Another perfect day, if not quite in paradise

Ah, now this is what an English May Day morning should look like:

Mist over the meadows gently uncurling at the first caress of dawn, the trees dressed in fresh green, the pearly-blue sky above promising a perfect early-summer’s day … All as it should be, except that today’s date is 30 April.

It did indeed turn out a very fine morning.  And that was exactly as it should be, because today is by far the most important day of the week.  It’s Tuesday.  So this morning was: Wallingford Green Gym. 

Now a fair number of us WGGers had been under the impression that today we were going to be in Paradise (Wood).  Having convened at a central car-park, we left most of our transport there, and all piled into three vehicles to head off for one of the smaller satellite car-parks on site.  Car-parking spaces there at a premium because the spot is much used by dog-walkers. 

The road certainly took us in the direction of Paradise Wood, the fields either side caparisoned in gold.  Rapeseed plants one side:

Opposite, a field which once was arable, now sown with mixed wildflower seed, where the cowslips have really taken:

It soon turned out that our destination this morning was not Paradise Wood after all, but the family area beside neighbouring Neptune Wood:

The reaction on the part of volunteers was not so much one of disappointment as a tremor of anxiety.  For the area is home to a number of willow sculptures.  Like this one, which we think is meant to represent a telescope:

Now we have nothing against willow sculptures as such, nor against sculptures commemorating HMS Neptune.  We know the whole site was planted to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar – with the number of trees needed to have built and fitted out the ship – a great many oaks, of course, but also ash for tools, elder for waterproof casks for gunpowder, &c.  What we do have an ‘issue’ with is the pruning and weaving to keep willow sculptures in shape.  And the site warden had promised that we wouldn’t be doing that …

We need not have expended a moment’s worry.  Our site warden was as good as his word.  Fixtures like these were our target today:

Our mission: a destructive one.   [Though not when compared with the purpose of HMS Neptune. – Ed.]  For the task was to remove the exclosures, which are now redundant.  The trees are now well established, so the wood and wire-netting barriers were to be taken down; and the tree-guards relieved of their duties.

So it was going to be destination happiness after all.  We love destructive tasks!  And the weather was warming up too.  A fleece had been much needed if out seeking the dawn-light.  But now ...

The first step towards dismantling tree-hokkies was to remove the staples which were securing wire to posts: 

Some of the staples came out easily.  Others had been hammered in too far, so they lay flush with the timber.  Others had been placed very far down, where in the intervening years they had been overwhelmed by overgrowing grass and accumulating soil.  And the really obstinate specimens were both underground and hammered in fast.  But all had to yield in the end to the unremitting hammer-blows wielded by true-hearted Green-Gymmers.

Timber rails and posts were then removed.  Again, some came quietly.  Those were the rotten ones.  Others stood their ground.  Those were the ones where the wood was still sound.  But in the end, all were carried off the field …

and into the hands of the ‘denailing’ teams, who removed any remaining metalwork from the wood:

The wire netting was also carefully collected up for re-use.  Rolling it up required special measures to stop it springing open again while it was being secured.  Just occasionally, this whole process looked like some ancient English May-Day ritual – a sacred dance, perhaps, with ritual enthronement of a May Queen?

As we reached the last tree-pen, it was most satisfying to be able to look back and see the place already “looking less like a park, and more natural”. – Although you can tell in the ‘after’ picture below that one little job still needed doing when the photograph was taken.  Soil had still to be back-filled in the holes where fence-posts had been.  In the meantime, the site warden’s dog appeared to be checking out that these were not rabbit holes:

Before

After

Fewer hands were needed now on the task of tree liberation.  One Green-Gymmer took the initiative to be Wardrobe Mistress, retrieve all the warm tops which had been discarded, and use the side of the trailer as an impromptu coat-rack:

Even so, gradually the number of spectators increased, as the mopping-up operation came to a close:

By session end, the job had been well and truly done.  There was a good trailerful of materials to show for it – and a field full of contented Green-Gymmers ready to head off home or to the pub:

And the weather forecast for the real 1 May, tomorrow?  “Cloudy.”  Also cooler than of late.

Paths gentle and clear

By ‘C’:

Waiting for one's fellow-volunteers to arrive, a Green-Gym leader really hopes they will not be thinking this during the course of the session:

Actually there were several moments this morning when I felt as behind events as a certain Minister for Magic; but the session rolled on nevertheless.  If there were times when I totted up the number of volunteers I could account for on site, and the answer came to 7 (when I knew perfectly well that we were an 8 at start of play), well the 8th person was located soon enough, safe and sound.

Our RV time was 10:00 as usual, but the place had been changed.  As my passenger remarked, as we arrived, it did feel like driving on to the set for an action film, probably some kind of thriller:

There was an explanation for this.  Our work-site was to be at Neptune Wood, on the Earth Trust estate, but car-parking this morning, was courtesy of the neighbours, the Sylva Wood Trust (another conservation charity, not a movie studio):

They were very kindly letting us use some of their space, while the public car-park for Neptune Wood – not before time – is being resurfaced, with a little help from Tesco:

From the Sylva HQ, our way led up a pretty stretch of field-path:

We have, I think, in the past done work on left hand side of that path, a little further up: something to do with being nice to the wildflowers – hay fever permitting.  On this occasion, the entrance to our work area was a gap in the hedge:

Neptune Wood is still quite young: planted to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.  All the same, there are a few areas in need of some love & attention.  The noticeboards for instance:

We, however, were there to give love and attention, aka ‘side up’, the public rights of way, which were being ‘nibbled away’ by encroaching vegetation:

There are two little bridges on site.  By the time I got to the other one, I found it had already been done – I could see where Green Gym had been:

“Showers”, heavy and slow-moving, seemed to the import of the amber warning which had been issued by the Met Office for later in the morning.  – Except that from the perspective of the person getting wet, ‘heavy, slow-moving showers’ = ‘rain’.  And there sure was quite a lot of that, even if not quite the deluge one had been led to expect.  Nature was soon looking bedraggled:

If you look closely at the skyscape in the background of that second picture, you can see how close we were to Didcot (remaining cooling towers and chimney for the power station), though it didn’t feel like it.

Green Gym carried on regardless, until the job was done – on the principle that there is no such thing as bad weather, just poor choice of clothing.  Let it rain!