Looking sharp on the scarp

Today we were headed for the higher ground.

‘Higher’ because this was one of our trips to the site which lies at highest elevation of all the venues we visit: Aston Rowant NNR in the Chilterns.  Also because our task was another round of scrub-bashing on the downland area of that large site – ‘downland’ meaning ‘upland’.

Sheep will eat scrub.  Witness this one, this very morning:

The trouble is, they don’t eat nearly enough of it.   

Cue Green-Gymmers, tooled up with loppers, the blades of which our wonderful Tools Officer keeps well aligned and seriously sharp:

Volunteers gradually made our way further and further across the slope, reducing nascent scrub back to a height of about 2”:

The site manager followed behind, treating the stumps.

There were several places where we could clearly see that this was an exercise which had been done before.  Other working parties must also have made their way across the scarp, lopping scrub, because occasionally we came across sights like this:

Eventually, a treated stump rots away completely, and can be knocked over and crushed underfoot:

It was a lovely spot, very dry underfoot (you can tell we have had an exceptionally dry winter), and the weather was definitely early summer.  Which made for a most pleasant break at half-time, drinking from colour-coded mugs today (orange for coffee; blue or green for tea) and eating a choice of lemon-drizzle cake, melting choc-rolls, or angel slices (complete with conversation about what we imagine the food of heaven to be):

I would be the first to admit that the task itself was not one of the most intellectually absorbing.  There was plenty of time to look about and ask, for instance, what plant it was that looked like pools of silver in the distance:

Answer: “Silverweed” [sic].  Potentilla anserina / Argentina anserina produces pretty yellow flowers, and has in former (pre-Green-Gym) times been used for human food.  If we had been paying more attention during the climb up to our working place, we might have paid more attention to the patch beside the gate we had come through, where the sheep had been feeding:

For some volunteers, there was also much distraction from above, but not the usual helicopters from nearby RAF Benson:

It was not, however, the acrobatic pair which made for the "highlight" of the morning, but a fly-past by something a little bit bigger.  This was the moment the aviation enthusiasts caught sight of it:

Their joy came not so much from looking up at the skies, as from consulting an App which gave a highly detailed read-out:

That was easyJet Zürich to Luton …  EZY81QT …  ETA 11:03 … Scheduled to land 11:10 …

– “So it’s early.  Obviously no-one kicked off that flight.”

Airbus A-319-111 …

– “Treble-One Squadron, then.”

G-EZIZ ...

– “There has to be someone on that plane who reads the Green-Gym blog.  I wonder what the weather was like in Zürich when they took off.”

Answer to the latter (looked up on return home, for Green-Gym Co-ordinators have many duties): sunny intervals, but a shade cooler than where we were, despite the wind being quite different.  Because I know such matters fascinate some minds, here to finish are the meteorological observations made today, Tues 2 May 2017 (local time), at:

Zürich-Kloten, 10:00   Temp 9.5 C   Wind SSW 2 mph   Visibility Excellent

Benson, 09:00    Temp 9.9 C   Wind N 6 mph   Visibility Moderate

Benson, 11:00   Temp 13.8 C   Wind NNW 3 mph   Visibility Good

Such are the varied interests of Green-Gymmers!