Blasts of January

By the Session Leader:

A “good sess” this morning – and, thanks to Green-Gym efforts, much easier driving away from the site afterwards than it had been arriving by wheels along a bridleway rather the worse for winter weather.

January usually means plenty of these to enjoy where the habitat is right for them:

Those specimens were spotted near Oxford around the weekend, so I was on the lookout for more flights of angelic snowdrops on site today.  In fact, the ones in the nature reserve were still in their infancy, though bearing the promise of some spectacular displays to come:

We were not, however, there to be surprised by snowdrops.  And thankfully, though it was a crisp day, the “blasts of January” (as I think one of the characters in The Winter’s Tale says?) were not so strong as to blow anyone through and through, however lean. 

The main task was to shift several tonnes of scalpings: from pile in car-park to the potholes in the bridleway.  This was the job that most of the volunteers this morning piled into with zeal – also knowing, of course, that it would ensure they were not be cold for more than 10 minutes:

Task #2 was to level a mound of soil and prepare for sowing:

Task #3 pond clearance:

And the initially unscheduled task, to see to the fence which had worked loose in the wind, and which urgently required repair before any serious blasts of January (or February, March, &c) shredded the panels:

After tea-break, there was a little re-organization.  The fence job was completed, to the evident satisfaction of the construction team:

They then moved on to clearing “leaves” [actually more like leaves + compost - Ed.] from the industrial-heritage area:

Meanwhile, volunteers new to the place set off on a guided tour to view some of the sights of the site:

The soil-prep team had levelled earth, and ‘raked to a fine tilth’ (as the expression goes):

The pond-clearer could look back at a job well done, and measure the remaining depth in one from which a massive quantity of leaves had been carefully removed without puncturing the liner:

And the roadway-maintenance crew?  Well their satisfaction was that of all of us driving away from the site today (while two volunteers virtuously walked to their respective homes): it was a much smoother ride leaving than arriving.