying work and a job well done.

29 Mar 2007    My 3 minute speech to the Planning Committee of Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) this afternoon, against the new  SBC Water Resource Centre building on Whitby Harbour, was:

28 Mar 2007    Tomorrow is decision day by Scarborough Council on whether or not to ruin Whitby Harbour Conservation Area with their proposed Water Resource Carbuncle. Any more midnight oil, anyone?

A single Woodcock flew up suddenly from under a bush as I walked around the wood this morning.

27 Mar 2007    This morning my first Blackcap (a male) joined me for breakfast. At least, he was at the feeding station and I was in my conservatory. A cool grey mist hung around Whitby all morning, with a slightly grey day in Sleights but a lunchtime trip to Goathland revealed the sunshine in all its glory. It's just that onshore breeze affecting the coastal strip again, while the rest of the country inland basks in the sun.

Up in the wood this afternoon we heard the first Chiffchaff calling, followed by the first Buff-tailed Bumblebee as we enjoyed the afternoon sun on the spatio as the first steam train chuffed from Whitby to Grosmont. I gave the top lawns their first grass-cutting of the season this afternoon, just a gentle top strim, so it really must be Spring!

26 Mar 2007    After a day of meetings I took Flag for a refreshing walk by the River Esk near Grosmont, where we got up close to a lazy Heron loafing by the water's edge.

A torchlight inspection of my pond this evening revealed 8 Smooth Newts just hanging around (as they do) in mid-water.

25 Mar 2007    Back to mild, dry, bright sunny weather as I prepared the final bonfire at the far end of Bank orchard. All the cut Hawthorn and Ash I had removed from the orchard before the Daffodils came up has now been piled into one big heap beyond the magnificent show of Daffs, with the minimum of trampling on the carpet of Primroses at that end. Weather permitting, we may get it burned later this week - hopefully without setting light to the whole 5 acres of woodland immediately up slope.

The slightest cool breeze from the East made my very first lunch on the patio a little bit too chilly, but the problem was solved by carrying it around the corner to my new Spatio (South patio), which was in full sun and full shelter. Perfect!

This evening AD noticed the first Smooth Newts of the year in my pond, as two of the little dears lurked around in the shallows.

24 Mar 2007    Here is a copy of the letter we sent for publication in today's Yorkshire Post newspaper:

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23 Mar 2007    The small, short 'traditional' Daffodils in Bank orchard have survived the bad weather intact and are now all in full and glorious flower, but the triangular patch of big, pale 'tame' Daffs in Groves Dyke lawn have been partly flattened by the strong winds and the hail. The front page story in the Whitby Gazette this week is entitled 'Here Comes Summer' next to photos of storm damaged beach huts, cars skidded off the road on the ice, roads blocked by snow, etc, etc.

This afternoon the last of the Ash and Willow was sawn into cordwood, mainly by BC but with some assistance from SA and me, and stacked. The new cord is almost complete now, with just a few more smallish Ash poles for me to carry down next week.

In mid-afternoon we all drove to Victoria Farm Garden Centre (a mile outside Whitby on the A171 Guisborough road) to rendezvous with a couple of others. Between the five of us we put up a framework for hanging bird feeders. These now hang above the feeding ledges already in place on the post and rail fence of the Garden Centre car park. This gives Whitby residents and visitors their very own public Birdwatchers' Car Park, based on the Natural England one at Forge Valley NNR near Scarborough (but 20 miles closer), where motorists can go to watch the birds from their own mobile hides (cars) and to feed the wild birds. The Whitby CREST (CREating Sustainable Tourism) group is very grateful to Mark Noble and all the staff at Victoria Farm Garden Centre for their assistance in creating this new wildlife amenity.

So next time you are passing the Garden Centre, pop into the car park, drive to the far left corner and park facing the feeding station to watch the birds. If the feeders are getting a bit low, please add some of your own seed or peanuts or fat balls. If you haven't got any (or if you are feeling hungry!) then why not go indoors to feed yourself in their wonderful cafe (with the best view of Whitby I know), before buying some more bird food? The more people who become interested in local wildlife and its conservation, the better the chances of a sustainable future for it, for us and for the world at large...

22 Mar 2006    The floating crane 'Rebecca M' has started work in Whitby harbour, preparing the extra pontoons for the Marina. That's ok, but in two weeks Scarborough Borough Council will also start building their big, ugly and almost completely unnecessary new building right in the middle of the Whitby Harbour Conservation Area.

This 'Marina Resource Centre' (known locally as the Marina Resource Carbuncle) has mobilised almost everyone who loves Whitby against Scarborough Borough Council (SBC). They have ignored all the protests from Whitby residents, businesses and visitors. It seems that SBC have given themselves planning permission to build it on their own land, where as landlord they will be able to charge rent to their new tenants in their new cafe (another cafe in Whitby?) and in their new function room (another function room in Whitby?) and in their 11 new office units (which get lots of grants, thus paying for all the extra and unnecessary bits). Isn't democracy wonderful?

The marina users only wanted better toilets and drying facilities, but they are getting this big ugly carbuncle instead! In fact, it was the Whitby Marina Users Action Group which reported SBC's actions re this development to the Local Government Ombudsman - but SBC are carrying on with the construction work without waiting for the Ombudsman's decision. How typical of SBC!

The campaign against this monstrosity is hotting-up as construction approaches, so do keep a look-out in the local, regional and national press. More details in the online version of the Whitby Gazette (Type "Whitby Gazette" UK into your search engine) and even more juicy news to follow here.

Or you could let SBC know just what you think of their plans for Whitby's Marina Resource Carbuncle by contacting Councillor Fox, Leader of Scarborough Borough Council at Town Hall, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 2HG or Tel: 01723 232323...

21 Mar 2007    The first day of spring, as the sun crosses the equator into the northern hemisphere, and the equinox gales are now over. There may be an inch of snow down here this morning, but the bright sun soon melted it away. Up on the moortop the temperature is a bit cooler and the snow continued to lie well into the afternoon.

After lunch SA and I dragged the sled up the hill to the felled Ash and then brought down the two smaller drums. Another trip up for the big lump (about 14 inches diameter by 2 feet long) and the route back down again was even muddier than before. As we slithered down the steps, one pulling the sled forwards from in front and one braking the sled backwards from behind, we decided we would have to adapt the Laws of Thermodynamics for our particular situation:

1. Every force has an equal and opposite woops!

2. Matter can neither be created nor whereditgo?

3. Wasn't there a third one? Ok, we give up. It was a very long time ago. What is it?

Once down on fairly level ground, SA used his big chainsaw to trim-off the ends of each drum at right angles, so that a friendly local wood turner can put them on his lathe and do something even more useful with the wood than just burn it. Having admired his work at a fundraiser for Sleights Primary School, I'm sure these awkward drums will soon be beautiful objects d'art.

20 Mar 2007    Flag looked at the heavy snow shower this morning and decided that there was no real need for a long walk around the wood, when a short trip up the drive and back would do instead. Even though it would snow hard for 10 or 15 minutes, the ground is warm enough and the sunny spells between the wintry showers are bright enough, to melt any freshly fallen rain / hail / sleet / snow before the next shower. The dale has turned a lighter green and the moortop does look almost white, but by late afternoon the snow had gone from the dale. The triangular bed of 'tame' Daffodils are looking a bit battered by wind and hail but, on balance, Spring is still winning over Winter.

Despite the nasty weather, arborists from Fountain (remember them?*) trimmed the self-sown trees from under the low voltage power lines in the wood. At my request they felled one of the garden Cypresses which insists on growing up through the wires, despite having been cut back many, many times. They also looked at the big dead limb on the leaning Ash and declared it 'OK' for another few years. Their work has created quite a bit of useful firewood for a couple of years' time, as well as a fair bit of lop and top to rot down in situ. Still, better that, than hours and hours of ear-splitting mechanical shredding!

*Wasn't Fountain Forestry the big firm that drained and planted exotic conifers over thousands of acres of the Flow Country in North-east Scotland, so that the super rich could avoid paying UK tax like the rest of us, way back in the 1970s or 80s? Wasn't Terry Wogan involved, as well as lots of other celebs? And now that everyone has agreed that wrecking such a unique habitat wasn't such a good idea after all, aren't the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage currently being funded by the UK tax-payer to undo some of this damage, fell all the trees Fountain planted and block up all the drains they dug, so that we can try to rescue something of this special landscape and its unique wildlife? Wasn't I walking along the Caithness flagstoned nature trail of the breath-takingly wonderful RSPB Forsinard Reserve just a couple of years ago, enjoying every moment of this deep peat Flow Country experience? Yes, I do believe I was.

Funny thing, the UK tax system, the way it first pays to do all the damage and then it pays again to try to undo some of it, just a few years later. Good thing we don't mind paying twice, innit? And whatever happened to that Lou Pole, the tax avoidance consultant? I bet he's alive and well, and stilling finding lots of other ways to make the rest of us pay twice as much tax as necessary...

19 Mar 2007    The wind is from the north, the clouds are scudding past at a rate of knots and my car says the temperature is just 1°C - and it feels like it! My rain gauge is still at just ½ inch of rain so far this month, but today's occasional wintry showers of hail, sleet and snow are likely to intensify over the next few days.

Five Robins shared the feeding station this morning, with hardly a squabble in sight. It can't be spring just yet...

18 Mar 2007    Cooler but still bright and dry. Blizzards? What blizzards?

17 Mar 2007    After preparing Groves Dyke for its new arrivals, I carried the splitting axe up to yesterday's worksite and had a very satisfying 10 minutes splitting a few of the freshly sawn drums of Ash.

It's cooler today, with no sign of any Frogs, but the first Forsythia flowers by the garden steps have opened. A fine male Grey Wagtail investigated my pond before tiptoe-ing noisily across the roof of the conservatory. The repeated 'tchik' of a Great Spotted Woodpecker came from the big leaning Ash behind the woodyard, while 3 Jays screamed blue bloody murder from the trees further up the beck.

Winter is expected to return tomorrow, with a Met Office Severe Weather Warning of heavy snow... Never mind, in the Lake District one holiday site owner has 'planted' hundreds of plastic Daffodils, so that their Easter visitors won't be too disappointed that climate change has made the Daffs flower (and then wither) several weeks too early. Climate change problems? What problems? Just burn a bit more fossil fuel to make a few more plastic species to replace the living ones ruined by already burning too much fossil fuel...

16 Mar 2007    This afternoon SA and his chainsaw got to grips with the recently felled Ash tree, while BC and I cleared away the cut branches, sorting them into poles for firewood, long thin rods for topping-up the woven hedges, or 'reject' brash for stacking into habitat heaps. The big drums were rolled or carried and stacked nearby for splitting and seasoning. Once they have lost half their weight they will be carried down to house for firelogs (no point in carrying down all that heavy sap). A couple of hours later and we were admiring our handiwork before leaving a very tidy worksite for a well earned pint or two of orange squash.

15 Mar 2007    Attended a meeting at the superb new Whitby Youth Hostel at Abbey House, following its £3m restoration. Great care has been taken to preserve and conserve the best features of this fine Grade 1 Listed building, from the two 12th Century stone pillars in the basement, through the wattle and daub corridor wall (now displayed behind perspex), the ornate carving of the grand wooden staircase, and right up to the re-used ship's 'knees' which still support the roof timbers. Now accommodating twice the number of the old Whitby Youth Hostel in the abbey stables, this wonderful new facility has created 10 permanent local jobs, will soon have a cafe open to the public and is destined to be the 2nd busiest YHA in the UK. Well done to all concerned! Visit www.yha.org.uk and type Whitby into the search box.

14 Mar 2007    Sunnier, warmer, dryer and calmer than ever, but only 3 or 4 Frogs in my pond today. BC and I pruned the Twigwam, which involved sawing through the biggest of the Willow stems just above ground level and removing the whole stem completely. Much easier this way than trying to lean a ladder up against the apex and taking the very tops off! We removed half a dozen 25 foot long stems of up to 4 inches butt diameter, which isn't a bad growth rate for the 4 or 5 years since it was planted. Then we tried to encircle the remaining stems with biodegradable cord and pull the whole thing back into a cone shape, which was almost successful.

For the very first time this year I heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming (very briefly) near the top of the drive and later the Yaffle (Green Woodpecker) was back in the wood again. We were also lucky to have a rare sighting of a Weasel, as it worked its way in and out of the dry stone wall behind the pond.

Bud burst is just starting on the newly laid hedge, which is always reassuring. Of course it was going to survive this centuries-old traditional treatment - but I always heave a great sigh of relief none the less! Well done SA!

13 Mar 2007    Flag had a marathon dig near the roots of the big leaning Ash tree (which won't help it at all), while I caught up on some boring office work. There has only been ½ an inch of rain so far this month and I can walk around the wood without wellies for about the 2nd time this year.

12 Mar 2007    A fine upstanding male Bullfinch worked its way along the edge of the wood by the car park.

11 Mar 2007    The fine weather continues. I trimmed a few more branches off the felled Ash up in the wood and a Yaffle (Green Woodpecker) called in the distance.

10 Mar 2007    Another nice dry, calm and mild day, with rather fewer Frogs singing in my pond. About 25-ish, I would say. There are now 2 large mega-dollops of spawn, one of about 1 pint and the other of about 2 pints. In Bank orchard more than half the 'wild' Daffodils are now in flower and the Robins are beginning to squabble at the feeding station. It must be Spring!

09 Mar 2007    Another fine, dry and sunny day, but with a cooler wind. With invaluable help from SA's chainsaw we dropped the stag-headed and multi-stemmed Sycamore which has been trying to grow too near the electricity wires by the woodyard. It came down without too much trouble and we burned the lop and top on the bonfire site in the woodyard, as well as that from the young Hornbeams near the steps which I thinned a few days ago.

Frogs are still purring in my pond (5 dollops of Frogspawn now) and the triangle of 'tame' Daffodils in Groves Dyke garden are now all in full flower.

08 Mar 2007    SA and I completed the removal of all the rusty barbed wire and rotten posts from alongside the newly laid hedge. It's a warm, sunny, dry and very pleasant spring day, with up to 27 Frogs purring in my pond. My car says it is 14°C, which is near as dammit 60°F in real money - and that is my definition of the end of winter.

Taking the crate, sack and overflowing coils of rusty wire to the scrap metal skip at the nice, new recycling centre at Whitby industrial estate, I asked the nice man dumping lots of old floorboards and joists if I could have a few of them for my wood burner. He was quite happy to help transfer them to my now empty boot, instead of the skip. 'What happens to the timber in the skip?' I asked the attendant. Apparently, it is taken to Scarborough industrial estate (20 miles away) and shredded (big, nasty, noisy, gas guzzling industrial sized garden shredder), then mixed with garden waste and composted (except it takes far longer than usual) and bagged and sold back to us as compost. Would it not be simpler to just stack the good bits of wood neatly at the recycling centre and then let others come and take it away for firewood? Perhaps even for a few pence?

Obviously not.

07 Mar 2007    Guess how many government forms you have to complete and sign if you dare to even try to save energy in your home? Nine. Yes, that's right, nine (9):

Two (2) forms for anything electrical, two (2) forms for anything plumbing, two (2) forms for anything gas, two (2) forms to say that you promise to supply energy consumption figures showing how much you will have saved over the 6 months after the work has been completed - and one (1) to say that you have invested at least ½ an hour of your own time (not to mention the other 50% of the cost) in arranging all the necessary plumbers, gas fitters, paramedics, nurses, doctors, stress councillors, aroma therapists and bloody undertakers! Did I only imagine that I also had to fill in the details of my maternal grandmother's inside leg measurement?

You also have to produce at least 6 months of old utility bills for comparison, as well as a request for details of your income, your 'ethnicity' and whether the property is in 'majority masculine ownership' or 'majority feminine ownership'! Oh dear god, what chance have your grandchildren got?

Still, I now realise that the grandchildren of bureaucrats will all get government immunity from the effects of droughts, floods, storms or death by heat wave. So that'll be ok then. What a pity they don't have more bureaucrats in Bangladesh...

06 Mar 2007    Attended the national conference on 'Local Action on Climate Change', held in Middlesbrough. Ex-RoboCop chief constable Ray Mallon (suspended by the Home Office for upsetting too many 'law abiding' people by catching too many of their drug dealing friends, and now the popular elected Mayor of Middlesbrough) welcomed the 225 delegates. 'I don't understand everything about climate change' he said, 'but I know that it scares me and that I worry about the world we are creating for our grandchildren...' Other speakers included Sarah Parkin, Founding Director of Forum for the Future ('We have 13 years to stop it running out of control'), Sir John Harman, Chair of the Environment Agency ('It's bad, it's going to get worse and it's accelerating'), etc, etc. It was all good stuff and some local authorities are actually starting to take it seriously, but the sad reality is that:

Tomorrow I am having a second meeting with the people who give government grants to home-owners for energy saving adaptations 'to help me fill out the application forms' (why drive 100 miles round trip, twice, to help me fill out over-complicated government grant application forms to give me a 50% refund on 7 new thermostatic radiator valves, the flushing out of the central heating system and a few low energy light bulbs? Might all that car travel not produce more CO2 than these adaptations could ever save?? As for my enquiry about a micro hydro-electric scheme for the beck through the wood? That, it seems, is money from a different government department and will require yet another visit from somebody else...

Then we will spend the next several days fighting Scarborough Borough Council's plans to build their unwanted Water Resource Carbuncle on the Whitby Harbour Zone 3 Flood Plain (even the Whitby Marina Users Group don't want it, we do NOT need another cafe in Whitby, nor do we need the 11 new office units nor the function room).

Then we will spend the next several weeks trying to persuade North Yorkshire County Council not to spend £2m creating a Whitby Park & Ride by Bus scheme (which is doomed to failure, as the shuttle buses will get snarled-up in the town centre traffic jams, while the heavily subsidised train runs right past and into the town centre, almost empty. When asked about spending a fraction of the money on creating a Park & Ride by Train instead, NYCC replied 'We don't do trains')!

So how's that for a well co-ordinated government policy to save us all from Climate Change? Bloody awful. And I don't care which political party happens to be in power, I'm sure one would be just as useless as the other. I think I'll start building a well insulated boat...

04 Mar 2007    Last night's eclipse of the moon was fully visible from here. Just before midnight it had reached the lunar 'diamond ring' stage, with a narrow ring of light around the moon and then one very bright point on the ring as the shadow began to withdraw from the moon's face. Very dramatic, with the Tawny Owls calling loudly from the wood!

Cooler today, which has dampened the poor Frogs' ardour, with only a dozen or so having a very half-hearted affair in my pond this morning. Their numbers were swollen by the addition of some more Frogs, rescued from a disappearing pond by some good neighbours, who also noticed the first Frogspawn in my pond. Only about 1 pint of it, so far...

I did a bit more tidying-up in Bank orchard and then after lunch the rain set in for the rest of the day. On a late afternoon walk we surprised three Roe Deer which were walking across the drive. Seeing Flag, the two leading deer dashed forwards across the paddock, while the tail-end Charlie doubled back up into the wood. This clever ploy fooled poor old Flag completely and, not knowing whether to follow two down the hill or one up the hill, he just ran along the drive instead and missed all three of them! That's the trouble with only having one brain cell.

03 Mar 2007    Another fine day and the Frogs all celebrated the arrival of Spring by holding a mass orgy in my pond, with 36 or more purring their little heads off in their mating frenzy.

I, on the other hand, celebrated the same occasion by having my first outdoor lunch of the year at Bridge Cottage Cafe, Sandsend, after a very pleasant Snowdroppy walk through Mulgrave Castle woods. And very good it was, too - but by comparison...

