Lime Tree Avenue work on a rainy day

After some exceptionally sunny February days, Storm Freya was already making her presence felt when we (the combined forces of the old Lime Aid group and Brighter Uckfield) started work on the 200-year old Lime Trees in Lime Tree Avenue.

Lime Tree surrounded by epicormic growths before trim

Over the year since the last trim, these hybrid Lime Trees grow a forest of stems (epicormic growth) round their feet. Left unchecked, these would create an impenetrable forest that would sap the strength from the top of the tree.

Lime Tree - After Trim

I find it extremely satisfying to strip away these growths.  I just did one and a bit trees but the group as a whole, which had started on the previous day, managed nearly all of the hundred plus trees in the Avenue.

Wild Arum and Cow Parsley leaves

While I was working, I noticed the leaves of wild plants growing in the shad of these marvellous trees. The photo shows the young leaves of Wild Arum and Cow Parsley.

Sweet Violets - photographed in sunnier weather

Other plants that grow in the Avenue include Primroses and Sweet Violets.

White Lipped Snail

While I was working I found a couple of spiders, which I rehomed in the sticks piled up by the hedge, and some White Lipped Snails. I enjoyed music while I worked too. A Robin was singing nearby and a Great Tit was giving its "Teacher, Teacher" call.

Clustered Feather Moss

Lime Trees Avenue provide a habitat for all sorts of plants and creatures. Lately, I have been taking more of an interest in mosses. Identifying them is tricky but it is interesting to look at them under a magnifying glass - the one photographed was on the bottom of one of the tree trunks and looks like a group of minature cobras!

#30DaysWild Today's News, Tomorrow's Cage Lining

My last post was about taking a lunchtime walk down the Regent's Canal in London. Over the last few days the Wildlife Trusts' #30DaysWild Challenge has given a welcome relief from the depressing referendum campaign and the wrangling afterwards. Conversely it also got me thinking about what the referendum result will mean for the green spaces and wildlife I love.

Day 23 - A good day for snails

June 23, White-Lipped Snails (plus one) on our path.

It was wet on Thursday, the day of the referendum. When I went to get my newspaper, I found many colourful snails on the path.  Later in the day, I looked up from my laptop and watched a female blackbird collecting small worms and other food from the edge of the grass.

Day 24 - A worrying day

I woke up to the news that my country has voted to leave the EU. This has been the most vicious poll of any sort that I have ever known. After months of argument, there has been much heat and little light. There is literally blood on the floor.

View North towards and beyond Buxted.

I found myself gazing out over the countryside to our North and wondering what would become of it without the EU protection that reduces development round Ashdown Forest. Will some other protection be put in its place or will the view be engulfed in development?

Craig Bennet (Friends of the Earth) tackles this in his Guardian article. He says "About 70% of our environmental safeguards and legislation is European".

I am hoping that some will be replaced with home-grown versions but, of but there is no guarantee. Mr Bennet then goes on to point out that ...

'... during the campaign, it was Nigel Farage that finally said the words I’ve wanted so many politicians to say for so many years; “Some things are more important than the economy”. '

Obviously Mr Farage wasn't talking about the Environment. No-one was. So I personally feel the need to keep an eye on the situation and be prepared to fight (or at least write letters!) to protect our precious green spaces and wildlife.

Day 25 - Today's News, Tomorrow's Cage Lining

Yellow Corydalis on an Tower Ride wall.

On Saturday, I cut down Tower Ride to deliver used newspapers to a person who uses them for lining animal cages.  I found lovely Yellow Corydalis on the walls.

Poppies on Uckfield High Street

Just across the road from Tower Ride, there are poppies peeping over the edge of a wall.  While I photographed them, a lady walked by, saw me taking photos, looked at what I was photographing, and said that although she walked by every day, she hadn't noticed them. We chatted about enjoying wild flowers by roadsides and we went our separate ways.  I dropped the newspapers off and thought about the animals pooing and weeing all over stories of division and angst. Let's hope that we soon remember that, in the words of Jo Cox, the MP murdered during the referendum campaign "We have far more in common than that which divides us".

Lime Aid - Spring's at our feet

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).

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.

A cheeky robin found morsels where we had been working.

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.

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.

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.

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.