It was another beautiful, if still cool, spring day at Ballyduff yesterday, Bank Holiday Monday.

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And as we are are having a family get-together next weekend I decided I should, and would, have a bit of a clear-up outside.

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Our outdoor play area which I hope will get plenty of use next weekend

Over the last number of years, along the far side of the mill pond, old Sycamore buts had sprouted multiple new shoots that now occluded the very pretty woodland behind them.
So out with the trusty chain-saw and down they came producing a lot of matter that needed to be disposed of.

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So I built a huge bonfire and filled the valley with a wonderful smell of woodsmoke.

(Yes, I know that this is illegal but you know my views on the Nanny State and I will continue to ignore stupid regulations - If I were to chop it all up, take it indoors and burn it in my fireplace, it would be legal. To burn it outside is illegal! I ask you?)

Anyway it reminded me of my childhood when, in autumn, the smell of leaves being burned by countless gardeners, filled every village.

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The end of the 'big blaze'.

Cutting them down also provided me with a small log pile. (Not, perhaps to the standard of the one which of my friend Martin Dwyer in Thezan, was so proud, but a pretty little pile nonetheless.

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We haven't seen the mill pond as clear in years: normally it is so filled by brambles that it is hard to see that it is a mill pond!

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And cutting away the sycamore shoots revealed fern fronds which abound here - I hope they will thrive now they have more light and air. I like ferns a lot.

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Fern fronds

It really is the most extraordinary spring.
Here we are in May with the trees only now struggling into leaf: at this rate the Ash and Oak will come into leaf just in time to shed them!

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And I noticed that the new beech leaves are all perforated: I have no idea why and it certainly cannot be as a result of being eaten by bugs or caterpillars as they have not yet emerged.

Another observation: contrary to what I would have expected, the brambles (briars, blackberries) have been severely affected by this winter's sustained very low temperatures, whereas my dog roses (wild rose, rose-hip) have thrived and are, this spring, dominant in the bank behind the mill race. I hope this strength is sustained into copius flowering later in the spring.
(I think I'm right in saying that in a normal year, they would be in flower by now.)

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Strong wild roses
In fact we have a cultiveted blackberry that clearly nearly died and has only managed one new, healthy shoot this year and nearly all previous years' growth has died.

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Cultivated Blackberry

The reason for our get together is that we are off, all ten of us (d.v.w.p.) to the Saltee Islands on Saturday.
Now, we understand, is the optimum moment for seeing the birdlife - Puffins, Gannets, Kitiwakes and much more.

I can't wait for the trip and I guess it will give me plenty to talk about here!

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