Sounds like s/he did you a favour then 
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that is what i concluded.
Mattocking out young birch to create an area of heath in surrounding woodland. For biodiversity, they say (though it seems that we’re fighting nature, which wants to reforest this area).
This morning’s pile:
plus about half as much from the afternoon session later.
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Hope you soon get some tenants.
cowboy builders 
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Looking forward to the next 3 days off hanging with FoL.
I agree. They’ve clearly covered the pencil that it’s actually balanced on with Plasticene to make the support look so ridiculously solid and substantial.
VB
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After a grey drizzly morning & a less than promising forecast I had fairly low expectations for today’s walk although the sky was looking slightly brighter to the West We set out from Long Ash (near Horrabridge & soon got off road heading off across country down to the village of Buckland Monachorum.
The highlight of this part was seeing a field mouse casually crossing in front of us. Fortunately the dog, still on a lead at this point, didn’t spot it! Plenty of pheasants were disturbed throughout this walk as well as a large & very healthy looking rabbit.
Buckland is a pretty little village with a handsome church and nice pub.
A further footpath tooks us gradually down into the valley which became a riot of golds greens and reds illuminated by some bright sunshine. My phone’s camera doesn’t do it justice, I should’ve taken the Redmi.
Not sure what kind of fungi these were. Quite large. Probably should’ve brought one home.
The river was running pretty full & fast. In places our path became a part of it.
A couple of kayakers had come down & one had cocked up coming over the 1m high weir so had to come ashore to sort himself out.
Heading upstream we came to Hatch Mill a very pretty spot.
We left the river here & headed up out of the valley calling in to have a look at Berra Tor. One of the area’s smaller & less well known rock formations but worth a look and close to the site of an Iron Age hill fort.
Berra Tor
Given the panoramic views from up here it was easy to see why the hill had once been fortified.
Many people have reported difficulties with their mental health over the past few months. I haven’t particularly but I’m sure it’s been helpful to immerse myself in our lovely surroundings as regularly as I could have. I can’t recommend getting out strongly enough both for your physical & emotional wellbeing.
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Another great write up, Guy.
You find some lovely routes. I do miss woodlands 
Looks like a lovely walk
Buckland is a lovely village
This, so much this.
VB
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Well said. FoL was climbing the walls towards the end of her self-isolation. A wet and cloudy walk in the hills cheered her (and me) up no end. So much so that we are planning another wet walk on Thursday!
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Nice. Humans - up to the point of the industrial revolution - were really good for floral and faunal diversity; left to its own devices Britain would be Oak and Pine forest from end to end and sea to sea, and mostly was until the Neolithic (the first real ‘industrial revolution’, really…). A friend who works in nature conservation describes it as “large-scale gardening”, and she has a point.
Probably clouded agarics (which are not true agarics); jury’s out on edibility; eastern Europeans eat them, but they vary in toxicity reports, and like Paxillus involutus (also eaten elsewhere), they may contain cumulative toxins which are not easily metabolised and excreted by the human digestive system…
Do enjoy your write-ups. The East Mudlands are very much less inspiring right now…
Don’t know how it’s been with you but the flatlands where I live have had some stunning/angry sunsets this last week or so.
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Our first few years here were freakishly dry, and warm and sunny, and the sunsets truly spectacular - LOVE the Big Skies thing. The last two years have been the exact opposite - the sun’s been a rarity at any point in its transit lately, and we have endless heavy rain, which means the ground is churned into quicksand everywhere, then smeared liberally onto the roads and pavements by the mighty fleets of tractors and other vast vehicles. Local drivers respond by driving ever-faster, drunker, and more recklessly. Another cyclist died Saturday morning - right outside our local - on her way to the packing plant near us. The driver responsible exited a T-junction without even pausing to look… Traces of her blood in the pub carpark when we went for a (now rare) pint on Sunday. It’s got under my skin, if I’m honest. Makes me ever-more wary of walking on these pavement-less wastes.
Very much this, especially at Fox Hagg. It’s a hillside overlooking reservoirs that is owned by the city council (8 hectares) and Duke of Norfolk (25 hectares), and managed on a long lease by the Sheffield Wildlife Trust. It’s right on the western edge of the city, with housing above part of it, and is very popular with dog walkers and ramblers, along with some horse riders and cyclists. The Trust aims to increase habitat diversity and encourage local people to visit and appreciate nature. As such, it’s an amenity for locals and so is managed to help wildlife but also provide a nice space for humans.
This means that rather than leave it to go native and re-establish forest, a lot of work is needed to provide varied habitats and keep it looking “natural but nice”. Delicate gardening it isn’t - mattocks today, chainsaw and tree-pullers last week, and brash is left on site (though as far as possible out of human view from the paths).
It’s been used in the past for holly hagg (soft young leaves cut for winter fodder) and sheep grazing, and goodness knows what before that. What will become of it after the 30 year management leases expire, who knows? For now, it’s at the interface between human habitation and moors and woods.
And the work helps me get fitter and is good fun!
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