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Paul in the woods

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Everything posted by Paul in the woods

  1. Paul in the woods
    Yes. They're not the easiest animal to skin so I just use the back legs. They are ok, flavour fine but texture a little strange but something I could get used to. I should eat more. I wouldn't eat one from from a built up area as they eat all sorts of rubbish.
  2. Paul in the woods
    Surely if there's a TPO on the sycamore then the council should prosecute the squirrels.... I Actually is a badly bark stripped syc worthy of a TPO? Anyway, it's been a bad year for squirrel damage round here but they seem to be a bit daft and just sit there in the open waiting for me to get the air rifle so numbers are reducing quite well. If you don't want to shoot them then these traps work well. https://www.fourteenacre.co.uk/shop/fineren-bodygrip-box-for-squirrels/
  3. Paul in the woods
    A bit of a search keeps coming up with Emperor moth, some pics seem to match but they seem a bit variable.
  4. Paul in the woods
    I'll look into it, people often turn to god after driving up our heavily potholed road.
  5. Paul in the woods
    We got a bill for £2,500 without receiving much for it. If anyone knows a legal way to get out of paying council tax I'm all ears.
  6. Paul in the woods
    I think I know where the hedge cutting in June has come from but is there any basis for the 20m?
  7. Paul in the woods
    I'm mainly interested in the ash I have in my woodland but most of our trees were very late to come into leaf this year. Quite a few seem to be worse off than last year and I've not noticed any improvements. (On the bright side there are a few that seem unaffected, but thousands others gradually dying). What I have seen this year is trees with a good number of fresh leaves and shoots fail at the base. Previous years it's only been the dead trees than have fallen.
  8. Paul in the woods
    I think good drainage is important in reducing canker and some varieties are less prone to it than others - so pick a resistant variety.
  9. Paul in the woods
    Did you see the rats? The damage sounds more like voles to me, I've had voles nibble the top layer of bark off of some of my apple trees and keeping the vegetation away from the base of the trees stopped the damage.
  10. Paul in the woods
    I wouldn't say that tree.has obvious signs of dieback, just looks poorly grown and the damage at the base done by garden machinery or similar. I would expect to see some epicormic growth growing from the trunk and thicker branches if it has ADB (vigorous long straight shoots) and some dead wood in the crown. Having said that, ash is also susceptible to other diseases such as canker and with the base as it is I would consider removal and planting something more suitable if near houses.
  11. Paul in the woods
    I would be very careful with ferns, fiddleheads are a north american fern which isn't native over here. I didn't think our native ferns were edible.
  12. Paul in the woods
    That explains it, as sime42 says, Leylandii or similar. Burns ok, there's a thread on here about seasoning it. Smell might help to identify exactly what it is if in doubt.
  13. Paul in the woods
    Any smell? Looks like a conifer of some sort.
  14. Paul in the woods
    Are you sure it's Spartan, some of the cheap trees I bought don't match up with the varieties they should be. It's a good apple to give to people and shouting "This is SPARTAN!"
  15. Paul in the woods
    I think that's a mix of quite a few things. You might be better off asking a local tree surgeon if they could let you pick up something specific. Or put a rough location up and see if anyone local could help. If you were near me I'd collect whatever you wanted from my woodland and could tell you what everything was. (Apologies for all the other jokes, at least you didn't mention cod).
  16. Paul in the woods
    I suppose you were mascaraed for life.
  17. Paul in the woods
    She's the beautiful female, the handsome smaller chap often shared her bin. She often reared up and hissed which was a bit of a surprise. They spent a couple of months moving between a couple of bins and laid their eggs and we also had several slow worms in the same bin. I tend to pile up material, mix it, then pop in the bins. They then get left until winter before emptying.
  18. Paul in the woods
    My bins can look after themselves....
  19. Paul in the woods
    In an ideal world I'd like several large bays I could pile up loads of material in, something that would get hot enough to dispose of a body or two... At the moment I make do with I think about 8 daleks, and happily put all my grass cuttings in them along with other waste without problems, although much of the grass is long so more like mulched straw. My main problem is getting enough material as we have quite poor soil so need more compost than we can make.
  20. Paul in the woods
    I tend to find runner beans freeze better than french, also I compost, or leave for seed, anything even remotely stringy. I can highly recommend runner bean seeds dried, then soaked and cooked like other dried beans, and used in soups, chillies etc. Anyone mention snails yet, a good source of food and often plentiful...
  21. Paul in the woods
    I suppose he would say that but European Hornets are normally no trouble at all. We get them all the time, often having to shepherd them out the house and they nest regularly about the place and they've never stung anyone. Obviously if you're likely to react badly to stings then I would be more cautious but my honey bees are far worse than hornets or wasps. I would urge anyone in the UK to contact the BBKA or your local bee keeping group if you suspect Asian Hornets. It should be easy to get hold of someone who can identify them and help eradicate them if they are the invasives.
  22. Paul in the woods
    I know it's hard to tell from photos but that tree doesn't look to be badly affected by ash die back to me, certainly not as bad as many of my trees. It doesn't look great, looks like canker on the stem, but I would say there a fair bit of life left in it. Still curious to see what the outcome of a phone call would achieve...
  23. Paul in the woods
    I think it's an earth ball, often confused with puff balls but not edible and considered toxic. Earthballs WWW.WILDFOODUK.COM There are four types of Earthball in the UK, Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum), Leopard Earthball (Scleroderma areolatum), Potato Earthball (Scleroderma bovista) and Scaly...
  24. Paul in the woods
    You can buy the traps from the various bee supply companies, such as Thornes. There's some useful info about the hornets here: https://www.bbka.org.uk/pages/category/asian-hornet-resources I know it's a serious topic but I did notice this and thought it was amusing: Asian Hornet Costume | British Beekeepers Association WWW.BBKA.ORG.UK The BBKA have commissioned an Asian Hornet costume which is currently in the process of being made. Create attention at shows and other events to raise awareness about Asian...
  25. Paul in the woods
    If you are worried then phone them, if they are busy get a time when they are available and phone. If anything is agreed you can write/email a confirmation but I wouldn't just wait for an email reply.

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