Another clear-up operation

“Cold inni’, mate!” observed the first fellow-outdoor-worker I encountered this morning, almost by the doorstep of my own house.

He was very cheerful about it, but there was no doubt about it: it was cold out.  (“F***ing freezing,” was how the ‘hi-vis’ expressed it – with a broad grin on his face.)  As morning wore on, conditions also became wet and windy.  Thankfully there was not too much rain, but weather not sticking to Green-Gym schedule, as per forecast, was disappointing. 

The plan had been ‘more of the same’ as last time we did a job for Earth Trust, which was coppicing in Broad Arboretum.  Same again, only darker and greyer, was what I had anticipated:

WGG 6 Nov 2018

The works schedule as it turned out, was to: 

• bundle & tie whips and stakes
• clear teepees, which had been built unofficially 
• coppice the last of the hazel
• load trailer with brash to be taken to the as yet unlit bonfire

 

 

Highlight of the day?  The cake of course!  But there was good reason for that, beyond Green-Gymmers’ affinity with hobbits.  It was a memorial cake: a gift (thank you!) from the widow of a much-missed former member.   

She reminded us that he always liked fruit cake.  Indeed, our late colleague’s contribution to The Wallingford Green Gym Cake Book (2009, sadly now out of print) was a recipe for Healthy Fruit Loaf.  The list of ingredients ran:

• 400 g (14 oz), mixed dried fruit
• 250 ml (9 fl oz) hot tea (no milk)
• 2 mugs (c 300 g or 11 oz) flour, self-raising
• 1 mug or less (up to 250 g or 5 oz) sugar
• Foresight

This led – or so the story goes – to two non-native English speakers wandering sadly round a supermarket in home country, asking a bewildered shopfloor-assistant where (in which aisle) they might find the “ingredient foresight”.