Thought you might like to see this latest addition to my archive image collection. This is a late Victorian hand-coloured lantern slide made and sold by W.C.Hughes of London and I would date it to around 1890 judging by the clothing. Clearly it is a somewhat staged affair, but charming for all that, and the colouring is rather fine too - a bit splodgy when viewed with a lens, yet the overall effect is very pleasing and must have looked impressive when projected on to a large screen as originally intended. The quality of the image is very reminscent of the autochromes, perfected by the Lumiere Brothers in the very early 20th century.

Victorian middle class society must have thought working life in the woods was so idyllic, more a genteel pastime with accompanying picnic rather than plain hard graft day in day out, come rain or shine.

Up in the Welsh hills on Saturday to revisit a couple of ancient ash trees that I hadn't seen for about five years and quite startled to find that this particular one has undergone a bit of self-pollarding in the windy weather only a week or so back. The poor old thing has split asunder, dropping about a third of itself, which is very sad when we have relatively few seriously old/large ash trees. Of course the reason this happened is largely due to the cessation of pollarding a long time ago - I'm guessing that nobody had touched the tree for at least 50 years and almost certainly a lot longer. The boughs had just grown bigger and longer, slowly putting greater and greater leverage on the hollow bole, until it all became too much. If we want to keep such trees with us a little longer it means that repollarding or perhaps crown reduction is the answer, but on such old trees it needs to be done with much care - perhaps in two or three phases so that the tree is not traumatised. Truth to tell with this one is that it is so remote that few people would know of its existance and even then nobody really gave its management much thought.

Just a note to say that I'll be delivering an illustrated talk on the yew tree at St. Mary's Linton (nr. Ross-on-Wye) this coming Friday - 7.30 start - £10 on the door. The talk has been initiated by a by a very enthusiastic group of local folk who look after the magnificent ancient yew in the churchyard - somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 years old. There will be lots of beautiful images to see and some fascinating tales to hear.

Great day in Derbyshire last Wednesday. On the road by 4.30. On the hills shortly after 6.30 & the light was great. Started my day in Dovedale - a haunt I remember vividly from my days out when a student at Trent in the 70s.

I'd heard on the grapevine that there are serious concerns about the arrival of ash dieback in this glorious ash dominated valley. If, as or most certainly when it does arrive here the landscape is likely to be changed out of all recognition. I had the place to myself at this early hour - just the way I like it - as Dovedale's enduring popularity makes it something of a tourist honeypot from now on and through the summer months. This may be part of its undoing as there's always the possibility that motor car tyres (admittedly only in the carpark at the front of the valley) and innumerable walking boots have the potential to help introduce the microscopic spores of Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. But then there are always blow-ins. Frankly, I think I have already seen a handful of trees in the valley bottom that could well have ash dieback, but I can't be sure.

Enjoy this amazing place while you can.