Defying the rain and the midges.

The hunt for oak saplings

We have recently embarked on a big job with some of our volunteers hand weeding around oak saplings planted on a woodland expansion zone below Falcon Crag.  These were grown from acorns collected locally by the National Trust to be grown on.  The saplings were then planted out by school children.  For a few years, the bracken on the slope will outgrow the saplings and would deprive them of light so we need to clear the area surrounding each one for about a 1 metre radius.

Tools at the ready!

This is a laborious process of first finding them amongst a metre or more of bracken growth and then cutting that back using a sickle.

Heavy rain that the camera can't 'see'.

The weather was not particularly kind to us and we worked in a relentless downpour and were thoroughly soaked.  Conditions were just right for there to be enough midges to be troublesome.  We resorted to Avon’s Skin-so-Soft bath oil to give us some protection against them! 

Despite the aggravation of the rain and the midges, the volunteers completed an extraordinary amount of work and maintained their usual good humour.