A not entirely spontaneous work party

By ‘C’:

To begin with it was not so much a question of spot the Green-Gymmer …

as spot the Site Warden.

Tuesday, ten ack emma, and a Green-Gym force in place at the RV point, fully equipped with tools and tea-crate, all eager to get cracking.  No site warden!

Nothing daunted, while a couple of volunteers checked that site warden was merely delayed in getting to the place, and nothing awful had happened to him, the rest of the troop worked out what could usefully be done on site – and got stuck in.  One section gleefully climbed into the stream, to dig out some more of the sticky mud, which accumulates when the otherwise natural Chilterns chalk stream is hemmed in by artificial boundaries:

The rest of the squad devoted themselves to one serious nettle-bash, along the line of metal railings.  With shears, slashers, dassel-bashers, or plain gloved hands:

Genetically related to roses they may be, but nettles are not welcome here.

Were we doing the right thing, though?  From the instructions we had been given in advance, and from our own previous experience at the site, we were fairly confident that the answer was YES.  It was purely a joke between some of the diggers of mud that in the second half of the session the task would be “putting all the mud back.”

Thankfully, when the warden did duly arrive on site, the news was that we were indeed doing exactly the right thing.  The only elaboration to the plan put in place, was to ‘join up’ the two tasks.  Mud dug out, was loaded into wheelbarrows …

Spectator’s view from the bank

Workers’ view from the pond

wheeled along the pavement-side of the metal railings …

forked into place along the fence-line to fill the gaps where weeds had been removed …

and heeled in:

“Give it two or three weeks, and if you’re out of mint, there’ll be some on this corner”

A repetitive task?  Certainly, but as usual the weather was glorious, it was a beautiful spot, and there was a range of occasional distractions.  The odd find, for instance – and the delight of guessing what it was (answer: a balloon weight) …

activity at the air station just over the road …

and coming across new growth:

By session end, there was still a big pile of mud beside the brook for anyone who would have a use for it!

And there was one beautiful clean fence line, without the heavy nettle: