Fire Beacon Hill

The overcast mornings are clearing to bright sunny days.  And our current view while working, from Fire Beacon Hill (FBH), near Sidmouth, is pretty fine.  We are carrying out annual winter management of ‘our’ part of the hill, which includes removing birch scrub and coppicing some of the more leggy gorse.

On Wednesday, we are joined by the Wednesday volunteers, a great bunch of people, all giving some of their time to help out and pass round cake.  Shortly after arriving at FBH on Wednesday, I received a call to say that the Ford 4000 (with trailer) had broken down on the way over.  I hurried back, with the battery pack, to where Richard had managed to pull over on the A3052.  Ed had also turned up in Zetor (another tractor), but their attempts to get Fordy started were all in vain.  In the end myself and Ed had to leave – Richard took a hit for the team and stood bravely on the road side, hand to his to his head, saluting us off.  Would we ever see him again…

As it happened Johnny came out in the Valtra and towed Fordy, the trailer and Richard down the road and across the reserve back to the workshop, while we had to get on with some real work.  Oh, meant to say, saw my first butterfly of the year last week – a Brimstone!  I’ve never seen one before, it was moving about too quickly for pics unfortunately, but still, fantastic.