Falling for Fall

Never the same from one week to the next, is Green Gym.

Last week we were about as high above sea level as we get at Wallingford Green Gym – on an exposed face of the Chilterns scarp, in the rain and the wind and the hail:

This week found us in the homely surroundings of Thames-side, on a calm, still day with the odd drop of sunshine:

Indeed some of us – those engaged in clearing up after fen-clearance – were at as low an elevation as is possible at a WGG session:

That is a landing stage in the background; passing river-traffic is a Dutch barge

 

A fen when it has been cut does not look its best:

Unless it is cut, however, this would become an exclusive habitat for willow.  So there were logs and brash to be carried by wheelbarrow or by hand:

Logs were sorted into two categories:

• firewood, to be stored against a wintry day
• rotten wood (home to beetles, etc), which was to be taken to temporary quarters against the day that a felled weeping-willow is turned into a work of art, surrounded by dedicated beetle-habitat

As one volunteer, eager to get stuck into the task, remarked,

It’s a computer job: we’re logging on.

If there was some restiveness among volunteers at the start of the session, it was because there had been a delay in getting us all on to the site.  This was the route to the temporary car park when we arrived, entirely blocked off by contractors, who were getting on with their own job:

Once our own work began, progress would have been faster if the route for us wood-removal people had not been constricted by a narrow bridge:

Any wheelbarrow used had to be unloaded the far side, and the wood transported across by hand, then re-loaded into a second barrow.

The delayed start and an autumnal chill in the air first thing had spurred us into using the time well to do a few more stretching exercises than we had done for a few weeks.  Once the session was underway, there were plenty of interesting things to be seen and new facts about the wildlife on site to be told.  One of the ‘apartments’ in the new sand-martin bank has been taken already – by a kingfisher.  A hummingbird hawk moth was spotted on site this summer.  And these, among the logs:

This is the stag-beetle sculpture to be:

In the background are the other Wallingford-Green-Gymmers this morning, preparing ground for Cornfield Annuals.  We could certainly see where they had been:

Rather harder to spot is one of the little flowers they had uncovered:

“It’s a corn-cockle, bless it”

Against the backdrop
of autumn woods, whatever task one was engaged in, it was all quite restorative; and some of us were able to wear our jackets loose.

Green Gym is like pot-holing?

By the session leader:

This country is thought to be wet and rainy by its inhabitants, but – as Green Gymmers know – our weather spends far more time threating rain than it does actually raining. 

It is rare for us to get caught by rain on a Tuesday morning.  There are exceptions.  Today was one of them.

It poured on the way to Aston Rowant, but stopped when all 14 of us assembled at 10 o’clock.  ‘Maybe we will be lucky,’ we thought.  But not for long. 

The hillside looked bleak:

Some tried to keep dry as long as possible:

Green-Gymmers wrapped up for the pre-session briefing

Then there were those who, like a certain A A Milne character, didn’t mind what the weather did, as long as they were out in it.  While others reflected philosophically that getting soaked “saves on moisturiser!”

Whatever our view on the weather, our task was to clear a fenced-in juniper plantation of all the invading dogwood and other shrubs.  Severe penalties if we were to cut down a single precious juniper!

No sooner had we started then so did the rain.  It did not slow our working, but did inhibit some of the usual conversation topics.  All morning it continued, varying from steady drizzle to heavy downpours. 

Thankfully it was mild with no wind to speak of.  There was one small respite in time for coffee and cakes, then it came back again.

Our newest volunteer had his own way of carrying brash to the fire.  But it worked, so who were we to wonder how he could see where he was going?

Our new site warden, Martin, heroically tried to start a fire, but it was just not possible.

By the end of the morning we had successfully cleared the whole area of the invaders.  So there is a huge pile of brash waiting to be burned on our next visit.  

Our success was only marred by the fact that we were all soaking wet.  Waterproof clothing was not a great help, and boots were squelching with as much water inside as out.  Of course, as a certain well known law states, the rain stopped as we walked back to the car park.  Decisions had to be made as to whether to drive in one’s wet boots or change into dry shoes.  As one person found out, putting on dry shoes over wet socks is not easy.

The fact that we had completed the given task in such weather did give a lot of satisfaction.  And the prospect of getting home to the warm, and putting on dry clothing, deterred any thought of a visit to the local on the way back.  As for why Green Gym might be like pot-holing: well, I have never tried pot-holing, but am told that it is feels very satisfying – afterwards.  Very like today.