Green-Gym Allsorts

By the Session Leader:

A return to Millbrook Mead after just two weeks, for a nice mixture of jobs, and correspondingly a nice mix of before and after pics.

The biggest job was repairing the frame of the boardwalk.  This we had hoped to do last time, only the materials had not arrived.  This time, our engineers were not to be denied:

Before

During: “Spot on!”

After

Only one passer-by decided that the ‘Path Closed’ sign did not apply to her.  Not that her dog minded!

The last of the willows was pollarded – just in time before nesting season is in full swing:

Before

After

Some more of the brash was burned:

This put to the test a new item of clothing, which had been bought on the grounds that it was advertised as ‘flameproof’:

During the morning, the top became liberally sprinkled with hot ashes, which left not a single hole in the fabric, but left instead one very pleased unburnt gymmer.

 

Elsewhere on site, a stream was uncovered:

Before

After

Some gymmers needed a little assistance to escape from the sticky sucky mud.

The site welcome-&-information-board had its weed carpet lifted, and the base made ready once again for planting with wild flowers:

Before

After

And another two bucket-loads of whips were planted, thus extending the area that we planted last time:

Just a fortnight after our previous visit, and already there were more flowers to be seen around the ‘gym’.  Here some hellebores flourishing in the neighbouring gravel garden:

And here, some flower beginning with a ‘b’, whose name we knew at the start, but could we remember it at tea time?  

Someone’s brain spluttered into life eventually, and we got the name back – only for it to be forgotten again!  [‘Butterbur’?  The name of the plant, that is, not a description of the state of a Green-Gymmer’s brain after a hard work-out. – Ed.]

Altogether, a most productive morning, as well as an enjoyable one.

Another Two-fer

By the session leaders:

A common feature of our sessions is that there are alternative tasks from which our volunteers can choose, depending on what kind of work they personally prefer – or what kind of footwear they are sporting.

Alternative #1: weir-removal 

This sounded more dramatic than it proved, for this was only a small weir, on a shallow stream.  Removing it (from under the bridge) was to enable fish – mostly trout – to get up stream.   It was a remarkably speedy job, and the water level above the bridge dropped very quickly – note the muddy banks:

Here is the demolished weir – a marvelous oak plank:

Snowdrops in the middle of March still? 

Alternative #2: willow-pollarding

The crew turned up with fire-lighting kit just in case, but in fact the fire was already going when most of us arrived, well before our RV time:

Most (but not all) of the willow on site was to be pollarded.

It is so ingrained in Green-Gymmers that we sort and stack timber that when the whole group convened at the picnic table for tea we found that the group which was pollarding in that section of the site had done this:

They had also restored a garden feature:

And this is job done in the meadow area.  The large willow to the right in the photograph was deliberately left as it was – we were told “not to touch!”