Wallingford Green Gym: Another Golden Day

Once more, fields blessed with gold. This time, buttercups. Plus the odd dandelion:

In the background of that photograph, you can see our main target for today: an old fence-line – to be removed.

Our session leader had also organized some fine weather. Certainly much warmer than it had been for the bank holiday. Just to prove that it is still May, the weather had thrown in some cold and frosty mornings over the long weekend:

Frost or sunshine (or both), it can be quite tranquil in the lower meadows beside the river. Though boaters have assured us that it is not as peaceful as you might think, living on the river, mostly on account of the Canada Geese:

It certainly is not quiet when Green-Gymmers start hammering away! And much hammering was needed today, to remove the metal fittings (wire and staples) before volunteers had a go at lifting out the fence-posts themselves:

Faced with an apparently immovable object, most Green-Gymmers ‘know’ that they are indestructible (because they are gold) and that it is the target which will yield first. One of the posts drawn by hand was 12 feet long!

All the same, there are occasions when even Green-Gymmers will resort to Other Means. Where staples proved too stubborn, wire was simply cut with bolt cutters. As for the most solidly set posts – they were left for someone else to attend to later: someone with a tractor.

Coiling lengths of wriggly tin, to stow in the landie, was a quieter task.

The human mules carrying fence-posts and railings to piles for collection were the quietest pack animals you can imagine. And equally patient.

It was also a day to admire new pieces of kit, whether a new tool from a well-known store-chain, or (an innovation this for Green Gym) a rather nifty folding table at tea-break ("raising the bar"):

At the end of the session, it was most satisfying to look back and see how much had been achieved by manual labour. Few of the old fence-posts were still standing: