Whatever floats your boat

“I LOVE digging holes” is genuine Green-Gym volunteer feedback. 

He certainly got his chance today ...

for this was what the site warden had in mind for us, high on the Chilterns scarp:

The task will be: digging out and replacing two gate posts (you will need digging and tamping tools)
But also there will be some additional: clearing vegetation from a fenceline (loppers, bow saws, slashers)
Should get lots of folk, or folk that prefer not to grub about in the dirt …

Actually the first job was to unload the trailer of tools + gate-post #1, and pass them over the wire to the field where we would be working.  Moving gate-post to work-site is one of those tasks which is much easier when all of the team are facing in the right direction:

Volunteers then had a walk up to the end of the field, through a gate, and back along the other side of the fence in order to get into position themselves.  This was occasion for much knowledgeable comment about the diversity of wildflower-cover (and absence of unwanted species) on the chalk grassland:

Once all tools, materials, and workers were in place, the warden could demonstrate what needed to be done.  1 x side-gate to be removed; 1 x gate-post to be removed and replaced:

The gap in the line, where the defunct side-gate was, will be filled IDC with railings.  Meanwhile, the old gate was stripped of its metal fittings, which can be re-used:

When they had time to notice (and in between “slow-moving showers”), volunteers may have observed that they were working at a spot with some wonderful views:

While the gate-post-hole diggers set to, the other Green-Gymmers on task today had the opportunity to work in a slightly more sheltered location:

Although separated by some distance, conversation in both groups touched on things Ancient Roman.  The fence-line clearers uncovered “a Roman stile”:

“Well how else would Roman soldiers have got over the wire fence?”

Meantime, the hole-engineers had discovered “a small woodhenge”.  Remains of old post had to be separated from the chalky soil excavated from the slot being prepared for the new post:

For some reason, musings about not even being at Chipping Norton, Chipping Sodbury, or Chipping Campden led to reminiscences of school lessons: from rhymes we discovered we all knew (“Latin is a language as dead as dead can be; first it killed the Romans, and now it’s killing me”) to stories we had been given to read about the exploits of the Roman Army.  This, for instance, from an account of the industriousness of the troops who had landed on the shores of Britain:

Laborant et cantant.

They work [like Green-Gymmers].
And they sing [which, on the whole, Green-Gymmers don’t do]

Bene laborant.

They work well.

Non bene cantant.

They sing like Florence Foster Jenkins.

That in turn led to recollections of many a wondrous mistake made by unwilling pupils.  This, for instance, by one of my own class-mates:

Marcus est miles Romanus.

Correct answer: ‘Marcus is a Roman soldier.’

(Incidentally, poor style.  Better would be: Marcus miles Romanus est.)

Translation offered by pupil: ‘Marcus is miles from Rome.’

Naturally, as the mound of splintered ‘woodhenge’ grew, it was also observed that “The People’s Front of Judea … were a splinter group, weren’t they?”

After tea-break, a third task was available for any volunteer who fancied a change: looking for flints to add to the material to be tamped in around the new gate-post.  Some of us had more success than others, but walking around in hope of finding spoil left by rabbits at least afforded an opportunity to take in some different views of the landscape:

As finishing touches were being put to the gate-post installation, it was something of a matter of faith (trust in the Green-Gymmer, who had wielded the spirit level) that the new post was: 

a. in the right place

b. straight

Anyone who had glanced at post and gate might have been forgiven for having some misgivings on either point:

We were assured by the Master Measurer that the post was perfectly straight, it was just the ground that was wonky.  And indeed, by the time we left, it had been demonstrated that gate and post did match up:

Regrettably, there was no time left over to tackle gate-post #2.  That’s for another time – or for someone else.

Beetlemania

By the session leaders:

“Nice sunny day!” called out one volunteer as we arrived – wholly ironically, for there was a distinct nip in the air:

Another recalled that dawn had been so spectacular that for a moment she had wondered if it was the Aurora Borealis come unusually far south.

In this case, however, ‘red at morning’ proved to be good news.  For it rained just enough early on in in the day that the main task scheduled for us – painting outdoor furniture – was off.  From PoV of volunteers this was good, because Green-Gymmers prefer sessions which are “a bit more physical.”

There was certainly plenty of ‘physical’ on offer, and the range of tasks was definitely unusual, even for this site.  First there was outdoor-furniture moving, as soon as site staff had turned up with the key to a gate:

Take it from us: pulling a trolley loaded with a table, across uneven, claggy ground is quite physical.  The furniture then had to be tested, according to the strict health & safety regulations which apply to all poolside patio furnishings:

Then there was the digging.  Lots of digging.  One group was digging around the sides of a compost heap, which was threatening to overwhelm the fencing around it.  To mark International Women’s Day, we shall give you photos which – when it comes to the ‘physical’ – feature the women in the team:

Male and female alike, members of the group still had time and breath left to engage in another important Green-Gym activity: chatting. 

First topic today (for reasons not entirely clear to us, except that one of our number is a devoted Devonian): when consuming scones, is it jam before cream, or cream first, then a layer of jam?  Answer: “There’s no right way, except my way: cream – jam – cream again.”

Spurred on by dreams of summer and clotted-cream teas, the group shifted large quantities of compost away from the fence, to prevent the posts from rotting ...

and attached (precision work, this) a barrier to protect from further damage:

Deep in the woods, a third group was definitely acting in a suspicious manner:

A closer look suggested that “constructing a beetle-habitat” might be just another term for ‘digging’.  Specifically, digging a hole in the ground:

The specification for this particular roundish hole was that it should be 60 cm deep.  

By tea-break, it was 40 cm deep.

By then, normal Green-Gym weather-service had resumed.  The sun was not quite out, but the day had fined up nicely.

Re-invigorated by traditional Green-Gym tea/coffee and cake (or fruit, for the one keeping Lent), the workforce soon took the excavation down to the required depth.  Then the task became more artistic, for into the hole were placed pieces of rotten wood, which will apparently make for the perfect residence for stag-beetle larvae:

As the larvae may spend up to 7 years there, it is important that their dream home in the country is constructed to the highest standard.  Here volunteers are not so much fixing a hole as adding the finishing touches to meet the exacting requirements of the most discerning of customers:

Meanwhile, the compost-heap repair and maintenance being completed ...

after the break some of that workforce was re-assigned to repair and maintenance of the French drain we had built in a previous season.  The drain (a trench filled with pebbles) was working well enough to direct surface- and groundwater away from the nearby study centre.  The pebbles, however, in settling had sunk below the level of the path; and that had created a trip hazard.  A top-up of material was therefore required:

This job too was finished off to the satisfaction of some highly dedicated workers:

No mole hill was disrupted in the landscaping of this French drain

At session end there was some discussion about what the finished piece of domestic architecture should be called.  Although there was some talk of it resembling the work of Antoni Gaudí, in the end it was decided that the beetles’ new home had to be designated The Cavern: