Sciadopitys

Don't miss the Quercus castaneifolia behind the water lily house - its a monster!!! I worked and studied there for three years and i still stumble upon huge trees i never noticed before with names and families i never heard of. 14,000 trees, you'll never see them all in a day, or even in three years! Good day out though - enjoy!

That female ref is tasty! She can polish my balls anyday of the week! ;-) Ronnie is the king again, about time! When he plays like he did this week, there is no chance of him being beaten. A fine display from him this week, best player in the world by far when he con control himself. If he ever actually does quit it will be when i stop watching the game! No one will ever beat his 5.20min 147 record, and no one will ever make the game look so rediculously easy. A true genious and a legend forever! Well done Ron!

Yeah a did a few months at Longwood gardens in 2007! Very nice place! Some awesome trees there!

Fair point that bout the medical ROG. Never even thought of that!

Getting fed up of paying stupid money to tip chip and good logs round here! Anyone know anywhere / anyone who'll take chip and / or logs in this area? Gotta some farmers on the outskirts who'll happily take it surely?? PM me! Cheers, Ed

I know what your getting at, BUT As it was, when the age was 21 for HGV's, whats to stop someone aged 21 who has never driven any vehicle before, passing three intensive tests in a row (CAR, Rigid, Artic) and then 3 weeks after their 21st birthday driving a 44tonne artic across Europe for a job? As unlikely as this is to actually happen, you get my point!

Yeah it changed to 18 recently. I think its a good thing. Irish lads use to be able to do it at 18, like guys in the forces! So i think its good the UK have lowered the age limit. However, I'm sure some people are bound to disagree.

£400-£500 QUID FOR A CAR TRAILER TEST? MAY AS WELL PUT THAT TOWARDS A HGV LICENCE! SAME TEST, JUST IN A BIGGER VEHICLE, THEN YOU GET TO DRIVE ANYTHING ON THE ROAD! (after you passed the rigid obviously!) The driving rules and categories really do take the piss! At 16 you can drive a tractor and pull artic trailers around full of fertilizer or hay bales doing 50mph in some of these modern tracters and yet you cannot tow more then 750kg behind your car. Its a joke! TOTAL MONEY-MAKING RACKET! Americans don't have all these stupid rules!

Check out arbjobs mate! And send your CV to every tree company big and small within an hours commuting distance from where you live! Register with complete tree care, they'll also let you know when vacancies come up in your area. Yoiu should be able to fine something! Good luck!

Trunk was in central London - its been chopped into logs now as access was tight and it simply speeded up getting it out and down the road! Its been dumped on the green waste rubbish heap! I'll probably find out its worth about £500 now! lol Mike page - Where in PA are you from? I did a bit of work near Kennett Square a few years ago - just outside of Philly!!! A plasce called LOngwood Gardens! Some big and beautiful trees around there! Sugar maples awesome autumn display and i climbed some 130ft+ Tulip trees over there too - nice area!!

My can did have a red triangle with UN1203 on it, and a flammable symbol of a flame! But no English writing. The guy had clearly not had any off the Mrs. for a while and was taking it out on me! I intend to print off Mr. Collins extensive essay and make a point of making his petrol station my regular stop - next time he opens his mouth i will simply present him with it! I will even politely offer to translate it to whatever language he can comprehend, as English is clearly not one of them! Google translate on the iphone at the ready!! ;-) Or i could just fill my cans up elsewhere! I will print off that info though incase it ever happens again! Cheers Andy!

I know Sequoia is nice wood, what about Metasequoia? Seems very soft to me!

Ha, ha!! Good luck filling your wellies up at the BP in Kennington Road mate! You better have English stickers on them stating that the fuel is flammable and they better be green or you have no chance!! :-) lol If my job was as interesting as his, i'd shoot myself. I wonder if he goes home with great job satisfaction every time he discovers a fuel can that does not conform to his rules. This guy needs to get a life!!

Forgot to say, the combi can was brand spanking new! It was a second can we just picked up as we were doing a big fell and needed two cans worth of fuel with us! I think the guy just took a dislike to us because we were in a white transit van and my hair is getting a bit long and i hadn't shaven in a while! :-) But seriously, we just filled the diesel tank on the truck and paid with a BP card! We were obviously legit, and the can is obviously "fit for purpose"! Every customer who came into the petrol station why i was having the LONG debate with him, i asked " Excuse me, what is this?" They all looked a bit confused, but said "its a fuel can"! I said, "did u hear that mate? This is a fual can!!!" He was not impressed! Anyway, i got my fuel in the end!

I was refused fuel in a BP petrol station in London the other day because my combi can was not green plastic, but a white, kind of transparent plastic. I asked the guy, who could barely speak English, what legally a fuel container needed to have so i could fill it. He did not have a clue!! He just pointed to his lovely shiny brand new green fuel cans on his shelf, as he clearly wanted me to purchase one! I didn't! I am not sure if i was in the right or not, and i am hoping someone will enlighten me to the laws regarding what legally needs to be printed on a fuel can to get it filled at a petrol station in the UK. I demanded a phone number for customer services and then parked the truck over the exit of the petrol station and locked it and left it there whilst i made the phone call. The guy was not impressed!! I told him we needed fuel, fill the can and i'll move the truck. This guy was stubborn and still refused. I eventually got through to the customer services and told them the same! Fill our can and i will be on my way! She told me it needed to clearly state that the contents were fuel, and it was flammable. My can did (IN GERMAN!!!!). She said if it did not say it in English, then it could not be filled! I was getting quite angry by this point as i have filled these cans up all over London at BP garages hundreds of times with no problem! Anyway, we had been there almost an hour by this point and i found an old battered fuel can, (RED) with English writing on! I took it into the manager! He said, NO, it has to be green! I rung the customer services back and told her and this time she backed me up and personally rung the idiot on the desk and ordered him to allow me to fill the can! He turned the fuel pump on, i filled BOTH cans, paid, told him i was going to make a written compliant, and that he obviously needed more training! As annoying as this whole experience was, wasting well over an hour trying to get fuel for your chainsaw. Is it legal to fill my combi can (German made with German writing)? Or is this country that damn anal now that i need to get some English translations printed and stuck on my cans to prevent this kind of thing happening again?

This is only the second sizable Dawn Redwood i have ever dismantled, and it is quite a large specimen. At least 2 tonnes worth of trunk. Because trees of this species and age are not that commonly seen, wondered if the trunk was of any use? Seems a shame to just dump it on the rubbish pile! Anyone offer any opinions!?!? Or am i right in thinking its pretty useless timber like most conifers!?! Ed

Its a basic site safety exam that you need before you are allowed to work on any construction site in the UK, no matter what your profession is! Its simple to pass and only costs a few quid, i think it lasts 5 years. Its all the usual site safety stuff: colours of fire extinguishers ect. all very basic and almost impossible to fail if you have any common sense! Its got me work on dozens of occasions, all over the country!

I can't imagaine they will sell many of these!!!

Hahaha!!! I musta missed the STEEL stand at the arb show!! :-)

Petzl Sequoia is cheap enough and i get on very well with it!

Not nice!! How did his helmet come off? Looked nasty! RIP!!

Common practice in Sweden too, although a few more chippers kicking around recently!

Stick at it mate! You'll be fine! :-)

Very interesting!!!!