We asked our local contractors to mow the dead reed, blackthorn suckers and the sprouting Alexanders. A work party in March will rake and burn the dead stuff in a gradual process of reduction of coarse material since we hope eventually to graze this area.

Last winter they had not succeeded in removing all the blackthorn we wanted cut, so they took out an isolated clump and thinned the roadside strip, taking an Austrian Pine planted in the 70s as a marker.

A short while later, a Barn Owl had taken to hunting over this area.