Once again it is time to trim the "epicormic growths" (suckers) from the feet of the trees in Lime Tree Avenue, which led to long-gone Uckfield House. The year since
I last did this seems to have rushed by. About half-a-dozen of us spent the morning working our way through nearly half the trees. The group will be at work again next Saturday morning (Feb 27th - 9am until 1pm - more volunteers are always welcome).
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| The first of my 7 trees - before and after. |
The day job has been pretty heavy since December and it was great to spend time working in the presence of trees that have lived so long and seen so much. While we were there it became more-and-more obvious that Spring was drawing life from the soil at our feet.
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| A cheeky robin found morsels where we had been working. |
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| White-lipped snails and worms hiding amongst the growths at the base of a tree. |
The wild plants round the trees are growing fast. I saw violets, primroses and alexanders already in flower as well as clumps of handsome wild arum leaves.
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| Wild arum leaves. |
While I was working on the last of my trees, my every move was scrutinised by a curious goat, one of a pair kept by the school.
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| The school goat. |
In case we were in the slightest doubt about the approach of spring - a frog appeared near one of the trees and was placed gently by the fence so it could find its way to the pond.
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| Frog and primroses. |
After a few hours, I began to run out of steam and went home, scooping up some well-deserved fish and chips on the way.
