David Humphries

a truly remarkable layering beech These photos do it no justice at all .

a nice spot for it......... .

The Ankerwyke Yew close to where the Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215 on the banks of the River Thames at Runnymede thought to be 2,500 years old Magna Carta and the Ankerwycke Yew .

Compaction Girdling Dysfunction Decay Air Spade .

Ram's horn galls - wasp is called Andricus aries This ones not come up on the gall thread before, nice find .

Nice one Richy, just over 200 Volunteers registered so far Introduction meetings for the group Team leaders are on Sunday the 27th and Tuesday the 29th of April with further training dates for all volunteers throughout May (dates to be confirmed) .

Very engaging speaker and 'performer' would certainly recommend this seminar to anybody wanting to engage with biomechanics. I won't be going this time, been to it twice before, unlikely to go see Herr Mattheck again in this format. Would certainly like to attend a workshop in the field though. .

Fine project thanks for posting Scott had been following it on uktc but not sure what the provenance of the 'other' root stock was? .

Tongues of Fire/Rust fungus - Gymnosporangium clavariiforme All over the tree or just on the one branch? .

no, the piece was commissioned in 2007 I think, then dismantled last year. I believe the sculptor has been informed. .

Hello Jay 4000 kids is a big number to keep interested. Like most have said, big machinery always seems to impress but we've found that often its the 'little' things that get their real interest. We've led some workshops and walk talks where just getting them up close to trees to show them how they work from root to tip sparks their imagination. This usually leads to a pretty interesting discussion with questions that only young minds can think of. Guy's (Treeseer) suggestion of a cross section ring count with dates of significant events marked out always seems to be a good one. A soft faced hammer to 'listen' to decay in trunks can be pretty interactive Stripping down a saw is relatively quick and easy & ticks the 'how does it work' box. Fungi presentation & a show and tell on how the individual parts of trees like seed, leaves and bark differ between species and tree types. Demonstrations of work like air spading, bracing & pruning are always going to be a crowd puller & of course getting them off the ground will leave them with the best memory. One word of caution, have a think about whether your insurance covers you for anything that you do which may expose the children to hazards but usually a risk assessment of what ever you do should suffice. Also if any recording goes on of your part of the event think about permission to film etc.... Most of all, enjoy, its a real buzz sharing your knowledge with kids. Good luck with it, let us know how it goes .

Cheers Dave. No real legal issues beyond duty of care to anyone who visits the garden. I'm interested as we have a couple of sculptures that we have reduced due to decay a few years after they were carved and we continue to monitor them. Ours are in public areas with a higher footfall around them than the ones you have created. But this has got me to thinking about how often these things are looked at, especially as they appear to be growing in popularity. http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/picture-forum/55972-sculpture-management.html .

They're fantastic Out of interest, as the pair possibly have a fairly long potential life span in there new form, do you know if the sculptures are to be inspected on some kind of cycle for stability ? .

To mark the passing of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter BOB Dylan - Rubin Hurricane Carter - YouTube http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/20/rubin-hurricane-carter-boxer-dies-76 .

Pin hole? how many shots have you taken with it sean? .

The Hitch Climbers Guide to the Canopy [Vid] — News — DMM Professional .

When I was living on an army barracks in rural North London as a kid, my little gang thought that breaking in to the old disused underground arms silo would be a hoot. The only way in was through a padlocked vent in the ceiling, we somehow managed to smash the lock and got the metal cover lifted between us. Only way down was to abseil (I say abseil in the loosest of terms, think it comprised of a length of washing line) about 20ft to the floor below. Apart from the day light above it was pitch dark as there was no power running through the 1940's light circuit. We were absolutely bricking it Sadly (more like fortunately) there were no old munitions down there so we decided to go back up. After the majority of us had clambered back up, the most mischievous of the group decided it would be great to pull the line up before the last 2 could get up and ran off with it laughing his head off. When my own tears of laughter ran dry I suddenly realised what trouble we were going to be in and stood there just thinking about the sh....agro we had just brought down on ourselves. The two down in the bunker were starting to get really worried until I reluctantly decided to go fob us in and get help. Garrison guards came with a ladder and got the lads up. Suffice to say, the worst part of it was not the rollicking we got from those guys (which was pretty bad) but the one I got from my dad after he and the other dads had to go see the barracks Commander. .

Reminds me of a similar story Ted (though I wasn't involved personally) After my dad had finished his 25 year career in the army he went and worked in security for the Royal Household. For a time he was Prince Charles's chauffeur. Obviously he was privy to a lot of the goings on in the private lives of Charles and his young family. Loads of interesting stories which I won't go into here, but one that sticks in my mind was where the young 5 year old future King of England (William) had a regular habit of trying to flush his Fathers extremely expensive hand stitched Italian brogues down the Royal Khazi. Of course no Royal hand could be seen to be fishing them out so that was one of my dads less glamorous tasks .

Pass me the arm floats when your finished with them, please Guy .

Fine shots Drew The Pohutakawa looks just like Smaug does just before he bellows out his inferno .

Guy, I think you make an overly generalistic swipe at British TO's with that statement, which I'm guessing is mostly tongue in cheek. I do however agree with your sentiment on the decision to remove a tree like this one though. It appears (from the photos) to be very sheltered by its neighbours which collectively help protect it from wind load which I imagine is the real threat to the this tree, particularly with its fastigiate nature as opposed to a wide canopy with weighted lever arms where gravity would be the main protagonist. it's also just a woodland tree with in my opinion a low risk of actually failing at the precise moment a random pedestrian would be going pass. I think it would perhaps take a pretty strong gale to break that union and that type of event would certainly lower the occupancy rate on a footpath within a woodland environment. I'm sure the decision has been made with the hindsight of local information such as population numbers, local failure history, budget constraints etc. Matthew, if it were possible (and there was space to do so) I would be looking at the removal of this tree as an opportunity to pull that union to failure with a PTO winch. This would provide valuable information as to how strong/weak this union actually is and could be a rare experience to learn from for all concerned from inspectors to managers. Regards David

Parasitic wasp grubs in some kind of alien oak gall perhaps Not seen that before .

Morchella sp from today in East Cambridgeshire Alerted to them by a friend who has them in a mulched flower bed for a week or so. What's your thoughts on species FenFungi M esculenta, M vulgaris or other? .

Paul, Its already been deleted .

Hello Jomoco, Interesting thread and experiment. Not entirely sure that the UK is in the same position as the US regarding unwarranted bracing. The majority of what I have been involved in or witnessed here over the last 20 - 25 years appears to have been installed predominantly on structural defects. others may have differing experience. There was definitely a drop off on using bracing/support here in the Uk in the latter part of the nineties (due I guess to the increase in the liability factor) but the last 10 years have seen a steady rise in its specification. Guess this corresponds with the development and availability of these systems over here. I imagine with the ongoing acknowledgement of how important veteran trees (and their associated habitats) are, we will see a further increase in the use of guying and bracing. Personally I don't have a huge experience in the advantages and disadvantages of rigid against dynamic systems so will watch this thread develop with interest. .