my small society has been active, even though the blog has been absent

Well, I have not been away all this time, although I did have one trip away in the middle of my absent four weeks. Excuses? Busy in the garden, with the advent of some warmer weather and longer evenings; for some reason more driving and less on the bus, so catching up with paper work in the evenings instead of blogging, sorry!

So, Coasties www.northyorkmoors.org.uk, has run the gamut of all different sorts of weather, wet and cold, damp and warm and even sunny.

before the fence; it was
even gloomier by the
time we had finished

The wet and cold was at Robin Hoods Bay, working with National Trust www.nationaltrust.org.uk, to fence in some new ponds, made to increase the variety of habitat. The bullocks against whom the fence is designed came to watch, unfortunately it was too damp to take their photos. I and a colleague measured the gaps between posts, others dug them in and strained the wire from post to post. All of us then hammered in the staples holding it all together. Team work in action.

the path disappears in
the undergrowth

The sunny day was in Forge Valley, I had done a voluntary ranger patrol there the week before and had reported overgrown paths and the board walk, as well as fallen trees blocking other paths. So Coasties set to, with slashers, loppers, saws and strimmers and by 3 o'clock even if it wasn't quite finished it was a lot clearer.

a carpet of wild garlic

 I had heard a strange tale when I was doing my ranger patrol, a deer had actually chased a small dog that had presumably got too close to its fawn. The same day I had walked in this lovely woodland, fragrant with the smell of wild garlic.

The warm and damp had seen us near Cayton Bay, doing our regular task of step clearance, although here no repairs were required, just a lot more stone to fill them in.

Yesterday was a voluntary ranger patrol best forgotten, what had been forecast as showers turned into a three hour deluge, enough said. Except that I had not realised which of my waterproofs needed re-proofing, I do now.

Short Stop has been quite difficult over the last few weeks, more guests and fewer hosts, holidays and people moving have reduced their availability. However, I have been able to place all the people referred to me, even though one day I was on the phone for several hours before everyone was found a bed for the night. It was a worry, especially as rain was forecast that night and several of the guests had spent the previous night on the streets. I tell myself that we have all done what we can and not to let it get on top of me, but that day it nearly did.

I have been to Leeds once to see my friend, we walked, on the hottest day of this year so far, around Leeds East End looking from the outside at houses that she can 'bid' for. Each Friday she puts her 'bid' in and then may have to wait for a couple for weeks to see if she has been successful, however she still needs to go on 'bidding' in case she hasn't.

One of the village schools near by has had a Fairtrade food and craft stall at a parents' event; they were delighted with the range of pocket money small craft items. Many people think that Fairtrade is only about food, certainly not, at Fairer World in York, www.fairerworldyork.co.uk, you can buy craft items ranging from 50p to £40, jewellery, toys, wooden items and crockery amongst many other things.

So there you have it, a quick round up of the last four weeks, much of it is the usual stuff, but never enough the same for me to get bored.

One curious thing to leave you with, one day a week or so ago there were 100 views from Latvia, why?

We now know that intelligence agencies will be logging this, so here is one last photo.

I didn't make this up, or photo shop it, it exists