How to Keep a Good Christmas

For starters: have a good work-out.  We recommend this be done Green-Gym style: working hard, outdoors, in the lovely countryside.  Ideally, as today, in perfect weather conditions:

Hello wintertime!

Then: hold your workforce Christmas lunch in late January, when most of the rest of the country has forgotten all about Xmas.  – Though, as it happens, this year most of the country had remembered the feast again, when prompted by the death of a well-known actor to recall one of his roles, that of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, prince of thieves: 

Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans.  No more merciful beheadings.  And call off Christmas.  (Alan Rickman, 1946-2016)

For further accuracy, it should be stated that the weather was “perfect” for those volunteers working in the sunshine.  Those who were working in the shade – some of them standing in icy water – observed that by tea-break even toes clad in two layers of sock beneath tough wellies, had gone numb.

The task was to make sure that there was a little less shade on site.  We were continuing the work of another group of countryside volunteers, to cut back willow growth on the portion of land which had come to that point in the 5-year cycle of management …

preferably without leaving “death spikes”, as the previous group had done:

Also without unduly disturbing hibernating wildlife.  Here a vole:

Or possibly a field mouse.  We did not investigate more closely to make a positive identification, as the creature was clearly feeling very cold and unsettled, after being rudely woken up by our working close by.  We decided the best thing to do was to tiptoe away, and go for a tea-break, to give the animal a chance to settle down in a new nest.

By session end, there was much more open space for vegetation other than willow to flourish:

All the coppiced stools had been neatly trimmed to a low level.  And a volunteer who had not done this particular job before, was saying, “I’ve decided I like coppicing.”  To which the answer, from a seasoned Green-Gymmer was: “You’ll be eyeing up all the neighbours’ shrubs now.”