Last Tuesday before Christmas ...

By the Session Leader:

… a good turn-out for Green Gym, and a fun cold day out in the sun.  “A glorious day, even if it was a couple of hours before I could feel my toes,” reported one volunteer. 

The forecast had been for dense fog.   Instead I woke to a crisp day with just a slight mist: just right for Green Gym, even though the ground was frozen.  First thing there was still a trace of mist across the Thames facing the sun, but beautifully clear ahead.

We had five tasks lined up for us, but with plenty of members available we were able to split up and tackle all the jobs simultaneously.  The snag was that the photographer didn’t manage to get to catch all the tasks as they were progressing.

The most urgent task was to spread wood chippings on the mud by the gates by the river.

It was surprising how much mud there was around as there hadn’t seemed to have been that much rain lately.  (The lock keepers would not agree: they have been very busy in the last couple of weeks, constantly adjusting weir gates.)  Anyway, chippings had to be barrowed a fair way over to the gate by the river, and spread over the mud.

There was still some scrub to finish cutting down where we had been working the last time we were here.

This area was then clear:

Scrub from last time plus today’s had then to be dragged through and piled inside the wooded area:

The cattle had been using one gatepost as a rubbing post so this one was loose, but not rotten.  A task we are very familiar with. 

Thankfully, it was not a post which had been installed by WGG!  This was evident when we found that it had been set in with earth, not chalk or stones.  Moreover, the catches were not lining up properly.

When we had dug out enough of the earth, we were unable to find enough stones to set the post properly.  Fortunately, the local cattle made up for their having created the problem in the first place by being part of the solution.  For some reason, their drinking trough had a layer of stones at the bottom – dropped in, it was suggested, by visiting children.  So the post was realigned and tamped in with our new tamping tool.

Meanwhile, the fire raising team had managed to get a fire going even with the damp wood.

A big pile of scrub for the fire, the work of a previous group, dwindled to this …

with the larger logs being barrowed away to go back to Earth Trust to keep them warm:

While we were busy green-gymming, the site warden had taken on a task we are not allowed to do: using a petrol-driven hedge-trimmer to top the hedge by the pond.

A most satisfying end to the day: we had been given five possible tasks, and we had finished every one, even the fire.