It is Thursday and we are out cutting Christmas trees again. But this time it is an all day work party organised for SNH staff so that they get a day away from their desks, experience Flanders on a glorious winters day, learn a bit about bogs and do some good for the Moss. Today we are clearing the lodgepole pines that have seeded next to the boardwalk. It is a slightly hazardous area to work because of all of the hidden water-filed ditches and it isn't the sort of day to get a wet foot. So we took everyone up the viewing tower to show them the lay of the land and where the ditches are before having a sweep stake for who would be the first to go in a ditch. Ian from Planning section proved to be the first and showed that it is still possible to work with a gallon of icy water in your boot. To prevent fights, arguments and disappointment everyone went out to cut their Christmas trees first, took them labelled back to the trucks and then started blitzing all that were left. These lodgepole pines look very like Scots pine and also don't loose their needles so once people have had one one year they often like to come back again the next. However this year I am going for a Sitka spruce also cut off the Moss. These spruces are especially prickly and I hope that this will prevent our 2 kittens at home from trashy the tree. I am looking forward to seeing their first climbing attempt.Once the early fog burned off it was a very bright, cold, crisp day all day which brings out the best in the outdoor gear from the office staff. Anna from Dunoon was sporting a bright purple balaclava that made her look like a Christmas tree bauble while Vicky from Stirling went for the "hip"snowboarder look. Morag from Kippen had rung earlier in the week and knew about the work party so decided to walk around the boardwalk with her friend just as we were cutting and made us an offer that we couldn't refuse, a Christmas tree for 12 mince pies. Well with the energy being used up we would have cut her a tree for 1 mince pie but we didn't tell her that. Later on while most of us kept cutting Stephen got a bonfire going to clear up a lot of cut birch from a previous work party and this could very convenient be used to cook some baked potatoes to keep the workers happy. You see food should always play an important part in work out of doors.
I love this sort of work on the Moss as you have to get down on your knees to cut the pines low down below the bottom row of branches so they don't grow back and this gets you looking close up to the beautiful Moss carpet. The frost picks out every spiders web, the Ramalina lichens glow like miniature, birds nests on low birch while the red-topped Cladonia lichens with the star mosses in between form magical landscapes for the tiny people and mark out the slightly drier parts of the bog surface.
By the end of the day as the sun dropped and the temperature plummeted we had cleared most of the pines from around the boardwalk, burnt up a huge pile of birch cuttings, eaten 12 potatoes, taken home 10 Christmas trees and given 7 SNH staff a positive bog experience. And just to seal the day as we were coming off and glorious male hen harrier drifted onto the Moss to roost accompanied but a pair of scolding corvids.
