Jobs (and tools) for the Workers

By the Session Leader:

How much was there going to be for us to do this morning?  Last time we were at today’s site – just a month ago – we thought we had completed most of the work.  So we’d be done in a jiffy, and would we need the fancy new piece of equipment we had acquired for digging fence-post holes?

The suggestions initially given for what we could do today were much the same as last time:  

Build up the dead-hedge fence where it is sagging, and cut back nettles
– oh and could you please remove the low tree growing across the woodland path? 

Then we asked, ‘Shall we cut back the ivy and branches over the footpath outside the wall by the road as we did a couple of years ago?’  Answer of course was: ‘Yes please!  And the ivy on the trees’.  So we had plenty to do after all.

At session start, most of the group donned hi-vis jackets, gathered tools, and went outside to investigate the wall.  Some stayed inside the wall, and one or two started on nettles.

Regrettably the photographer [not me this time! – Ed.] failed to take any pics of the group working outside, but did go back afterwards to show how tidy the wall now looked: 

There is still some, Green-Gym-resistant ivy on the top.  It is managing to hold out because it is difficult to access from either inside or outside the perimeter.

Most of the fence was still holding up well, but here was one section needing a lot of TLC

There was little in the way of brash ready to build up the fence, so dead and overgrown branches had to be found:

Sometimes strength rather than tools was all that was needed: 

The usable brash was dragged along to the collapsed fence, some of it a very long way:

Small brash was piled up and ended up on the bonfire that someone else working on site had kindly lit:

At tea break we thought we had lost one member.  Last seen heading off on the other side of the site to tackle nettles:

Company restored to its full complement, we (session leader, especially) could relax!  Once more the plane tree seemed to attract admiration:

Tea-break was also an opportunity to admire the splendid new fence post digging tool, to the chagrin of our Frenchman, who had bought a similar, but more expensive narrow spade for his own use in France.  [‘Un louchet’?  And dare one ask which piece of equipment is ace among spades? – Ed.]

In the second half, nettle bashing continued:

By session end, a good open path through the woods had been cleared:

Instead of finishing early, as some of us had expected, it had been a full morning’s work.  And still there is more to be done: more ivy and small trees to be cleared to open up the woods, and allow the better trees to grow more freely.

Our work is never finished, thankfully.

Day-time Revels

By the Session Leader:

What, one might ask, were Green-Gymmers doing partying at 11 in the morning?

A jar at the pub after a session is one thing, but not at that hour surely!

They were in fact engaged on the most popular task of the morning – one which was not even on the original manifest.  [Not all changing of plans is unwelcome – Ed.]  From behind, it looked as if volunteers were taking part in some strange South-Oxfordshire rite, for the coming of the equinox perhaps:

Looking closer, one might think a touch of Zorba the Greek had found its way in!

The answer, of course, was more prosaic.  These supposed revellers were actually filling potholes in the driveway:

The other brutalist task of the morning was to dismantle an old bird hide.  This was one of the jobs tackled first.  Three of the support posts were pulled out, and appeared good enough to be re-used:

The fourth one I kicked, and it broke off at ground level.  (Oops: me and my big feet ...  Well it was rotten, honest!)  There was then a small carpet mountain, which had been next to the (now ex-) bird hid, to be moved.  [By brute force, rather than faith – Ed.]  Here the last load is being dragged away.  Note the pallet on top to make sure it didn't escape!

A gentler and more aesthetic, but still demanding, task was to clear sycamore/nettles and tidy tree guards along the bridleway hedge:

Here volunteers are putting the final touches on the end of this section before they moved on to the next:

Meanwhile, there was an autumn maintenance-task on the outdoor furniture: to strip the old paint off wooden benches, and prep for repainting.  It had been anticipated that this might generate a lot of dust.  [So ‘dust masks’ had been added to the ‘control measures’ in the written Session Risk Assessment.  Well done, Andy!  I wouldn’t have thought of this myself: I mean, we always have used dust masks when needed, but I had not thought to list them in the risk-assessment documentation. – Ed.]  In fact, it was better doing them wet.  Site-wardens Sue and Roger plan to oil them when they are dry (the benches that is, not Sue & Roger).  

“The grand strip”

Here, late in the session, is an almost finished (cleaned) bench.  Well done, Mark O! a task that didn’t have too many volunteers.

And the other main task undertaken this morning, besides the many smaller odd-jobs: to clear floating vegetation (? blanket weed) from the study-centre pond.

This was partially successful.  If you sacrificed some of the oxygenating pond weed to act as a sort of sieve, that took some of it out.  I tried to sort one from the other, in order to return the good weed to the pond; but decided that the good weed left in the pond would grow back, rather than risk putting ‘bad weed’ back!

A wonderful display by three different types of dragon/damsel-fly was seen over the pond: green, green & blue, and red ones, possibly attracted by what we had stirred up?  Sadly too quick for my camera work.

There were other wildlife delights at tea-break.  Roger showed us one of the 100+ slow-worms rescued from Goring [for whom I think we built some accommodation in an earlier session? – Ed.]

In contrast, this juvenile grass-snake was a little more camera-shy unfortunately:

[The BBC reported recently (7 Aug 2017) that some scientists reckon the barred grass snake, ‘Natrix helvetica’, is a different species from the common/eastern grass snake, ‘Natrix natrix’.  Which would mean there were four different species of snake native to Britain instead of three; the other two being the smooth snake and the adder.  The latter is the only one which is venomous; they are all protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.  Grass snakes can grow to more than a metre long; and are often to be found near water, as their diet consists mainly of amphibians such frogs and newts.  The barred grass snake is grey, not olive green like N. natrix, and does not have the same bright yellow collar, apparently. – Ed.]

Roger also reported several types of bat roosting in the old boatyard shed, barn & tawny owls nesting in the forest area, and even the odd osprey sighting.

Our ‘after’ photos from this morning may not be the most exciting:

But we can confirm that the drive out was much better than our arrival.  If only OCC (Oxfordshire County Council) could do the same in the rest of the county!