Humberstone Bank: 11-08-2020

Hurray! No balsam. No bracken. 

Instead - tree guards! It had been a long time since our last visit to Humberstone Bank to sort out the tree guards that were empty or in need of restoring to the vertical. Regular readers will know that the terrain at this particular venue can be challenging (vertiginous/boggy/strewn with old conifer brash etc). However - it was nice to tackle a task that didn't include invasive weed eradication - the focus of our post lockdown efforts of late. As it turned out we were working in a steep sided valley that we had planted part of some time ago - no brash to trip us up but there were some boggy bits at the bottom of the slope.

Without further ado, let's see what ensued.....

Once parked at the hub everyone had to take a numbered lump hammer. 

This had to be kept for your personal use only. 

Paul inspected his hammer carefully to ensure it was virus free.

Arrival on site was met with a number of 

tree tubes in need of particular attention.

And then they were off. Everyone worked in pairs 

and moved down hill focusing on a line of trees.

Before banging the posts in securely everyone had to check

 inside the tubes to make sure there was actually a living tree within.

Ok in there Andrew?

Empty tubes were removed but the majority had trees in so had to be weeded.

Great handfuls of grass were pulled up from the base of the tubes.

Some had bracken growing out the top - these needed 

de-tubing and sorting out big time!

Here's one being disentangled from the unwanted 

attentions of its tube lodger.

It thanked Adrian as he moved on to the next patient.

The hill was alive with the sound of vols.

(Now there's a cue for a song!)

Cowboy Roy Rogers joined us for the day.

Tom valiantly propped Adrian up to ensure he didn't fall backwards down the slope.

There was one little area where about four tubes were laying flat on the ground.

Obviously empty?

No! Closer inspection showed them to contain live trees 

that had been undermined by something that had burrowed around their bases.

These had to be restored to their correct position and the soil packed around their roots.

There were plenty of upright tubes that were treeless. 

This was one of the piles at the end of the day. 

There was one other, much smaller, pile so not too bad a 

result, considering how many were planted and checked.

Worked stopped at this wall. 

However - a glance beyond showed

 that this wasn't the only visit to Humberstone we would be

 making in the none too distant future.

Coffee break and lunchtime provided an opportunity for Ros E 

to try out the newly discovered 'panorama' option on her phone.

It proved very useful when dining is done in a socially distant manner.

Perhaps you can make out Ken's head at the far right hand end 

(near to the gap in the wall)? 

Half a mile further along three NCV ladies are sitting at the left hand end.

Just in case you would like to see them close up:

 

"What's Tony doing?"

"Just making sure his arm is still attached after all the hammering."

Two final pictures of interesting things spotted:

Eagle eyed Liz spotted an owl pellet in the grass.

Lots of bones and fur in this one.

This eight legged chap was snapped on a tree.

Some good camouflage there Incy Wincy.

The afternoon was rounded off with the long (very, very hot) walk back to the cars. It was wonderful to remove work boots!