More Bluebells in the wood!

We went to the woods again yesterday, and saw that the Bluebells are steadily increasing in numbers.

Experimenting with the camera again here - which do you prefer, background more or less blurred? The one with it less blurred used a smaller aperture (higher F number) and slower shutter speed, giving a greater depth of field so more of the Bluebells are in focus:

The trees have come on a long way in just a week. Here's how the Hornbeam looks now:

And here's some Sweet Chestnut:

Also, here's a coppiced Sweet Chestnut just putting out its first shoots to recover from being cut a few months ago:

The Crab Apple near our camp is starting to flower:

and the Hawthorn is greening up nicely:

This is a tree (Alder, perhaps?) we cut some years ago, but it's been chewed by rabbits. It's still going to have another go at growing though:

Just for comparison, so you can see the increasing greenery, here's a photo from a week ago and one from yesterday:

We also saw our first Orange Tip butterfly yesterday:

Of course, we couldn't visit the wood without doing a job of some sort. This time we took up a trailer load of pallets we'd collected from a local shop, to make a floor for our new firewood store:

Tracy's been busy back at home too, planting out seeds:

and preparing a plot for them to go into later:

That's all for now. Hopefully the next post will have some pics of newborn lambs... more on that later!

Mike

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First Bluebell in the woods!

Last weekend we saw the first Bluebell in the woods!

It's been a busy week for work, which is why I've only just got around to posting it here...

There's loads of other flowers out too. I tried some artistic photos of this daffodil and old log, one with the flower in focus, the other with the log in focus:

Wood Anemones are spreading fast. Compare this photo with one taken two weeks earlier:

Up the hill in Sweep Wood, where we coppiced just over a year ago, the ground flora is creating a low-level jungle!

and at the very top there are Nettles and Dogs Mercury competing for light:

There's also other odd things there, probably garden escapees:

Further down in the hill, where we were working just a few months ago, there are some odd shrub-like plants, that I remember trying to avoid damaging while felling. I'll wait and see if they flower to try and ID them, but any suggestions welcome!

Moving onto the trees... Sweet Chestnut buds are on the point of opening:

While Hornbeam is already out:

and Birch is way ahead:

It's also nice to see shoots coming out on the coppiced Hornbeam, I expect the other species won't be far behind:

Finally, I was pleased to get a couple of photos of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, as it was a difficult shot - high up in an Oak with lots of twigs in the way:

There's not much longer to get photos of birds before the leaves hide them from view until the Autumn.

Finally, we cooked dinner on the woodgas campstoves, and sat by the fire until dusk.

A very pleasant Sunday evening!

Mike

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Eco-refubishment - installing off-grid solar PV (part 1)

Yesterday we installed our solar PV panels on the roof!

But let's start at the beginning... Our friend Rich came to help us do the work, as he's had past experience doing roofing work. We did a work swap, I helped him in his wood back in January, in return for his help yesterday. He also brought a lot of useful kit with him, like this scaffold tower:

The process started by removing some tiles to find where the rafters were under the batons, as the brackets needed to screw onto these for strength.

Having located these, we decided to grind a slot in the tiles so that they'd fit neatly round the brackets:

Then the brackets could be screwed down (with a small wooden spacer underneath to help them fit better):

and the tiles slotted back in:

Of course, it wasn't all that simple, as soon as you put any weight on the bracket it put pressure onto the tiles at a single point, and some broke...

To resolve this we used more spacers underneath, bent the brackets slightly and also used the grinder to thin the tile a bit at that point, giving more clearance for the bracket:

Here's the detail of how the rails fix onto the brackets:

And here's an interlocking piece of aluminium to join two rails together (we had two 2m rails). There's a couple of allen key bolts to lock it in place.

Then it was time to clamp down the panels. Here's a clamp with one panel in, and space for the next:

and here's one with both panels in and tightened up:

The first three panels in place:

And here's the finished set, with the solar thermal tubes higher up the roof:

The wires from the panels are zip-tied in place under the panels:

Then they all come down in a bundle to connect into a junction box:

That'll come in Part 2 though, where I'll explain the wiring system.


Mike

Related posts:

• Insulating the cavity walls
• Insulating the loft
• Flat roof insulation
• Insulating the dormer roof
• Sweeping the chimney
• Installing the wood stove
• Plumbing and testing the wood stove
• Installing solar water heating
• Installing off-grid solar PV (part 2)
• Off-grid solar PV upgrade to 750W
• Off-grid solar PV upgrade to 1250W

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