No frost on the pumpkin

There couldn’t be any danger of us being beaten by the weather again, could there?  

After ex-Hurricane Gonzalo had sped on its way to go and make a nuisance of itself on the continent, we have had warm air gently flowing in from the south. 

Following last week’s disappointment, we were once again scheduled to be working under trees.  This time in Little Wittenham Wood.  Task: To trim back vegetation from next to the bridleway, in preparation for final resurfacing works scheduled for November to make it a much drier and more easily accessible section of path.  And – site warden added optimistically – “if we finish that, move on to coppicing a section of woodland next to the Woodland Ponds.”

There was no doubting that today’s weather was perfect for Green Gym:

The blight on the pumpkin today: mainly the fact that there were so few of us there: only half a dozen.  – Result of combination of half-term (some people away on holiday, or only just back; some hosting visitors coming to them; others on grandparental duty) + the winter cold currently doing the rounds.  

There was also the matter of a slight delay to the start.  Caused by a mix-up between two groups, each of which had been directed to the main car-park, which did not have sufficient capacity for both.  To be fair to the other group, there was a sign up saying the space was 'private' and 'reserved for a function'.  On every other occasion there, such signs have turned out to be defunct: relics of events which had happened the previous weekend.  Not this time!  An exasperated event-organizer, who had probably by then dealt with any amount of bank-holiday-week drivers willfully ignoring the notice, promptly cast doubts on … ah, I forget whether it was my eyesight, my literacy, or my intellect that was being called into question.  No matter: it took a little while to establish that we were not “walkers” visiting the site, but workers; and that we should have been directed to the alternative, Clumps car-park.

When we finally arrived at the work-site, there was no doubting which sections of pathway we were to be dealing with.  

Some of the footpath had already been resurfaced ...

and some had not

The particular reason for manicuring the verges was temporarily to denude a habitat so that Great Crested Newts (Triturus cristatus: protected species) do not choose to hibernate there, only to be disturbed when the contractors arrive to upgrade the pathway.   

There could be little doubt that the right of way needs improving for use by humans.    

This, after all, is how it is after a dry summer:

It was, nevertheless, a curious objective for a conservation work-party: temporarily to make a habitat less wildlife-friendly.  On the way to achieving it, there was much discussion of other bizarre phenomena.  Probably the most remarkable (and seasonal, if we’re thinking Hallowe’en) was the lifecycle of Sea Squirts, even if it is not quite as dramatic as popularly portrayed.  They aren’t really autocannibal zombies!

We also lost one tool and gained another.  In the sense that: there is a set of shears which now needs repair; and a hammer was found, which is not part of the site complement of tools, but which – with some love & attention from our Tools Officer – can be brought up to a good enough condition to be added to our inventory:

Having started late, we also had to finish relatively early.  For it was some distance back to the alternative car-park.  A couple of us took the scenic route:

View from Little Wittenham Wood: Little Wittenham and St Peter’s Church

View from Wittenham Clumps: Didcot Power Station, after demolition of 3 cooling towers at decommissioned Didcot A, and fire at Didcot B, which is now operating at decreased capacity

The walk following the contours around the hill took a few minutes longer, but was well worth it for the sheer enjoyment of open space on a glorious afternoon.

Gale, fresh or strong?

Confronted with a weather forecast predicting any sort of a gale, the first instinct of a true-born Green-Gymmer is to shrug off the warning: “What’s a bit of breeze?”

Earlier reports had suggested we would get the benefit of a window of good weather, as the remnants of Hurricane Gonzalo made landfall on Britain.  As the event drew closer, the forecasters seemed more certain about the timetable: sunshine Tuesday morning, but windspeeds peaking too.

What the experts were not sure of was just how strong those winds were going to be.  The Chief Forecaster’s Assessment (issued by the Met Office 1626 on Mon 20 Oct 2014) was undeniably true, but not awfully helpful for anyone planning a work session in the great outdoors:

“some damage to trees is possible, given that many are still in full leaf.” 

Anything is ‘possible’.  What a planner would like to know is, how probable it is!

It is, after all, not that long ago that in unusually warm sunshine for the season I found a day-flying moth most improbably basking on my front door.

At least I think it was a day-flying moth.  If I have correctly identified it as a Small White Wave (Asthena albulata: small wingspan, < 2 cm), it was outside its normal habitat.  For it normally lives in broad-leaved woodland rather than a housing estate.  Perhaps it only comes and poses on my door when it spots the opportunity to be well camouflaged in between visits from the window cleaners.

In defence of forecasters: it has subsequently been pointed out to me, by someone who’d know, that ‘possible’ has two different meanings:

1. probability greater than zero    
2. probability something like a quarter

Meaning #2 is what you get when a forecaster presents results in words rather than numbers.  Furthermore – scientist observes – “very small scale weather forecasting is extremely difficult unless you put in tremendous resources, which you can do if it is a very important spot such as an airport.  I am not sure your Green Gym location would count for that”! 

As it happens, we are near a spot to which more weather-forecasting resources are allocated (RAF Benson), but can only access their information in the same Janet-and-John format as any other members of the public.  With the geography here, an accurate forecast for the air-station can be U/S for a location only a couple of miles away.

To return to the tale of today’s non-Green Gym:

Cue translate mph into knots, and look up Beaufort Scale.  Target fell neatly between Force 8 (which wouldn’t put off our volunteers) and Force 9 (which would, or at least should, especially when we’re scheduled to be working under trees):

8: Fresh Gale 

Moderately high waves, of greater length.  Edges of waves begin to break into spindrift; foam is blown in well marked streaks along the direction of the wind.  Considerable airborne spray.

Some twigs broken from trees.  Cars veer on road.  Progress on foot is seriously impeded.

9: Strong gale

High waves whose crests sometimes roll over.  Dense foam is blown along wind direction.  Large amounts of airborne spray may begin to reduce visibility.

Some branches break off trees, and some small trees blow over. 
Construction/temporary signs and barricades blow over.

No mention in the Beaufort Scale of wheelie bins overturning!

Add the observation from someone who would know, that there are lime trees at the site which have a track record of shedding large limbs, and alas, as ‘C’ – and the one who sat through 6 hours of TCV risk-assessment training – it fell to me to make the unpopular call and say, “No, we can’t do it: if we know there are trees which are liable to drop big branches, and if we know that the first high winds of this autumn are forecast to peak during the session, it would be irresponsible of us to proceed.” 

Which may have been right, but was terribly boring.