Friendsheep

Our arrival on site this morning caused quite a stir among some of the residents:

Unfortunately for the livestock, our turning up did not mean love and attention (or extra food) being given to them.  Instead we were back to the task of doing nice things for pollinators.  Apparently, if you want to be nice to the nation’s butterflies, bees, etc, then the best thing you can do is to preserve – and, where appropriate, extend – calcareous grassland.  For what insect pollinators thrive on, is a steady source of different kinds of pollen across the summer season.

Habitat management in this situation is all about getting the balance right.  A small amount of habitat suitable for nesting birds is good.  Too high a proportion, and chalk-grassland flowers do not get enough of a look-in.  Which means that Green-Gymmers get to do something we enjoy, and is good for us by way of exercise and teamwork: clearing excess scrub and bramble.

Cutting back the brambles, so that they do not instantly re-grow, means cutting back as low as possible.  Getting down on hands and knees gave me this view, when I looked up:

At that stage in the morning, the weather was not entirely sure that it was done with winter-storm Imogen.

More of a hazard, in the sense of having to watch where we were going, was presented by the engineering works undertaken by generations of ants and rabbits:

As the old proverb says, there are creatures on earth which are small, but punch above their weight.  OK, maybe that is not quite what the Hebrew says, but you get the drift:

the ants, a species not strong, yet they store up their food in the summer;

the coneys, a species with little power, yet they make their home in the rocks

(Proverbs 30:25-26)

Individual Green-Gymmers vary greatly in strength and experience.  Working together, however, we are a force to be reckoned with.  Though to be sure, the notable examples of Green-Gym teamwork I saw this morning were perhaps not what would be quoted in a handbook for how to make your community group brilliant:

• One Green-Gymmer looks at a small tree, to select it as a target
  Green-Gymmer next to him, pulls it out with her bare hands, roots and all
  (They cheerfully explained that the fall of another tree before, had done most of the demolition work for them!)
  
• At tea-break, one Green-Gymmer buttered the pancakes (yes, today is Shrove Tuesday), another volunteer spread the jam, and a third distributed.

Cut wood which could be put to good use, was salvaged:

Brash was fed to the flames for instant recycling of the compounds in it:

At session end, there was a heap of tools to be taken back, and a long walk (downhill) back to our transport:

Looking back, we reflected that, over the years, we have done a fair bit of work in that particular corner of a field, beginning by taking down redundant fencing.  When you look at our before and after photographs for today, you can just make out the remains of old strainer post and support:

At the start of play today

After: that’s better (“Can’t stand fences”)