02 Mar 2007    A fine, dry, sunny day and this afternoon the Groves Dyke hedge was finally completed when SA, BC and I slit planted the 25 yards of Beech hedge, filling the big gap at the top end where there had been no surviving hedge to lay. Just some sawn-up firelogs to remove from the edge of the orchard now and then the whole job's a good 'un!

Weather Summary for February 2007

Max 12°C (52°F). Min -5°C (22°F). Rainfall 75mm (3 inches). A few days of snow early in the month seemed to bring parts of the UK to a near standstill, but life continued here almost as normal. Once the snow had thawed the weather was wet but unseasonably mild.

27 Feb 2007    Wet this morning and an ideal day for a trip to Castle Howard Tree Nurseries to collect the 25 yards of Beech Hedge plants (which I hope to plant later this week). Lunch in Malton, followed by a fascinating visit to a local fish farm on the way home again.

This evening was spent at Whitby Town Council's meeting where, after 1½ hours of discussion, they voted unanimously to reject Scarborough Borough Council's proposed Water Resource Carbuncle in Whitby's town centre Conservation Area. It will be interesting to see if SBC continue to push it through, regardless of all local opposition... not even the Whitby Marina Users Group want it! It was they who referred SBC to the local government Ombudsman, but SBC have already said that they will carry on with the project even if he does find against them! Isn't democracy wonderful?

26 Feb 2007    A dozen Frogs sang sweetly from my pond this morning. I spent much of the morning composing the perfect letter to save Whitby Harbour from Scarborough Borough Council's development plans, while at the same time sawing off the side branches from the recently felled Ash tree. Only when the blood was flowing freely from my finger did I realise that I should have been paying much more attention to my sawing and much less to my Planning Objection letter! Woops. Mental note to self: must follow my own advice and always keep my left hand well away from the saw blade when sawing and preferably on the other side of something solid. Good thing it was only a bow saw. Will SBC be insured for 'consequential loss' if I sue them?  They have a lot to answer for... But if I win, will my Council Tax to up again? Perhaps I shouldn't sue them after all...

Flag ignored my brief blood sucking antics and continued to dig frantically nearby. I think he is going for the hat trick: Bank Vole 2 days ago, Wood Mouse yesterday and now all he needs is a Shrew...

The afternoon was completely wasted, slaving over a hot word processor to try to process the perfect words that might save Whitby from SBC. Might.

25 Feb 2007    No Frog song this morning, but Flag got involved in another major excavation on the way around the wood and eventually reappeared carrying a very dead Wood Mouse. Isn't it great having a mini Nature Reserve to protect all the native wildlife! Why won't he just confine himself to catching the real vermin, like the exotic Grey Squirrels (Tree Rats!) which are busy killing all the young trees and all the small birds? I suppose he would have to learn  to climb trees very quickly...

24 Feb 2007    Half asleep and half submerged in my bath this morning, I mentally processed all the sounds from outside the open window: Dunnock singing; Robin singing; Milkman talking to Flag; Song Thrush singing; Funny Noise; Wood Pigeon billing and cooing; Funny Noise again... that's not a bird, but I still ought to know it... I know I know it... it must be a Known Unknown... or it might be an Unknown Known... now I remember: it's the sound of Frogs Singing! And so it was. Just a few of them in my pond, with only their little pointy snouts showing above the water and all purring away. Why did anyone ever call this lovely noise 'croaking'? This is my first Frog song of the year and a sound to gladden the heart. It is Spring! And there should be even more tomorrow...

23 Feb 2007    My rain gauge is now showing 2½ inches of rain so far this month. Drier this afternoon so out came the saw for a bit more fire-logging of the leftovers from the hedge laying, while Flag dug frantically in Dyke orchard. Later I noticed him playing 'cat and mouse' with some poor unfortunate small mammal. Having put the poor Bank Vole out of its misery (much to Flag's disappointment) I then tried to get him into the car to go shopping, but he would insist on trying to bring his latest toy with him. No chance: its dead and you're only a dog! Now leave it behind and get in...

