Which way to go?

Two groups, two towns.  Because one town ain’t big enough?

Yes, this morning, for the first time in our history, Wallingford Green Gym ran two sessions simultaneously.  We’ve grown that big.  Or, more to the point, there was a limit on the amount of work needed at the site where we had first been scheduled to go; also a limit on the amount of space in which to work safely and happily.  So, rather last minute, it was arranged for: one group to keep our first commitment, at St Leonard’s churchyard in the town of Wallingford; and for another, larger contingent to work not in the next town, but in Ewelme village.

This naturally gave rise to all sorts of possibilities for Green-Gymmers to head quite the wrong way, emails sent not to arrive, &c.

Wallingford bridge, marked up for an event a few days ago

Some of us had visions of volunteers wandering about in a fog of confusion.  Not least because there is history of people trying to find St Leonard’s, fetching up at the wrong church, then wondering why there is nobody else about.  The building with the iconic spire in the background here is St Peter’s, which happens to lie on the same street:

Wallingford Bridge, early morning last Sunday

In fact we needn’t have worried.  [The future’s never ours to see, is it? – Ed.]  Today dawned bright and clear from the start, both literally and metaphorically.

That one is St Leonard’s – photograph taken first thing this morning from the opposite side of the River Thames

At Ewelme, most of the work was in Ewelme Brook: in most places, just ankle-deep in water.  (“If you’ve got wellies, all welly and good.”)  Our target, Great, aka ‘Hairy’, Willowherb:

Its flowers may be a pretty pink, but it crowds out species such as Ewelme’s iconic watercress.  It is called Great on account of its size, not because site managers think it is ecologically great.

Most of our number, then, set to pulling the plants by hand, to extract as much of the root system as possible.  This being hard work, and it being such a lovely day, inevitably it was not continuous labouring on the part of volunteers:

It was decided pretty quickly that more than one wheelbarrow would be needed for efficient moving of ex-willowherb to compost heap.  There were, after all, 14 of us plus site warden on location.  One Green-Gymmer was accordingly despatched to fetch another barrow from the centre. 

After they had been gone some time, a call arrived on the session leader’s mobile.  It was the volunteer asking if someone competent could be sent to help with the job?  The first person sent had been completely unable to fathom the business of padlocks and keycodes!

The advantage for the first volunteer having to wait was the unexpected bonus of having some time out in the most beautiful, peaceful location.  (Peaceful because all the other Green-Gymmers were far away, downstream.)  It was a joy just to stand and watch a young family:

Look out for the ducklings on the concrete bund in the video

The advantage of having finished up sending two bods to the centre, was that two wheelbarrows were brought back.  Both extra barrows ended up being used in the stream.

Wheelbarrowing vegetation to the compost heap was obviously a job for a stevedore working on dry land.  Other shore jobs were:

Compost-heap management

Relocating tadpoles from a pond which is rapidly drying up

For many Green-Gymmers, working in Ewelme Stream on a warm sunny day brings back fond memories of childhood summers spent splashing about and having fun in the water.  Tadpoling takes this to another level!  It is a pastime one absolutely associates with being about age 6.

At tea-break, the urge could no longer be resisted, for session leader at Ewelme to telephone oppo at St Leonard’s and ask if they needed reinforcements.  Much of the conversation which followed, seemed to be on the subject of supplies of cake. 

Eventually the question was asked:

Ewelme to St Leonard’s: How many of you are there?

St L: Six.

Ewelme: Six Green-Gymmers?

St L: No, I’m counting legs.

Those three pairs of legs (and arms) must have worked hard, because apparently that group – with assistance from other people, who live near the churchyard – filled six builders’ bags with the surplus vegetation they cut.  The idea is that a generous portion of the churchyard is set aside as nature area, but there is a limit to how much luxuriant nature is welcome on site:

Here too it was warm work:

Which group had the better morning?  I would not like to hazard a guess!

Fresh-Air pills

The health benefits of getting outdoors seem to be seriously in vogue at the moment.

My own village has just opened a ‘fresh-air gym’, which is meant for “youths and adults”:

Despite the fierce notice – “This is NOT children’s play equipment” – inevitably it has been much clambered over by small persons.  They have explored all the playground-possibilities to be had from fixed exercise-equipment, while grown-ups had to wait their turn to have a go.

Also in the last week, there was a research paper published on the efficacy, and dosage required, of self-administered NE therapy (‘nature experience’).  This was widely covered in the British press.  According to the study, “The efficiency of a nature pill per time expended was greatest between 20 and 30 min, after which benefits continued to accrue, but at a reduced rate.”  (‘Urban Nature Experiences Reduce Stress in the Context of Daily Life Based on Salivary Biomarkers’ – Mary Carol R Hunter, Brenda W Gillespie, Sophie Yu-Pu Chen, Frontiers in Psychology, 4 April 2019)

NE was defined for the purposes of the study as “spending time in an outdoor place that brings a sense of contact with nature, at least three times a week for a duration of 10 min or more.”  A Green-Gym session lasts considerably longer than that – though we don’t do much sitting around, and certainly not all day long.  Nevertheless, Green Gym could be designated one of our three ‘nature experiences’ a week, alongside the daily five portions of fruit & veg, eight glasses of water (or tea, coffee …) a day, etc?

For an efficacious NE, the researchers found, “You don’t have to travel to the wildlands.”  Which was just as well really, for today we travelled no further than a nearby village. 

The main priority there was a freshly re-opened footpath.  The line of the path had been cleared by a local ramblers’ group, under the direction of an Oxfordshire County Footpaths Officer.  Our task was to make it more pleasant to use.

The first thing to do was to have a coorie for potential targets. 

– Another new OED word there.  ‘Coorie’, noun or verb, Scots: ‘search, hunt, stalk’.  Green-Gym vocabulary is ever expanding, though we probably won’t have much use for what one of our volunteers clearly thought was a newly minted term (but actually Americans have got there first): ‘bloomage’.

There were some interesting splashes of colour – all right, bloomage – around us, on what was otherwise rather a grey day.  Bluebells and forsythia we can identify.  Can anyone help with naming these?

From the newly-installed public-footpath sign at one end, Green-Gymmers worked their way up the stretch of new path, smoothing and beautifying the way:

Some volunteers clearly found larger targets to tackle than others, and needed to deploy a range of tools.  I think the loppers in the snap proudly recorded by one Green-Gymmer below are just for size comparison!

Towards the top end of the path was an old post which needed removing.  First one volunteer had a go, then called for reinforcements.  Two strong men then pulled and heaved, and levered …

… to no avail.  Then it was three people on the job:

At last, result! and the inevitable posing for pictures, with the prize ‘catch’ before it was taken to the brash pile:

After that, besides the need for refreshment, it was time to collect up tools and re-group:

In the second half of the session, some volunteers turned their attention to the driveway leading up to the allotments – limited, of course, by having to look out for, and skirt round, ‘live’ birds’ nests:

Others donned hi-vis and returned to the roadway which runs parallel to the newly refurbished footpath.  This was where we had done our first Green-Gym job in that village.

Again there was encroaching vegetation to cut back, more dead wood to be removed, and dying wood to be freed from the grip of ivy.  Here a volunteer has a handsaw to old projecting roots, which were to be trimmed level with the ground:

Thankfully the rain which was forecast to turn heavy at mid-day did no such thing.  There was, however, enough of the wet stuff around to mean that today’s ‘after’ pictures are not the most spectacular: