It's been a few weeks since I last posted, so there's quite a bit to say... First, here's a short video of a nest of European Hornets in our woodland. They're actually quite timid, and didn't bother me at all while I was making the video. I hear Asian Hornets are a different matter all together...
Also of interest is this mushroom - the False Death Cap (Amanita citrina), so named because of its similarity to the lethal Death Cap. It is allegedly edible, but given the risk of confusion with a killer, I don't think anyone actually eats it.
I was working along the edge of the area we're cutting today, so got my rope and pulley set-up out for the first time in a few years, to avoid trees falling over the fence into the wayleave. They're not big enough trees to need the winch, so the rope and pulley is a nice quick solution - I learned how to do all this on the Coppice Harvesting Efficiency Course some years ago...
Here's a sequence of photos taken from the same viewpoint at the end of each visit to the woods over the past few weeks. Sometimes part of the work done was out of shot, so not much change is visible, but I think you'll see we've made some progress...
