Still winter ...

But almost a touch of spring in the air today?  Maybe not quite matching the date in our calendar: the WGG Christmas Lunch. 

Before that, to work up an appetite, a task with potential for flames.

Flames from bonfire, that is – a bonfire under control.  From the elevation of our RV point, it appeared almost as if someone else was experiencing seriously anti-social flames.  Looking down and across at Didcot power station, it seemed as if the entire plant was going up in smoke!

We trusted that was not the case (none of us phoned the fire brigade) and instead made our way to our own job.  Which was to continue from where another volunteer group – working in the pouring rain – had singularly failed to finish pushing back a field-perimeter hedgerow.  In itself, a hedge is a good thing for wildlife, but not when it encroaches on a field margin which is meant to be set aside for wildflowers.

Our workforce split into two groups.  One team went to work completing the hedge-cut.  Kit: loppers and saws, plus – for those working on the blackthorn bushes – eye protection. 

With some of the larger trees (an even bigger nice surprise than expected), it took two or even three volunteers working together to bring them down to size.  Only occasionally did this turn to pure Green-Gym comedy: like the one where a section was painstakingly sawn through by three people taking it in turns – only for the whole tree promptly to break off at the roots. 

One also hoped that the situation below would not turn into a classic double act.  It is believed the session leader was merely checking his phone in case a latecomer had left a message, rather than calling for help, or looking up on the internet ‘How to take out a stubborn stump’:

Meanwhile, the fire-team also subdivided into smaller units.  Some made a start on prepping the brash …

while another built a foundation and frame for the bonfire with pre-prepared materials.  The latter included a batch of dry stakes left over from the winter of 2017-18 (they might have been cut and bundled by us), and therefore too brittle for use in hedge-laying, but good for starting a fire (at least that was the hope):

The construction was a design new to many of us, and very nearly worked first time.  Lighting the fire, take 1:

Take 2, with artificial breeze – what a contrast to last Friday, when the other group had stacked up some of the brash as a windbreak:

The fire might well have been considered to be going well enough by half-time:

There was a marked contrast, however, between the two work-teams come the time for tea-break.  Hedge-cutting outfits were keen on taking refreshment as soon as poss.  Some of the bonfire team, OTOH, were deeply reluctant to leave their workface until they were sure they had laid enough chunky logs on the fire to keep the blaze going.

Refreshments matched the day.  A little smackerel – for no-one wanted to spoil their appetite for lunch – of “Christmas Dinner edition” potato chips (prosecco & pink peppercorn flavour) and the last of the Weihnachtssterne (the silver-foil covered Christmas ‘stars’ made of chocolate and nougat).  Oh and non-seasonal items as well, and even a few healthy things:

After the break there was some re-alignment of the workforce.  Most of the cutting having been finished, it was time to switch more resources to dragging cut stuff to bonfire site.  The walk to collect fresh brash for the flames really did get longer each time.  

At least the cutting was completed.  There was still a fair amount of brash left over for someone (us next time, or another group?) to deal with: 

Disposing of brash, however, is not as time-limited a task as the hedge-cutting itself.  The latter has be done before bird-nesting season begins.

And so the walk back to the car-park – which had not got further: it just felt like it!  And, for most volunteers, on to Christmas lunch.  (“Well who wants Christmas in July?”)  The menu included “Roast Breast of Bronzed Feathered Turkey” and “Festive Plum Pudding with Brandy Butter Sauce”, but actually I think everyone pre-ordering had chosen from the regular bar menu.  

Happy Post-Christmas Time!