An extreme obstacle course

The obstacle course was a stretch of Ewelme Watercress beds.  Task: clearing the channels, so the stream can flow unimpeded by overgrown watercress.

The first job was to clear a pathway to gate to be able to get on to the site:

We started at the road bridge, chopping back the watercress, with sickles, slashers, and shears:

Then the bund (the concrete wall in the middle of the beds) needed clearing before we could collect our cuttings on it:

With 14 of us we could spread out, and soon needed to heave the cut cress to the compost piles, with one Green Gymmer carrying enormous heavy loads:

The midges bugged us today, when usually they are attracted by one of our members who was sadly missing today - away in France.  She attracts them, and distracts them away from us.  Someone asked about tics, and you can be reassured they typically inhabit “deciduous and coniferous woodland, heathland, moorland, rough pasture, forests and urban parks” and not watercress beds.

Several of us came close to fetching up in the stream.  Where the normally clear water was churned up, and the bed of the stream was decidedly uneven, the route from cutting-zone to compost-site made for an interesting challenge.  As one volunteer remarked, “It’s an extreme obstacle course really.”

Tools were stored safely and innovatively, and so, no, we didn’t lose any:

We did, however, lose the bolt that held these shears together:

This was not our straightest and neatest job:

But by the end it all looked clear and tranquil in the autumn sunshine: