Tony Croft aka hamadryad

The IML stand in the dining room!

so who else bought one of these! remember, not dogma!

Thats what I had! the catering on Micks events is always first class:thumbup1:

looks like a malus to me too

and the next night they hit me! brand new unused 66 and 88, 2x 200t 150t and a nearly new 46 Gutting and know how you feel. mine had only been in 2 days, and the alarms turned up for the sheds in the morning after they got nicked. thats the 6th time for me, the last lot took me into an employed job and ten years work to pay for all that had been taken over a period of 2 years. They know who what and where you are, they will come again and again until it just gets too darn hard, or like one guy I know of that had a rebar cage welded inside his shed, and wired to the mains. folk are going to extremes now, it wont be long till one such incident ends up on the main news. sorry for the loss mate, it sucks, we work hard and they clean us, and no one gives a damn because we pay for new saws plus vat, shop gets a profit, government get VAT and what do we get? a crime reference number and a bigger insurance bill next time, or if for the 6th time, refused to insure!

I have no doubt that the art and science is, thanks to the work of a few getting to a very interesting point in the progression of arboriculture. The picture will never be 100% complete, but were getting close to having a canvas on which to paint a really great picture of it all. Gradually disciplines that first seemed so fringe or removed are coming closer and closer together, thread by thread the tapestry is coming together.

absolute doddle shallow weak roots, mathook is all you need, sever one side and pull!

Theres a ranking? been here for years and never new that! only top five? must try harder:laugh1:

Its not that I need the attention or anything, I really aint that kinda guy, its just really tough when all you seem to hear is crap, even if its from one or two individuals. You start feeling like you're just paddling up stream in a treacle tart and that your energy and time is better off spent where its of more constructive value! There is something I want to talk about, express, to think aloud about, im just jeeing myself up for the torrent of abuse! That Mattheck seminar the other day took a while to sink in as I thought I hadnt gained that much as a lot was old ground, but it has sent my mind in motion. Between Rayner and Boddys work on CODIT, lonsdales thoughts on Segmentation of trees and Matthecks vision of how and why forces do what they do to trees I am starting to understand the reason why those three works all tie together, and its fascinating to think about. It explains an awful lot about the progression of decays, why trees fail at the points they do etc. I just need to mull over it all and do a little background work select the right images, a lot of time, but writing these things is as constructive for my learning as it is anyone elses.....

that will keep me going for a few months!

So 23 hours after that post 99 views, posted because I had a personal request, several in fact to "keep up my arbtalk" Just for those that value (god knows why) I do do this for arb, for YOU, I get a little out of it, ima sharing caring kind of guy, so its in my nature. However, I get a lot of flack around the place and its only those that are genuinely interested that make it worth while, otherwise its just a load of effort for just a load of grief. So if you enjoy the posts, or better still have a question, an argument against what i say (I am totaly fallable!, frequently in fact!) please for petes sake pipe up and say something, cos if its just a case of hearing from the trolls and the haters, I really cant be asked! Which is why for those that said so in person i have gone off the boil so to speak, I aint hanging out here for the jonny vines, if you get my drift.

Whatever plans you make on the deckare worth so little by the time you reach the canopy it aint worth stressing the point! the only questions I ask myself from a ground viewpoint is, how big a set of rigging gear, do I need it? and is this so friggin knarly I should really be MEWPING it. otherwise climb to the highest decent anchor, roll a fag and plot your path method.

sounds like a plan! then we could have an over fourties section where those youngpup questions dont get repeated! lol

Spent the day at Chelsea flower show, walking through battersea park was a little distracting to say the least, a coffee shop came into view just as I spotted this Plane, so I sent the Mrs in for a couple while I used the time to shoot this awesome tree. More buckles and kinks than you could shake a stick at! Ganoderma applanatum or australe suspect the latter, obviously de lignifying and obviously well into the core of the first order branches, see the extending lines of buckles. Awesome also note smoothness of upper on the lowest limb, this is not unusual on planes with long extending limbs, its one of the key ways in for massaria after all (shallow bark and high cellulose content, low presence of localised carb deposition for stress adaptations, hence any soft rot in this highly stressed zone leads to rapid failure) but I feel in this instance it is being exasperated by internal decay.

youll not make Claus's army unless you say ARGGGGGHHH!

spotted this massive fig on the Thames today:thumbup1:

I actually think your examples are complicated by a white rotter, seans is a pure and deep laetiporus decay, pure and unadulterated brown rot.

and none as degraded as seans example, and none showing quiet as many and difficult to tell due to scale but yours look to be far lees open than the examples in Seans?

That will be Lesley:thumbup1:

yuk! thats horrible!

Maybe to get the job done in this case but what stresses will the roots be exposed to? It is always worth considering all things, not just the practicality of YOUR needs at the time

might have one like that myself as ive a landy now, beats buying a transit and box back!

and I shall return with images of both

I do recall somebody telling me they are the same when I discussed this once. However, there is a very clear difference between what is called a "copper" and a Purple beech, a copper is always a grafted tree, whereas the purple crops up as a sport and wild variation on the beech theme