Steam

It's Philip's birthday later this week, so we all went out for the day on Saturday, to Haworth. Coincidentally, and unknown to us until we arrived, it was a 1940's Vintage Day, which meant the streets of Haworth were filled with people dressed for the period, many in service uniforms from the War. Commonwealth, USA, and a couple of Axis, too. We walked through the village, stopping at the traditional sweetshop, and pausing briefly at the churchyard, before walking on to Oxenhope and back for a picnic lunch. We then went on to Oakworth on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway steam service, before walking back to Haworth.

KWVR Steam train arriving at Oakworth; waiting at Oakworth station; and between Haworth and Oxenhope (© Ian 2012)

Sunday was spent in the garden, mostly clearing and pruning. The last of the cotoneaster is finally out of the top bank (as in, cut to ground level: there are still roots I'd like to pull up); we also decided that the conifer in that bank wasn't worth saving. It was dead and bare where the cotoneaster had engulfed it, and its location wasn't good, blocking the view from the dining room quite badly. Down it came, and it's much better without it. There's also a laurel/bay that has a bare back from where the cotoneaster was behind it. However, it's otherwise quite an attractive bush, so we're going to leave it to see if it re-sprouts. If it does, I'll try digging it up and moving it to a better spot, as it's not in the right location.

A scraggy conifer next to the vegetable garden was next to come down, along with a sorry excuse for a conifer that's struggled along in the copse, and two sad looking pines near the fence. I also took the opportunity to trim back the leylandii along the bottom fence, and tie them into a more up-right pose.

Finally, we pruned the two flowering currants (one of them rather hard, continuing the rejuvenation program we started last summer), and other shrubs in the lower bank that have finished flowering. Our pile of brush-to-be-chipped is now enormous: fortunately, we've got a larger, petrol-driven shredder booked for the upcoming bank holiday weekend, and hope to get it turned into mulch then.