Roses are red ...

By ‘C’:

Ragwort are yellow,

Thistles are mauve,

Cattle may bellow.

The red flower first: I had not expected to come away from last week’s Wittenham Rose Ceremony with a rose myself.

For fifty years now, on the Friday nearest midsummer, Oxfordshire County Council has gifted a flower to what is now The Earth Trust (formerly Northmoor Trust, Wittenham).  The rose is a peppercorn rent to allow public access to land owned and managed by the Trust, and it used to be just that: a single-stem rose.  Which was all very romantic, and redolent of feudal tradition; but not very eco.  In recent years, instead of a cut stem, the payment has been made in the form of a small rose bush (in bloom), which can be planted in the grounds.

This year, guests attending as witnesses to this quaint little ceremony (of whom I was one, representing Green Gym) were each given a buttonhole rose as they arrived.  So as I write this, I have on my desk one beautiful rose.  The petals may be drooping now, but the powerful scent endures.  As do pleasant memories of getting to meet all sorts of different people, most notably, this year, members of another volunteer outfit.  The Friday Group does similar work to us, but always at the Earth Trust; whereas we cover many different sites.  It was a delight to meet up again with a former WGG member, who now turns out for the ET Friday Group.

This morning, our venue was one of the sites which Earth Trust manages on behalf of the district council.  One task was to do our bit towards pulling ragwort and thistle, before they can seed.  So first of all, a quick course in plant identification for those who had not done this before:

At least when they are flowering, the targets are easy to spot:

When they’re that pretty, it seems a shame to take them out.  But if left unchecked, they would rapidly colonise the entire meadow, and look to expand their operations on to neighbouring land.  Ragwort in particular has to be kept in check, because it is a noxious weed: it is an offence to allow it to seed on to someone else’s land, and it can be highly injurious to horses.  OTOH, in small quantities, ragwort can be a very good thing to have on a site managed for nature conservation.  It is the favoured habitat of the caterpillar of the pretty cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae).  Indeed elsewhere in the world the cinnabar moth has been deliberately introduced in order to control various varieties of ragwort. 

So plants harbouring the distinctive caterpillar were to be left alone:

All other anti-social species of plant could be pulled/cut at will, and the dead vegetation transported to the far side of a fence where it will not cause any problems for the cattle which graze the meadows in summer:

It is a matter of observation that, for whatever reason, the Herefords will not touch the ragwort while it is growing – while horses find the yellow flowers irresistible.

The other task for this morning was to finish constructing an ambitious tree-guard, which was begun at our previous session at the site, back in April:

Today it was a matter of adding further side-railings, and attaching – then tensioning – some wire.  (Safety googles/specs on for the latter phase of the operation.)  First of all, of course, much discussion about how exactly the construction was to be accomplished:

Working, for a change, with a small power-tool appeared to engender some intellectual confusion.  I could have sworn I heard someone call for a hammer, only for them to be reminded that on this occasion we were using screws, therefore a screwdriver probably more apt?  (“The clue is in the name!”)

By the end of the first half of the session, the tree was more securely guarded:

The design may look strange, but it will do the job.  It might even make the cattle bellow when they discover that they cannot now get at the tree, and use it as a delicatessen-dispensary and back-scratcher.

Inside its pen, the (unidentified) tree itself does not seem vastly happy:

It is only June, so the leaves should not look as they naturally would in early autumn.  Still, there is nothing we can do about that: we have just done our bit to put distance between tree and livestock.

Meanwhile, the cows on site seemed to have bunched together, while Green-Gymmers on ragwort/thistle-pulling duty were scattering further and further across the meadow:

It was possible that the cows had been having a drinks-break themselves:

We were about to do the same – except with tea/coffee (and cake).  Also, Green-Gymmers may be a friendly lot, but we tend not to lick each other:

Some of us are just as camera-shy as the cattle.  This cow made it very clear when she thought the photographer had approached quite close enough (not in fact as close as the zoom lens suggests):

Time to step back, slowly and quietly, and go and get a cup of tea!  Or two.  The forecast rain was holding off, but it was so humid that for many it was definitely “a two-cup day”.

After the break, more ragwort & thistle clearance – as well as finding the occasional extraneous item to take back for colleagues to help identify.  To the finder, it seemed reasonably obvious which species of bird this plumage must have come from (answer below):

Feather from a Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

This other object was a complete mystery to the finder, but instantly recognized by another Green-Gymmer who gets to play with a grandson of the right age to be interested in this sort of thing:

Dart for a Nerf blaster

Well, learning something new each time is another reason why, week after week, we steal away to Green Gym!  As well as pushing the limits of fun in our own way ...

Phew, what a scorcher!

By the session leader:

What better place to be on the hottest day of the year so far, than in water at 10 degrees?

Yes, in it:

Our task today was to clear a chalkstream of some of its superfluous vegetation.  Since we were last on site, the watercress had set new records for growth:

There is meant to be a stream here somewhere …

We worked steadily and calmly with frequent rehydration, thanks to a couple of flasks of iced water:

[On behalf of all the team, thank you, session leader for doing “the water run.” – Ed.]

We were a smallish number, but progress was as always most satisfying and deserving of our motto “you can see where we've been.”  In this case, you can now see the line of the stream:

Our reward?  Besides the fact that it was just such fun, splashing about in the stream on what was almost a perfect English summer’s day once a bit of breeze had got going, there were also some interesting nature ‘finds’.  Here, an abandoned egg – probably that of a moorhen (Gallinula chloropus):

The dipping pond, which we helped surround in turf, has come to life.  It is only a year old, and already the creatures have moved in: tadpoles galore (a bit late, but they came), baby newts (newtlets?) with their frilly gills, pond skaters, whirlygig beetles, snails, damsel flies, a dragon fly, flat worms and all sorts of nymphs and lavae.  How many can you spot?  [Do not include the site warden in your score! – Ed.]

And in this video, a damsel is escaping.  He had got trapped on the surface, and was being attacked by beetles and a water boatman.  I was not allowed to intervene, but had to let nature take its course.  If you can hear a noise in the background of the film, that’ll be a chain saw being deployed further upstream – nothing to do with us!