Barking up the right tree

I didn't get much 'real' work done as it was staff appraisal time which took up most of the day.  At least I could let them do most of the talking.

Since the weather has been much too good today for sitting around inside I threw some beans on toast down me and then went out for a bash around the Bush estate on my mountain bike, which I haven't ridden much this year.  The suspension is amazing as always but I'd forgotten how narrow and hard the saddle is and how low and wide the handlebars are.

Here I am with (probably) the biggest tree on the estate, and about four years ago it was the first specimen of Sequoiadendron giganteum that I'd ever seen up close.  It is maybe a couple of hundred years old and it's huge.  There are two others on the estate but I can only remember where one of them is.

I also had a play again with the Merlin bird app.  At the entrance to the estate we had a blackbird, chaffinch, chiffchaff, robin, blue tit, wren, jackdaw and blackcap.  The app also gives a live sonogram (frequencies vs time) which showed just how noisy and nasty motor vehicles are amongst the quieter sounds of nature.