Working in a Chilterns chalk-stream (yes: in it) is a much more enjoyable
task when the sun is shining.
Was the sun shining on us today? Well,
some of the time. Did the drops of sunshine make
the situation feel better for those volunteers (there did seem to be an awful
lot of them this morning) who found themselves having to tip out the water from
their wellies and wring out wet socks? I
do hope so.
The weather has been
a tad contrary for the past week. This, for example, was the ‘near-total’ solar eclipse,
as viewed from South Oxfordshire, at maximum eclipse (c 09:30, 20 March 2015):
The cloud
cover meant that all we human beings experienced here was a gradual shift from
a light grey sky to dark grey, then back to light grey. A
couple of hours later, sun no longer obscured by the moon had burned off
early-morning cloud.
Still, it was interesting that morning to
observe birds in the garden going into preparing to roost mode, long before the
human eye could detect any reduction in the level of light. Here, sparrows helping themselves to their
regular evening snack, at 9 in the morning:
An hour later they were going through their
waking-up-and-getting-ready-for-the-day routine, for the second time that
morning. (I wonder if it registered at
all in their bird brains that it had been a very short ‘night’?)
As for the sun’s performance today, well yet
again we kept wondering, “Where did it go?”
One moment it was so warm, many of us were wondering if we had come
over-dressed for Green Gym this morning.
The next, we were glad we had brought waterproofs – and not just because
the work centred around a water-course.
Benson Brook, is a typical Chilterns
chalk-stream. At Ewelme it runs smooth,
fast, and clear – as long as people keep the water channels free of
obstruction. Which used to happen in the
normal course of events, when the watercress was harvested for commercial use.
Today was the first of many sessions
scheduled for keeping water channels clear by volunteer labour. The Green-Gym calendar turning over to watercress-tending
time is one of those markers of spring, alongside the more usual suspects:
For this first session of the season, the
task was defined by site warden Tom as a general tidying up:
“Some watercress, some bramble, and various other unmentionables.”
There were banks to be cleared – cut – slash – lop – saw …
plants entirely obscuring some stretches of
the stream, to be removed …
and some sections of the water itself to be
dragged:
Note the chaps in the background hauling
their ‘find’ ashore. Here they are
posing with some of their ‘treasures’:
One item of booty (formerly a nesting box for
a Little Owl, later requisitioned by a squirrel, finally deposited by hands
unknown into the stream, only to be hauled out again by Green Gym) was
immediately recycled as furniture at tea-break:
All that clearance work also made, of course,
for a lot of cut-stuff to be disposed of.
There were logs to be carried (for me to saw into smaller lengths) …
and waterlogged brash to be dragged to piles:
Not all the work was based in the
stream. Besides the log-sawing (which
requires no artistry: hence delegated to C), there was also willow-fence
restoration to be done. That does
require neat fingers:
For many of us, the session proved to be a
harder work-out than we had been expecting.
However, the most difficult aspects of the work were working out how to
get down to the stream-bed safely; and once there, how to stay reasonably dry:
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| “How do I get down there?” |
 |
| Answer: “The old commando roll …” – or a helping hand |
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| Wet clothing: a sign of devotion to duty |
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