Time to prune the pear tree. It was much bigger than I had realised, with lots of new growth. I’ve really thinned it out and stopped branches heading straight for the fence. I ended up taking off a whole branch at the back due to a bad cut with the loppers (not all my cuts have been perfect for various reasons). It goes back to the strange cluster of sprouts in the middle of the tree. I wonder if I should saw it off, but that might leave a big wound.

I took some long branches off the elder to stop it (a) being a nuisance, and (b) just being a pile of long whippy branches. I’ll get Mum to thin out a few more higher up. I’ve kept the really long branches for now. I wonder if at least parts of them might be useful for construction at some point.

In the afternoon I cut up all the prunings, including the small pile from last year, and the previous year’s few branches I’d kept and not used. About a bucket and a half of pieces went onto the compost heap. Pieces I couldn’t cut, but which were of no use, will go to the council compost. I’ve kept back some pieces for possible nature use, plus some larger, trimmed branches to put around a bird feeder, like I have already.

While I was doing all the cutting I saw something suddenly move under the plastic of Bed 9. It must have disappeared down a hole, as disturbing the sheet didn’t cause any further movement.

When I put the twigs on the compost I noticed that my leaf bags had been torn open, so all those decomposing leaves have gone into the wooden bin. I’ve tidied up where the bait station sits and put it onto some wood, as all the digging had pushed mess into the station.

I had lots of birds on the app today: robin (which seems quite friendly this year), great tit, greenfinch, sparrow, wren, dunnock, red wing and my first fieldfare.

I’ve got a couple of little gloopy balls in the pond, but I think it’s more likely to be algae than eggs.