nepia

A beauty from a garden pond a couple of years ago. I did look it up at the time but the grey matter not being what it was... ideas anyone...? The colour's good; the body really is sky blue, not pale grey.

You've just described exactly the symptoms of my HS81R hedgecutter that was new in September; it's going back to Stihl as my local menders can't find anything wrong. I realise it's unlikely to be the same problem but I'll keep an eye on this thread in case we can advise each other. Mine has always started cold, then run fine for anything from 2 to 30 minutes. Then it just dies. Sometimes it'll restart, sometimes it won't. When left to go cold (20 minutes or so) it'll restart but throttling it kills it. Hopeless!

Google says it was at Roundstone, Co. Galway. There's a whole blog on it including mention of another tired green truck that fell asleep while loading a ferry.

Scotney; verrry nice. Haven't been there in years but should make the effort, especially as I'll bet it's looking better than ever. Good place.

Have met a couple from here, knew another pre-Arbtalk, got a huge favour done for a relative for the price of fuel and a slap up meal. Have got huge amounts of knowledge and tips from here and would like to think I've offered a bit back. And I offloaded a winch to some bloke in Cornwall:001_tt2:.

Aw guys...:blushing: Ady; glad to help out. Jon; you started by helping me out I seem to remember! Cheers all. Jon

Have had similar experiences many times down the years but hats now off to Tandridge; they issue free permits to locally owned vans and pickups that allow you to drive in with domestic waste. So instead of walking in two sacks of greens from my own garden and having a row with someone who has absolutely no evidence that it's trade waste I can drive in and be smiled at as I dump garden greens, timber, metal, paper... The whole experience has turned round as a result of the scheme.

No problems though you do need to make the effort to ensure the saw clicks into place. I even bought the Francital version of a sawpod for it. It's great value. Thinking about your 'inch' (er - professionally of course) it does stick a tad if your not inserting absolutely straight!

Now you know it you'll be surprised how common it is. I'm a bit red-faced; I've got one in the garden and didn't have clue what the leaf was.

As a sop you could offer the idea of felling for the view if they're that way inclined and getting a woodturner to make something of one or two of the rings. It's just a thought as to a way of softening the blow if they do decide it's gotta go but if the crown's receding upwards they're going to get the view back aren't they?

Mimosa, yes, likely Acacia dealbata | RHS Gardening. But not a large one and it will have suffered in the hard winter, especially that far north. Personally I'd get rid and replace; they're easy to source and fast growing.

You need to find a transport company with a 2' x 1' space on a truck; they'd do it for almost beer money. Come to that any friends or friends of friends doing the holiday trip perhaps. Ask around. That's how I found such a company belonging to the ex brother-in-law of a colleague of my wife!

Yeah, I'm going to photograph it regularly from the same angles. My fear for it is that the horseys take exception and have it 'dealt with'. I'd only settle the tree to mitigate an obvious danger likely to lead to such drastic measures, i.e. I'd be trying to make the tree look safer and hence prevent such action. If it was on my land I'd just tell people to stay away from it and let it be. I'm looking forward to seeing the bare bones when the majority of leaves are off it. Thanks, Jon

Ah, there you are! Was hoping for your comment. I'll happily accept your age estimate. I did think I was being conservative I'll admit but my knowledge of local land use heavily influenced the guess, plainly along with poor knowledge of how fast/slow such a tree would grow. The circumstances of the woods' ownership give this tree a good chance of being left alone - I hope. The public use it a bit but there is absolutely no management. If I think there comes a time when there is obvious and considerable danger I may try and settle the tree with a Tirfor but I'm certainly not going to take a saw to it: I'm not qualified or experienced in such work and am also looking forward to a natural future for it. Fingers crossed everyone leaves it be. Thanks.

Gulp.

A derail already - sorry David. Years ago I was corncarting at dusk on my best man's farm near John O'Groat's and a pair of long eared owls were cruising three feet off the ground in front of the tractor looking for small prey that I might disturb. I felt so privileged to see it; could have spent years waiting in hides to see anything similar and there they were unprompted using a tractor for hunting.

Thought it would be safe to hijack someone else's thread after two years. The title 'Beech with ganoderma' seemed appropriate somehow. This little baby came down one night last week in woods near Horsham. The creaking before it went woke a lady 150 yards away and when the tree went over the crash made her jump out of bed in fright! From my extensive research of photos in Encyclopedia ArbTalk I'm guessing G.applanatum?. How/what/why and 'you're way off the mark' comments most welcome. One thing that struck me was the apparently small number of FBs that I could find; probably only a dozen on the whole tree, several in the buttress unions, yet just look at the condition of the wood. A very rough guess at the tree's age is ~120 years but I could be way off; that's based on knowledge of local land use rather than the tree. Also the ground there (Sussex Weald clay) is hugely fertile. The lad in the last pic is 6' tall for size comparison.

Have spoken to both 'personal statement' writers, one of whom has also written a CV (she's 18!) and both say take a look at Find Jobs. Build a Better Career. Find Your Calling. | Monster.co.uk. Apparently it has good online help. Tony, put yourself in the position of a potential employer (get in front of that mirror again!). What do you want to hear? Probably not 'I'm reliable, keen and a team player'! Find something out of the ordinary; that candidate needs to wake you up, to have that extra something. What's going to make the panel think 'this guy's different; we need him'? Don't bullsh*t (you'll get found out by a couple of pointed questions) but talk yourself up. Your posts here show that you have that 'something' as your knowledge is superb but you've got to get it across. Take your time, plan, ask others; this is important. Best of British to you. Jon

Ha ha. Tell you what then; we'll both apply for the same job. Then when you're given it you can laugh when the new boss tells you what an ignorant tit the other applicant was!

Jeez, with your knowledge and experience an employer should be taking steps to keep you surely. How about a new employer? Easier said than done at the moment of course but take a deep breath, sit in front of a mirror and tell that person what skills, knowledge, experience and personal qualities you have. By the time you're finished it'll be dark but you could edit that down to an impressive CV and that seems to be the name of the game these days. Even my teenage kids have written them ('personal statements') as part of Uni applications. Or have I missed the trick with such a suggestion?

Great offer mate - thanks - but you'd break my poor little Navara with that (I'm only in Caterham)! So near yet so far...

Just come back from a weekend on Worcs/Gloucs border and noticed quite a few similarly affected eucs as described but they seemed to be small/medium-sized trees. The few large ones I saw looked OK.

Technically haws are pome fruits, along with apples, pears, medlar and others due to the structure of the berry. I could quote some words about it but I wouldn't understand them; someone here can though I'm sure.

A single wire strand ~9" above the picket would provide a visible deterrent wouldn't it, giving you effectively a nearly 4' fence? Just a cheap thought...