OLD LOGS Old logs are like old friends at the bottom of the woodpile. I’ve a few girt solid lumps mingled with planks, cords and various rubbish low down in amongst the rot and sawdust. One piece of ash is a junction of pollard shoots which was once allowed to become branches. It’s a chainsaw [...]
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11 February 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman OLD LOGS
Thursday, February 11th, 20108 February 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman WINTERY ONCE AGAIN
Monday, February 8th, 2010WINTERY ONCE AGAIN A well-seasoned knuckle of ash yielded and split, eventually, to the force of a broken axe-head wedge sledge-hammered through it against the grain. Beneath a dark sky of blanket cloud and day-long fall of tumbling, wind-blown flakes which have at times threatened something but delivered nothing much. With frozen feet and finger-numbing [...]
Read More »9 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THE AWKWARD CUSTOMER
Saturday, January 9th, 2010THE AWKWARD CUSTOMER Jackdaws in the lime were particularly noisy at 9.20am when I stepped up into the garden to saw some logs. I caught the end of a skirmish with a buzzard. The big bird of prey opened its considerable wings and lifted with a retreating upwards sweep. The undersides of its body were [...]
Read More »6 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman QUALITY TIME
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010QUALITY TIME At last! The coldest winter since 1981 brings meaninful snow to Shaftesbury. It came overnight, a thick blanket of icy-white crystals which fell silently as we slept. For a brief period, until the filth of everyday living pollutes the pristine landscape, it will be glorious to take a stroll out there, scrunching to [...]
Read More »30 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman A TRIP OUT GLASTONBURY WAY
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009A TRIP OUT GLASTONBURY WAY Flatlands and levels to the south and east of Glastonbury move me whenever visiting or passing through. It’s the mix of water-filled ditches and streamside willow pollards; the fact that often you have no view beyond the first big hedge. This Somerset landscape, though quite different, none-the-less takes me back [...]
Read More »15 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman WOODING IN THE BLACKMORE VALE
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009WOODING IN THE BLACKMORE VALE I took the ridge road seven miles south of Sherborne through Holm Bushes on a numbingly cold and filthy mid mid December afternoon. I travelled slowly, heater on full whack and window down, elbow resting, eyes focussed simultaneously ahead and to the sides. Outside the van, the sound of rain [...]
Read More »29 November 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman OBSERVATIONS FROM THE A34…, HEDGEROW TREES UP FRINGFORD WAY, MILTON KEYNES CENTRAL
Sunday, November 29th, 2009OBSERVATIONS FROM THE A34 NEWBURY BY-PASS HEADING NORTH A MILE SOUTH OF CHIEVELEY SERVICES Hawthorn and hazel in a lay-by on the A34 Newbury by-pass are doing well. They bulge within their corrugated degradeable plastic tubes and make a fine, shrubby hedge behind the steel crash barrier and line of four evenly-spaced rubbish bins. These [...]
Read More »27 October 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman EARLY AFTERNOON IN THE ORCHARD, BY THE FIRE
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009If I was to leave the fruit garden to nature it would soon be swamped by creeping buttercup and grasses. Then goodness knows what else’d come in and try to take over en route to becoming a small wood. Over the last half-dozen years I’ve carefully nurtured my collection of nuts and top fruit to [...]
Read More »13 May 2009: DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman JUBILEE STEPS WEDNESDAY MORNING 9.30am
Wednesday, May 13th, 200913 May 2009 JUBILEE STEPS, WEDNESDAY MORNING, 9.30AM On Jubilee Steps between St James Park and Abbey Walk. I can smell the scent of moisture on the ground. It rises as a fresh aroma in response to an overnight sprinkling of misty drizzle. But nothing like the rainfall that was forecast as coming in and [...]
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