We’re lovin’ it

By ‘C’:

Fresh willow shoots being ‘woven’ can look a bit like golden arches, as we have observed on previous occasions.

You’ll have to take our word for it, however, as natural golden arches never show up well on photographs.  It did not seem likely that today’s post-session lunchtime drink would be c/o a certain well-known chain of fast-eateries.  Not even if our walk to work today took us past the modern sights of a South-Oxfordshire village, and has proved a rich topic of Green-Gym conversation over the years. 

Last time we thought of golden arches – when we were weaving willow, at a different site – someone recalled that the product-line known in the English-speaking world as a ‘cheeseburger’ is retailed in outlets across the world as: ‘cheeseburger’.  That is, where there is no equivalent term readily available in the native language of the country concerned.  One exception is Hungary.  The Hungarian for ‘cheese’ is sajt.  Pronounced not quite, but awfully like: ‘shĪt’.  So ‘cheeseburger’ appears on the menu there as: Sajtburger.

That in turn reminded a volunteer that it is said that the Rolls Royce car-manufacturing company once had to be persuaded to call their latest model the Silver Ghost, rather than the Silver Mist.  Or it would never sell in any German-speaking country.

Such happy musings aside, before one can deserve a break, comes a morning’s work.  Today, constructing a path round a field.  [A real-life golden path? – Ed.]

No, not this kind of path construction!

What was required was something a little more modest.  This was the site, a new one for Green Gym:

Warwick Spinney – named after the family which gifted it to the village of Benson

One rough path already runs across the site, but there is scope to improve accessibility and management of the land.  Our main task, then, was to make a start on clearing the way for people to be able to walk round the perimeter of the field.

This was largely a matter of levelling the ground, especially where moles have been at work.  So Green-Gymmers went out digging: looking for “lumps and holes”, reducing the bumps, and using the spoil to fill in the depressions.

Some interesting discoveries were made along the way.  Given the location, discarded drinks bottles and packaging from take-away meals were, sadly, only to be expected.  [Even though one would have to be a hamburger short of a picnic to think that this field is meant to be one gigantic outdoor litter-bin. – Ed.]  Our Superwomble was kept busy:

But why would there be a half-bucket of salt in the middle of a South-Oxfordshire field? 

“It says ICE on the bucket.”

– “Well, salt is good for treating paths with ice on them.”

– “Not sure it’s good for the ground, though.”

All the detectorist in this case could do was to shovel up as much as possible of the spilled salt, and then attend to evening out the ground.

“Ah, a Green-Gymmer! salt of the earth”

Elsewhere on site, there was fallen timber to be reduced, then moved into place to form slightly more organized habitat piles:

“We love to see ’em smile”

A slight difficulty was that we did not always have the tools we would ideally have liked.  The Womble, however, discovered that a pair of secateurs can double up as a litter-picker.  And one volunteer just happened to have a small collection of pruning saws in his pocket:

“Are you all right being in charge of the saws?”

– “Yes, as long as it doesn’t become a ‘sore’ point!”

Funnily enough, we did not finish with a treat from the nearby ‘resto’.  But we had made a good start on loving the spinney into better shape.  ’Cos lovin’ beats hatin’, right?