21 Feb 2007    The crumpled brown leaf on my patio revealed itself to be my first Toad of the year. It then  skid-steered its way across the wet flagstones to a hole in the dry stone wall around my pond. Spring!

A very pleasant afternoon was spent sawing up the Blackthorn, Hazel and Hawthorn poles gained from the hedge laying. Half is now done and half to do...

19 Feb 2007    The sloven looks ok, so I think I've got away with it. I expected it to be almost triangular, telling the world for years to come what a very slovenly job I had made of felling the tree. (Yes, that is where the word comes from). This is one of the two 25 year old Ash trees which were crowding-out the four 25 year old Oak trees just below the middle of Bankfield. Some 16 inches in diameter, these Ashes are twice the diameter of the slower-growing Oaks, which are suffering as a result. Grey Squirrels (Tree Rats!) have already stripped the bark and killed off the leader shoots on two of them, so even if they do survive these Oaks will always look a bit like giant, leafy Prickly Pear cacti.

The 30" bow saw seems quite adequate to the task as I start. The first cut is made in the front of the trunk, a horizontal cut facing the clearing where the tree is to fall. Once this cut is ⅓ of the way through, the second cut is also begun on the front, a few inches higher than the first and angled downwards to meet it. When the two cuts finally meet, a big wooden wedge is removed to leave a birdsmouth which undermines the tree on that side. All that now supports the tree is the remaining ⅔ of the fibres at the back of the trunk.

The third and final cut is made at the back of the tree, a few inches higher than the first. As it bites deeper and deeper into the tree it severs the remaining fibres one by one, until the tipping point is reached and the tree falls in the desired direction. This third cut should be kept exactly parallel to the apex of the birdsmouth, creating a long, narrow wooden strip of fibres which will hinge over to bring the tree down safely in the right direction. But before then, as the tree settles under its own weight, it begins to grip the blade of the saw until cutting becomes impossible. A steel wedge is hammered in to open up the cut and allow more fibres to be sawn through. Then the resistance increases again and the wedge is tapped further in until the saw blade can be disconnected at one end and drawn completely out of the cut. A few more taps on the wedge should tilt the whole tree beyond its tipping point...

It doesn't. The wedge is all the way in now and the tree leans a little, rattling the twigs of its neighbours. A second wedge is added and hammered in until it too, is all the way home. The tree has a decided lean by now, a few more twigs have rattled as it tilts further, but it still isn't going to go. With both wedges hammered all the way home it still refuses to fall. The birdsmouth is sawn a little deeper but the blade soon begins to bind and this solution is abandoned. In desperation the ends of the sloven are sawn through, with the saw blade at right angles to the traditional 3 cuts. First one side is cut as far as the steel wedge, and then the other. Still it stands, but now at an even more unlikely angle. Then the disconnected saw blade is fed back into the cut, reconnected again and a few more fibres severed, but only with the aid of buckets of sweat. Confucius was right, blast him: He who cuts his own firewood does indeed warm himself twice.

With just one or two extra fibres severed the tree leans a little further in the right direction, suddenly releasing the wedges and the saw blade - but it still won't fall. Standing back to recover, I stare at it in amazement. Whatever has happened to gravity? Why isn't it working on this tree? Will I have to buy a nasty noisy, dangerous chainsaw after all? By all that is reasonable, it should have gone long ago! But now that I can use the bow saw freely again, I soon cut the critical fibres and the whole 2 tons of timber come crashing down, just clipping the side branches of one Oak tree. Two hours. Two hours for 3 simple cuts with a good sharp bow saw to fell a 25 year old tree. Hard work, but do-able. Chainsaw? No thank-you.

But never mind, we both enjoyed our morning's work. Flag has dug an enormous hole 50 yards away from the tree felling, despite being tied up, and I will have enough firewood to see me through the winter of 2008/9. Another half hour is spent tidying-up, removing entangled side branches, steadying the trunk securely and measuring its full length at 40 feet. I stand back and admire this fine, big Yorkshire specimen which hung on so stubbornly, long, long after lesser mortals would have let go. I think I will call it Hugh.

