Tony Croft aka hamadryad

We all know why your arb, you love mogs! you had to be an arb to justiy them!

Agreed, the way some people talk/think you would assume that nature is both black and white in hue!

Cyathus striatus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

lol, thats a different kind of chancer, they want EVERYTHING for nothing:thumbdown:

I do appreciate what your saying, that I may be at risk because I am working outside the box much of the time. But arboriculture is as much an art as it is a science, the science has a long way to go to catch up with the practitioners long served instincts. And I think I can be pretty confidant in saying that a lot of those who set the current stage would agree on that.

The smarter man would lay some tarp on that quartz gravel and NOT pick the clippings out of the gravel!

unusual!

You know me better than that me old mate, nice find dude, really nice. actually quite jealous! but dont tell anyone eah!

watch it they will be calling you one of them there tree nerds/hippies at that rate!

see you there, enjoy some cup-o-tea and fish n chips! avitt avvy!

ha, andrews right too! just seen the image, common newt I reckon, protected as well.

a great breed, my Buff was a half bull/half staffy, a mind and character that is of their own! My father always said he has never seen a dog owner combo so well suited, both stubborn as mules! lol

love it! you old gypsy!

cant see the image? found this one in Romania a few weeks ago.

The world is full of chancers, the richer they are the worse they are, what they tend to not realise is this is a known factor, and as with any factor it is in their bills! Dust is easily blown from cars, thats all I will ever feel obliged to do, paying out to valet somebody's car is OTT IMO. I think the worst case I ever heard, a friend of mine was called back twice to remove sawdust from a neighbours gravel drive. Were talking every single grain! and the mug did it too!

Lol, she must of been good!

I had a little bimble again today, and so glad I did, saw my first what i think was a little owl a real in your face experience with a sparrowhawk as it flew straight through a hedge and nearly took me out! Finally bagged a dryadeus that I knew would give up the goods one year, this was the year! BUT now then, now then! I found a long long wanted RDL species of fungi on a veteran/ancient Oak, that fungus is the podocypha multizonata! its nothing much to look at currently but when its fully formed this one is another of those ultra rare ones that I craved for the old book! im going to be checking in on this bad boy many times over the coming week or so! whats special though, is that this tree though in an urban zone, is also very close to a find i made of another RDL species of oaks, Piptoporus quercinus also in a similar situation as this one. found a mahoooosive Ganoderma resinaceum on a VERY poorly Q cerris today. i was shooting it when the owner came out and said that her estate was not a tourist attraction nor even a public road, i didnt have the heart to tell her I had been walking the woods her house was built on since I was a boy! Oh I am a happy fung hunter today! Will have to download images later as there appears to be an issue!

its chunky but lovely lines on it, nice job.

that is an unlikely scenario, can you ever imagine ME letting anyone work on one of my personal trees! they would have to prize the saw from my wrinkly old hands before I did!

lol, dont know if I cut the mustard enough to be that these days!

the fluted birds nest, you little tinker! lovely lovely lovely!

No apology needed! this is my point, I think we know what we WANT from the day we can walk. One way or another, we end up doing those things, even if its not in the industry, we find a portion within an industry that "suits" those aspirations. I started the thread because i wanted to hear how others came to be, what inspired them what drives them, its turning out to be a great set of stories. I have found myself staring at the same tree i pondered as a boy, now as a man, with the answers to the thoughts I pondered on! just thought it was a bit well, like I was drawn back to a long unanswered thought as if to solve another of my childhood riddles about something in nature that puzzled me so.

and yet there has been a copy in the bookclub that as yet has gone unloaned!

If we was to take the standard issue advice on most of the principal decay fungi, and actually follow it to a T, we would not make any prognosis without fully evaluating the situation. The reality is that very few individuals responsible for making these decissions are fully aware of mechanics, decay and fungal ecology let alone the full life proscess of a aging/veteran/ancient tree. There are many many more shades of grey more even than fifty between the fell all and the retain all camps. If I was only going on the works that are currently avaliable to me to make my prognosis in the HUNDREDS of cases of principal decays i work I would have had to rely on others work and info and as a consequence a great many trees may well have been needlesly felled. I have gone to great personal lengths to study the ecology and life cycle of trees and their fungi, and I very much take it for granted how easily I make prognosis or choices regarding retention of compromised trees. I guess if there was a golden rule to this kind of evaluation, then it would be to base ones prognosis on the mechanics above all other matters, that applies from root to shoot and then concern regarding the potential invasiveness of the "parasite" the latter matter being a long way from adequately researched. Meripilus is one of those I would not treat with less than the utmost of respects, it is one of the most capable of decay fungi, not only is it very capable of breaking down Pectin in the middle lamella it has both soft rot and white rot capacities. that said, it is in all cases the conditions the trees grow in that is the major contributory factor, and hence we see where man has made the rooting environment difficult we see the most progressive and dangerous cases. One reason for this problem is that beech are naturaly very shallow rooted in old age their heart rooted natures have long ceased, much of the time meripilus simply lives on the old root system that is no longer functional, it is only later and increasingly under stress conditions (compaction) that the fungi must move into living tissues and become the enemy we so far understand it to be. If you study Meripilus youll soon see the direct correlation in these points I raise, of course some wild trees fail but they do not fail nearly as quickly as those in the urban context, because of the conditions. We must ALWAYS remember that ensuring healthy growing conditions, from the Rhizospphere to the growing tips is the key in these situations. A tree growing in optimal conditions will compensate and cope with colonisations even of the most feared of fungi with relative ease, but in stressed conditions, especially drought fungi will win the day everytime.