Lumber-Jill

The pace of work continues to slow at Spofforth as both Diana and I struggle to find much enthusiasm for tasks as the year draws to its close. There are still many jobs to be done, but quite a long time in which to accomplish them, so we do as much as the weather will allow. Yesterday we removed the moss from the concrete path leading to the greenhouse, a job well done as Diana told me she had slipped and fallen because of it, luckily she was unharmed  so we made sure it wouldn't happen again. That got us warmed up a bit and because the sun was out we decided to chop down an ailing mountain ash, Sorbus, although it had once been a lovely tree many branches were dead or dying and succumbing to coral spot. It was my first experience of lumber-jacking and quite good fun as Di has all the right equipment. Once that was down we gave some neighbouring Berberis bushes a good prune and heightened the crown of the holly tree , Ilex, all that chopping amounted to a fairly good potential bonfire and once we've pruned the apple trees we can look forward to a warming blaze on a cold and dull January morning.

"Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience" Ralph Waldo Emmerson
The picture on the left is the doomed tree, not huge I know but not bad to cut ones teeth on!