First Green Gym of 2019

“A mini-blog for a mini-session” is what the session leader asked for.

It was a session which might not have happened at all.  Only we felt that leaving out one date from the schedule was understandable; skipping two would be too much to bear.  Site warden: “Oh! I was looking forward to seeing you on the 25th” ;)

Besides, what better way to start the New Year than to be out in a South Oxfordshire field making oneself useful?  The sun on one’s back, the open sky above, a hawthorn twig up one’s nostril … OK maybe skip the bit about the vegetation:

On first arrival at the site, most of us went through precisely the same thought process: we could immediately see something which seemed useful to do.  Namely “that litter over there – I’ll just go and pick it up.”  It was only as one got closer, that the nature of the ‘litter’ became clear.

Yes, that is a bee hotel.  So not for demolition.  Nor for closer examination to see if there was any room at that inn.

This was our target.  Or rather the target for one working group:

For there were two mini tasks.  One was to remove barbed wire and associated ironmongery from the now redundant inner enclosure.  (The field under cultivation beyond is now secured with a rabbit-proof fence.)  So staples were removed, and barbed wire rolled up; and it was an opportunity for some of us to use our ‘new toys’.  Daddy Christmas had brought a set of bolt cutters (good for severing stubborn wire) and a grown-up saw (to remove the odd bough of hawthorn blocking our way to the wire):

This was all very simple, and progress was rapid.  We also discovered at one point a short length of even older fencing.  These iron railings (which we did not remove) look positively antique.  If they date from before WW2, how they survived – rather than being taken out to be ‘turned into Spitfires and Hurricanes’ – is a bit of a mystery:

Oh, and we took good care to keep out of the way of various bulbs, which were not quite as far advanced in their progress as some of those in more sheltered spots:

Bulbs on site at Warwick Spinney

Snowdrops in garden, Preston Crowmarsh, spotted on way home

The other mini task – it took less than half the session – was billed as “flag-planting”.  To be more precise, fixing markers on anthills, so as to protect them from the mower later in the year.  From PoV of metal salvagers, the search for anthills looked not so much like a riot goin’ on as a traditional South-Oxon New Year’s Day dance:

White-topped sticks marked where the ‘dancers’ had been:

So the jobs in the first half were definitely mini.  There was nothing mini, however, about the refreshments at tea-break: home-made Christmas cake; and turkey.  Yes, turkey.  
Of the “bronze feathered” variety “with cranberry”:

“A chocolate turkey?!”
“Best kind!”
“Nice to have turkey at Green Gym: such a wholesome thing to eat!”
“Even nicer when picked up at triple-reduced price at a supermarket"

Fortunately, we had a hammer to hand.  Before the break, the hammer had merely been an agricultural tool deployed in conjunction with fencing pliers.  Now the carver put it to alternative Green-Gym use:

A smashing time at Green Gym:
those who couldn’t come today didn’t know what they were missing!

So far, what had been missing in the morning was anything by way of serious challenge.  It is always a risk scheduling a session at this time of year: depending on task and number of people turning up, there is always the chance of it being a bit of a turkey.  Well, after the break there was quite enough to put the stuffing into the idea that today was going to be a stroll in the park.

All hands were now assigned to fence clearance.  Which was just as well, because this is where we began to come across more and more eccentric features about its construction.  First there more nails instead of regular staples:

Then … scaffolding?  And why in any case did anyone ever build a section of fence, at 90 degrees to the main line of fencing, not much more than a metre long?  It serves no purpose that any of us could see, and closer inspection revealed that it was going to be even trickier to dismantle than appeared at first sight:

Moreover, one of the posts turned out also to tethered by metal ‘guy ropes’, one of the pegs so firmly rooted in the ground that it is still there.  Also, for whatever reason, one section of barbed wire had been buried underground. 

It took most of the second half of the session to ‘deconstruct’ the wiring.  Unearthing and separating the extraneous strainer-post and length of scaffolding was the very last act of the session, during extra time.  Method: brute force & ignorance!  We considered leaving it to another occasion, on the grounds that volunteers needed another turkey before tackling that.  Given a challenge, however, Green-Gymmers could not resist staying on a few minutes to give it a go:

So not quite a mini session after all.  (But highly enjoyable: thank you, everyone!)  And not quite a mini blog either.  (Sorry, boss!)  Here’s wishing you all a good 2019.