Back on the slope

By ‘C’:

No not the Winter-Olympics type of slope!  Nor a maths-test gradient.  Green Gym were back on the Chilterns scarp, at our usual stomping ground:

Our RV point this morning

The task: to walk up the hillside to one of the places which could use a little low-level scrub clearance, and give it a #1 haircut.

Before:

By tea-break:

The line of advance soon reached a point where we working with field on one side, and on the other woodland and parallel lines of old sunken roads.  It was a strange landscape to our right, at this time of year apparently barren for the most part …

with just the occasional harbinger of spring:

Volunteers at work this morning may have appeared a confused scene:

There was, however, more organization and co-operation than might seem at first sight.  The main technique, when it came to bramble clearance, was one which was soon dubbed “curling”.  One volunteer would go ahead brushing the ground with a fork, another would follow with a pair of shears to allow the load to be lifted clear:

We do like to think we are quite good at teamwork – unlike some outfits.  Even so, we didn’t make it all the way to Buckinghamshire, or even to the open ground which we knew lay ahead …

with its views of more sheep – and the M40:

Hence the route we were clearing being nicknamed “the motorway relief road”!