Hedging

It wasn't a very successful weekend. We woke on Saturday morning to what promised to be a lovely, frosty, cold but sunny day. All plans for starting work on the attic bedroom were dropped (again) as we both agreed to spend the day hedging. Dry weekends have been few and far between of late and hard frosty ground was a bonus.

The churchyard hedge in the paddock is mostly, sycamore, ash, elder and a little hazel. Each year we cut out the largest trees and lay any that are suitable to fill gaps, so stimulating growth and thickening the base of the hedge but still leaving a third untouched for the wildlife.

Last year we didn't get the hedge cut and the largest trees to come out were bigger than usual so work was heavy going but we were making an impression. Until that is I got stung on the head by one of our bees. (I had only just commented on how busy they were so early in the year)

Last time I was stung I reacted quite badly, so this time I immediately stopped work, removed the sting and took a couple of spoonfuls of Prition (an anti histamine) we keep in a cupboard in the feed store, for such occasions. Within an hour I started to feel quite drowsy so we stopped for lunch, planning to go back in the afternoon. However by then my head, face and neck had started to swell so I spent the rest of the weekend sleeping after being regularly dosed with Prition.

To cap it all my husband aggravated a back injury whilst clambering amongst the hedge so he also spent the rest of the weekend do very little.

This weekend we will try again, the forecast is for snow but time is running out.