18 Feb 2007    A Great Spotted Woodpecker worked its way up the electricity pole by the path into the wood. I think that is the first one I have seen this year, never mind heard. The first Lesser Celandine is flowering in Bank Orchard today. The invading Hawthorn bush was finally removed before the Daffs there are all out, and the nearby accidental Oak was pollarded again and the cut branches moved clear. That just leaves one more bonfire at the non-Daffodil end and the stage will be all set for the annual Spring Spectacular...

17 Feb 2007    The 5th and final bonfire dealt with the very last of the lop and top from the newly laid hedge, as well as all the bramble-snipping from the wildflower meadow bit of Groves Dyke garden. The sun shone warmly on my back, the bonfire sparks burned my t-shirt front, the dog dug happily under my feet (!), birds sang sweetly from the Apple trees, the Snowdrops, Daffs and Crocuses flowered optimistically all around and all is well again.

16 Feb 2007    A busy few days, which sadly included the loss of Anthea's brother, Hugh. His parting was exactly as he wished ('no funeral and no fuss!') and his send off was a small and poignant family affair. He would have approved entirely. On the way home banks of low cloud - or was it mist - back-lit by the late afternoon sun, lay seemingly anchored to the bottom of the dale by the silhouettes of stark winter trees. The Esk valley at its most beautiful, in honour of his passing.

13 Feb 2007    After finishing Groves Dyke and seeing the new arrivals in (and admiring the first 'wild' Daffodils in Flower in Dyke orchard), Flag and I went for a lovely stroll on the beach at Sandsend, our first for ages. It was very pleasant and so mild that I could have done without my hat and fleece. Lots of people, kids and dogs (so Flag was in his element) on the beach, with half a dozen surfers enjoying the big waves still pounding the shore from the recent windy weather.

The single tall Willow in Groves Dyke lawn is now in leaf and the Twigwam is budding well.

12 Feb 2007    Spent most of the day finishing the redecoration of Groves Dyke. Shame to waste such a nice day. When I wasn't redecorating, I was dashing about Whitby getting organised to fight Scarborough Borough Council's latest plans to build a nasty, new, bendy, glazed (very non-traditional local architecture in the middle of their own Planning Department's Conservation Area!) marina building in the middle of Whitby Harbour. Nobody in Whitby wants it, not even the marina users themselves and they are still awaiting the Ombudsman's decision on whether SBC had carried out proper consultation beforehand - but SBC say they will build it anyway, regardless of his decision!

 The proposed Marina Resource Centre will include a cafe (another cafe? Just what Whitby needs...), public toilets (at last!), showers etc for the marina boaties, (ok), 12 office units (why? We've got lots of empty ones in Whitby already!), a function room for the boaties (ok), a waste disposal building (old oil, old batteries, chemical toilets contents, etc - right next to the new cafe?) and an electrical sub-station (why does a cafe need a new substation? Or is this just part of SBC's long term intention of building hundreds of bog standard Anyport Marina Apartments all over the marina car park?). They have just changed their architects and changed their intended builders and made over 38 'amendments' to their original plans, including extending the balcony around 3 sides and redesigning the structural steelwork (Woops! Allegedly it wasn't structurally sound before!), added an external fire escape (woops! Allegedly they just forgot about that completely on the original plans), altered the disabled toilets (woops! Allegedly the original plans didn't meet the Disability Discrimination Act minimum requirements!!) and added the electrical sub-station (Allegedly the local leccy board insist that it must be on a very high plinth to withstand the inevitable flood waters - but the proposed Centre is much lower - so it will just flood then, will it?). Why on earth build anything on a flood plain? If it just remained as a car park then everyone could just drive to higher ground when (not if) the river rises. Or is that just too obvious?

10 Feb 2007    Heavy rain overnight and a good thaw has created the traditional 'February fill dyke' and the dyke (local name for a ditch) alongside the newly laid hedge was certainly full this morning! So full, in fact, that by midday it was in danger of flushing all the hedgelaying off cuts down towards the culvert and jamming it up. I removed the imminent blockage bit by bit in the nick of time and the flood wa