Matthew Arnold

My three youngens. Deisel is 10 months old now and is bigger than his mum and dad in both height and girth. Going to be a big boy thats for sure:thumbup:

Some Tété-a tété and gorse shots from yesterday

A fine little group of sapcicles on a Field maple that we lopped a few branches off. Took minutes for them to form.

Installed a stile on a busy roadside at lunchtime. We would have got more done if we didn't need towing out of a field by two quadbikes. We made it up the slippery chalk track but didnt make the first gateway.

Lots of dusty rubbish falling at the mo but its settling on the cars.

Snowing here now but only lightly at the mo. Been drizzling most of the day and now roads n footpaths have that blotched look about them as the ice forms.

Saw a queen bee in last week of Feb n a Jasper on Monday. Bird boxes that i put up two weeks ago have residents already which is cool. Hit 2 pheasants last week. Had to make sure they were dead as dont like leaving/seeing injured animals on the side of road.

AH got ya.

Sorry lads but i cant make that weekend. I've got a family get together to go to that weekend. It wasnt on the calender but was in my diary.

I wasnt haven't a dig tony. Just replying to your questions.

Some recent pics of Dafs. Spring is definately here.

It is a beautiful tree and it is too going on strong. The yew tree on Woolland Hill we are planning on haloing to give it room to grow and "breathe". We are contacting Delcombe Estate as they own the wood which the yew grows in.

I don't have picus/resistagraph results to back up the pictures but it had both Inonotus dryadeus and Fistulina in the base as well as pockets of Tripe fungus in the crown in old wounds. When i get chance i shall get pictures of a large wound on one of the main bows that was leaning over the skate park and tennis courts. The limb was about 2-3ft thick with about 18inches of dysfuntional wood where it attached to the trunk.

Still going strong David. It had a bit of a trim away from the church and roadside lines but is in very good health. The picture was taken April 2009. https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=durweston&hl=en&ll=50.875881,-2.202534&spn=0.000571,0.001549&hnear=Durweston,+Dorset,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=50.875881,-2.202534&panoid=SjqeqS1GTV_GpjqV0ayn7g&cbp=12,351.23,,0,-15.64

Trouble is it was the number of targets and the priority of targets: 1 - Skatepark heavily used by local kids and adults all year 2 - Tennis courts used heavily in spring and summer 3 - Football pitch and general recreation ground Although the top may have had a lot of sap wood i nthe crown the tree was in decline and with the amount of deadwood, lack of natural retrenchment and rot in base.The decision between the two highly qualified TOs that were on site was to reduce by 60%. Even if the tree doesnt survive then it can be left as a pollard but growth points were left. Here is a shot of it from the air. You can see the yellow crown and the amount of light in the shadow. https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=durweston&hl=en&ll=50.875313,-2.199741&spn=0.001134,0.003098&hnear=Durweston,+Dorset,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=19 Another view from roadside https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=durweston&hl=en&ll=50.875005,-2.201525&spn=0.001134,0.003098&hnear=Durweston,+Dorset,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=50.874939,-2.201439&panoid=VOMhpdpPr5hPwu6BxiNGCA&cbp=12,78.73,,0,-1.4

Lawnmowers that were driven by donkeys by the looks of it. The site was grazed years and years ago by cattle but the damage only appeared in the last 3 years.

The tree nearest you in the pic has just been deadwooded and crown cleaned. The next tree down was given the same treatment. The far tree was in a very bad way. Small yellow leaves in upper crown, sporadic tufts,etc. So that was given the hammering. Retrenchment wasn't an option as the tree had tried and failed so the decision was made to leave it at a 12-16ft high pollard and monitor trees twice annually making notes of brackets at base, crown conditon,etc.

Yup. The tree was going to be given then chop but parish council wanted to try and save it.

Got weather warning for "disruptive snow" for monday 2-5cm on lower levels with 5-10cm on higher ground and locally lower levels. Makes me laugh that we are screwed with a dusting yet the Northern US cracks on as per normal with 2 feet of white stuff.

A local parish council had a large oak tree heavily reduced due to large amounts of deadwood (60% dysfunctional wood in crown). The LA TO was there as was the head of Arb at DCC (County council) and apparently both were at loggerheads all day about what to do. The decision was to reduce to sound wood and to create a tall pollard with healthy growth points. This is the result. It had Fistulina heptica and Inototus dryadeus at the base.

Cant beleive the stretch of trailway being surfaced at the moment. Walked upto the palisade fence n found two dirty great steamers in the middle of the unsurfaced section. The apprentice an i are going to be going up a local stretch of trailway with marker paint and clickers to spray and count how many dog turds there are on each stretch of path and report our findings to the local rags complete with pictures to get the point across.

A somewhat overloaded trailer with Oak. What you cant see is the 1ft thick 3 ft wide discs at the bottom of the pile. You looking at about 3.5 ton there. Didnt get a pic of the van but had another 18 oak discs in the back of that.

It looks throroughly grim tomorrow. Not a day i want to be doing two stiles in the middle of a field near Gillingham. We also have to cart the tools and timber to the site as ground is too sodden to drive across.

Looks like Oak to me but what do i know.

Sunset on 4th March 2013 in video form for a change [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c_1d_cnEQg]Milldown Sunset 04/03/2012 - YouTube[/ame]