It seems the weather has taken its toll on three large oaks in the park. The long dry spells this year coupled with the torrential rain on the 21st July has produced a phenomenon known as 'summer branch drop'.
Thankfully, no one was harmed by this catastrophic event.
I was invited to get a close-up of the damage on one of the trees. Matt had arranged the use of a 'cherry picker' to enable him to carry out some tree surgery.
The trunk had split away leaving a lot of unbalanced weight on one side of the tree.
This is the view I got!
The other two oaks also 'dropped' a large branch but that loss has, seemingly, not affected the integrity of the tree.
Elsewhere, I was involved in helping to address another problem; to restrict access by 'uninvited vehicles'.
Certain measures are being implemented as a result to damage on other nearby recreational spaces.
Soil banks have been placed near the Oak Lane entrance to the park. I assisted Matt in fencing-off one of those, so that it could be seeded.
Unfortunately, a necessary requirement to protect the peacefulness of this beautiful haven.
August 2025. Next up was a visit to the Deer Park (can't believe it was six months since I was last there). Matt had started to replace some of the old wire fencing by the entrance at the top of The Warren.
Our task was to clear a fifty metre section along an adjacent piece of fence-line, in preparation of the next phase. As we normally find, this was not straight forward as it was quite overgrown mainly with holly and thorn bushes.
As you can probably see, the old fence-line disappeared into the bushes.
Slowly, we chopped, lopped and sawed our way through, until....
Abracadabra! Where did that lot go?
Well, the first ten metres anyway....
Nevertheless, Tabby, Chris and myself did manage to clear the rest in similar fashion by lunchtime (or just about, as my back will confirm!).
Matt, in the meantime, was busy mowing nearby....
Helping out during the fourth 'heatwave' of the year certainly takes its toll on your work rate.
Still, Tabby and I, managed to make a good start on weeding the planted bed 'island' by the Oak Lane car park, followed by some cutting back around the main gates.
Breaking off to do a spot of litter picking, I came across some fungus at the foot of a large Beech tree, near to the spigot mortar base*.
This is Meripilus Giganteus (Giant Polypore).
Apparently, the Beech is showing signs of distress (leaves starting to turn brown).
The fungus causes white rot on the lower roots, contributing to the decomposition process.
*Sample photo. A mounting for a type of anti-tank weapon used by the Home Guard during WWII.
My next visit was a bit of a mixed bag. The plan was to wire brush, prime and paint parts of the main gates - a similar job to that carried out a couple of years ago.
However, as this was mainly a one-person job, I left Tabby to soldier on and decided to finish weeding the planted 'island bed' in the car park. I then moved on to do a bit of cutting back at the new Elm woodland project, to uncover some of the young plants plus some crown raising of the oaks by the nearby hoggin path.
When I returned, Tabby had been joined by Matt to apply a primer to the prepared surfaces.
I finished the day by tackling the hazel hedge by the back of the lodge. This had been reduced before but had grown at least 6-8 ft in height again.
Hopefully, my next post will report on harvesting of the meadow grass, it must be getting near that time!
