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57.

26th Feb 1943. 
After a slight hoar frost a beautiful forenoon so that I took a half-day off & rode to Glenasmole arriving at 3 P.M.  As usual sun obscured as I passed through Fir House, although not a cloud in sky at 1 P.M. & blue sky over Glencree remained all afternoon.  No trace of sun, however, as long as I stayed in the glen, but a 2 minute blink on my back just as I left!  Left bicycle at lodge below lower dam & went across same & along track through plantation on E. side of lower reservoir & visited the bee-banks in 2nd & 3rd coombs, now much trodden by sheep (& Homo!), returning to cycle via upper dam & road on W. side of reservoir.  Saw no sign that any bees had been out & no willows seen out on E. side of reservoir.  Great destruction of scrub going on owing to shortage of fuel in Dublin & everything from 3" in diam. & upwards being ruthlessly destroyed & the lesser branches thrown down in heaps everywhere.  I hope to see a great judgement on the criminals, as birds will be driven from the glen owing to lack of shelter.  Such wanton destruction must surely be followed by some punishment, as only a 

[[marginalia]] Red ♀︎ cones on several larches at E end of lower dam! [[/marginalia]]


58.

small part of what is destroyed is being made use of & this, I believe, is sold in Dublin & not for the use of the natives of the glen, who all have good turf to burn.  Many Primroses out in scrub & Viola Reichenbachiana.  My famous "willow grove" on height opposite Moore's almost destroyed, all the larger trees felled & the place hardly recognisable.  Visited the bushes of Flowering Currant by river below footbridge below upper dam but no sign of Bumble Bees at these though all in flower.  Saw quite a few cocoon of Trichiosoma on trunks of birch trees just below upper dam & most of them this years (or last!).  When passing front of Moore's house almost sure I heard a bumble bee, but could not locate it;  possibly at a Berberis, of which several were in flower round about.  Frog Spawn in several places, with large black centres to eggs, showing it must have been laid some weeks.

Hemiteles ♀︎, ant. 22, found in kitchen, out of peat just brought in from yard.  28.2.1943.  
[Labelled 31.12.1944]

26/2/43.
Sax. oppositifolia from Glenade in back garden with many flowers ready but not open.  Open on 1st march AWS.  
First Mediterranean Heath flowers probably open for some time but difficult to be sure when they are "open".