Paws for Thought

By ‘C’:

Glorious Green-Gym weather, but no WGG session today.  Instead, an opportunity just to walk through the countryside, and enjoy it – and take in the sights of some of the places we know well.

This, for example – the hedge we planted in the field next to Riverside Meadow, Crowmarsh:

That must have been a decade ago.  We did the initial work of digging one long trench, planting the whips, and wrapping round their protective plastic spirals.  I wonder if anyone has a plan to: a. remove the tree-guards; b. lay the hedge …

On the other side of the river, St Leonard’s churchyard, which was managed as a bijou nature reserve:

Upstream, from the Thames tow-path, a view of the pond area in Wallingford Castle Meadows:

Further on, at the boundary of ‘Green-Gym country’, a view over Lower Meadow:

There we have most recently pulled docks, but in the past we have sunk posts for leaflet dispensers, made gateway-entrances more accessible, and repaired the perimeter fence-line.  You can tell where we have been on fence-maintenance mode …

and where we haven’t:

I hope you are all having a good Christmas.  Here’s looking forward to more tasks in 2017!

A Dull Day

A Tuesday without Green Gym is by definition at least a bit dull.

Actually, the weather, which had been a bit damp and not very interesting to be out in, intermittently brightened up this morning.  However, there was no Green-Gym session for the sun to shine on.  Site wardens had been reluctant to schedule a session for this week: they seemed to think that volunteers would have other things to do.  Apparently there is something important happening the night of 24/25 December. 

However, I have not been able to keep away from things Green-Gym altogether.  On a stroll round nearby Riverside Meadow, I made a point of revisiting some of the spots where we have worked in 2014 and in years past. 

This corner in particular brought back a few memories:

Foreground: ditch restored by WGG in 2008 and maintained annually since

Background: spire of St Peter’s Church, Wallingford

Old hands still recall the local official who became madder than a wet hen because the team had carried out work precisely according to written spec, and the results were exactly as we (but not he) had anticipated.  It all got sorted in the end.

There are also stretches of river bank, where (to all-round satisfaction) we have been engaged in willow spiling.  This was a spot where deep wash from passing motor-boats had been causing erosion:

Foreground: fenced area where bank has been repaired
Background: River Thames; Wallingford Bridge

Here the problem had been cattle trampling the ground when they habitually visited the same spot to drink from the river:

Nearside: Green Gym was here!

Far side of the river: Wallingford Rowing Club; tower of St Leonard’s Church, where we help out in the churchyard

One reason why willow spiling is effective for safeguarding river banks is that willow rods stuck in the earth will – in the right conditions – re-grow:

Normal service will be resumed at Green Gym next week!  In the meantime, I trust volunteers are taking a well-deserved rest …