Oddments at Bear Mead.

Here are Oddments connected with BEAR MEAD | Strangulation | Pendulum | Figwort |

Bear Mead 2002-2009 Auction and Flood | Pots on the Patio | Bob and Simon | Plantation 2004 | Vole Threat | Curiosities | Oddments | Flood 2005 | Scrape | Dalek | Trees aug2006 | Jason Hawk man | Gazebo RIP | Water problems 2006 | Fallen Tree 2006 | Oddments | Kestral chicks 2007 | Oddments sep2007 | Unblocking Mill Stream | Tidying Mill Stream | Oddments oct2007 | New Mill Stream nov2007 | Making balage 2008 | Fishing jun2008 | Oddments jun2008 | Fishing census jun2009 | Inverted tree stump jun2009 | Sweet Track jul2009 | Eyemead scrapes nov2009 |

The Tree that Strangled itself 01jun2013 In Nov 2007 we bought 10 alder saplings and planted them in Bear Mead, 5 by the Mill Stream. They had to go in tubes to keep the deer away. One died quickly but the other 4 did well. Last year one of the trees suddenly started looking poorly, while the other 3 did well. Rosie said it might die. This year it did indeed die. We dug it up as we wanted to re-use the tube and stake. At the bottom of the stem, and inside the tube, we found the cause of death. The tree had STRANGLED ITSELF. The label had slipped down to the bottom, and was hidden inside the tube. The label had prevented the outer layers of the tree from growing, the leaves were starved and the tree died. See the ATTACHED PHOTO. In future, if we buy a tree, we will always remove the label from the stem and attach it to a branch instead, outside of the tube. Girth of the dead alder was 9 cms, girth of neighbour alder planted at same time is 22 cms.

Saplings, with dangerous labels. 26nov2007

Dead alder, strangled by a label that slipped. 01jun2013

Neighbour alder, planted same time

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----Anyone with more details for publication on this webpage, please email ---- -------------------------- Derek Voller wrote on 05jun2013 Hi John and Rose. What an unfortunate occurrence. Mmmmm ..... Must make a mental note never to buy tight underpants. Derek the wary.

The Pendulum 01jun2013 We brought home an aluminium fishing float after a holiday in the Outer Hebrides. Also some hefty rope found on the beach. What do do with them? Spying a branch overhanging the river, the idea came --- a Pendulum. It was quickly fitted, and the river was at its lowest for years, 126. Three weeks later, it had risen 2 metres in the wettest summer for years.

3084. Level=126 02apr2012

3085. 02apr2012

3086. 02apr2012

3109. Level=320 26apr2012

3113. 26apr2012

3138. Level=376 01may2012

3291. Level=344 13oct2012

Common Figwort 23jun2014 We found a strange plant growing in the Willow Wood, near the bank of the Stour, near the swing. We tracked it down as a Scrophularia nodosa, or common Figwort. About 150cm high, small red flowers, square section stem, there were 7 of them in 2014. A "dark, sombre plant". "Scrophularia nodosa (also called figwort, woodland figwort, and common figwort) is a perennial herbaceous plant found in temperate regions of the Northern hemisphere except western North America. It grows in moist and cultivated waste ground. It grows upright, with thick, sharply square, succulent stems up to 150 cm tall from a horizontal rootstock. Its leaves are opposite, ovate at the base and lanceolate at the tip, all having toothed margins. The flowers are in loose cymes in oblong or pyramidal panicles. The individual flowers are globular, with five green sepals encircling green or purple petals, giving way to an egg-shaped seed capsule. The plant was thought, by the doctrine of signatures to be able to cure the throat disease scrofula because of the throat-like shape of its flowers." Wikipedia

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