Fraxinus excelsior

The common ash falls victim to the flooding.
Our horses have been banned from the fields, they are hungry & bored and now eating things out of the hedge which they probably shouldn't. A few years ago, a well meaning gardener thought she would give the horses in a nearby field her oleander bush cuttings - the horses died. Normally the horses avoid poisonous plants but....

So having seen a programme about alpine cow farmers feeding their cows ash branches in summer and thereby keeping the trees bushy as wind protection, I thought I would try it out. Apparently the cows give very good milk when fed the leaves so maybe it will make good horse steaks......no sorry a bad joke.

Out with the pole chainsaw, stepladder and, in order to try to keep up with Dave's show-off gear, I donned my helmet and luckily too as the 8cm diameter branch in the foreground came down on my head, although it was very slow and pushed me off the stepladder where I could free myself.

The horses love the treat. In history, the ash has played a significant role and is a much used wood including the material for Irish hurling sticks. Teas and other medicinal things are made from the various tree parts. In earlier times, the dried leaves were used as winter food for cows.

There are about 20 of them directly alongside the horses paddock. They are only about 15 years old and I have been meaning to trim them for some time as they can grow to 40 meters and would throw too much shade on the fields. In very hard winters, the horses often chew at the bark and had in effect felled two already although they are growing again from the base and I would anyway prefer a hedge effect rather than tall trees - we have enough as it is.

Fingers crossed for all those in the eastern part of Bavaria where all the water from our property is heading.