Mist or wood-smoke?

By the Session Leader:

Not a good omen for the day when the fog was hiding street lights, and the forecast suggested it could continue all day: 

Never mind, WGG can cope!

We were told, two weeks in advance, that we would be coppicing again.  On the day, however, when we got to our RV point, we were told that other groups had finished that bit of coppicing, and had started clearing the willows which were obscuring the views from the observation hut by the ‘Poplar Pools’.

After a long trek through the more than usually dark woods, we came to the hut, right down by the river:

Note the blankets were not there for airing but to make it safe to get over the barbed wire fence. 

Now, where were these Pools?

One was to our left:

And there was the first pile of willow brash waiting to be burned, with far more to be cut.  [You can just make out the brash pile through the mist: background, right-hand side. – Ed.]

“There is so much,” said the site warden, “that we need two fires.”  We thought that just getting one going would be an achievement in the dank, misty conditions, and all the wood dripping with moisture.  

Nevertheless, we set to.  The site was very uneven and slippery, so great care had to be taken.  One volunteer did try sitting down, inadvertently, getting a nice clean coat muddy.  But too quick for the camera!

Obviously the technique of bowing to the fire worked wonders:

The combination of mist and smoke reduced visibility considerably:

[That was what the scene looked like to the camera lens at the time.  Below is the image ‘treated’ after the session. – Ed.]

While one group tended the fire, another group worked on the bank of the river to the left cutting more willow. 

Meantime, a third group kept to the right of the bank, well away from the smoke, and found a bigger prize to be cut down …

sawn up …

and carried away, not to the bonfire, but as logs for the Earth Trust boilers:

There was some speculation about the hut being used for our tea-break.  That, however, would have been too comfortable: not Green-Gym style at all.  So we had the usual standing break:

[Again, thanks to the wonders of technology, you can see better what was going on than volunteers could at the time. – Ed.]

More Green Engineering

By C:

It is nice to know that one is appreciated.  This was what the local bird population made of our labours last week:

Since then, temperatures overnight have fallen considerably.  We have still not had any serious cold yet this year: negative Celsius readings yes, but not in double figures.  Nevertheless, first thing today, the air was cold and crisp.  “Like vodka”, as a character in a Russian novel was wont to say.  The character: possibly Viktor’s mother, in Life and Fate.  Or maybe not.  It’s an awful lot of pages to read to double-check!  The first hard frost of the season here anyway: 

Outside temperature at dawn: minus 4.3 C

Some plants which have been hanging on with Green-Gym tenacity ...

may have to admit the growing season is over?

The airflow over Britain has been from Scandinavia, veering from Russia, but the sun had warmed things up before session-start.  The site to which we had been summoned this week, looks mighty fine at first light.  These shots were taken earlier this month:

River Thames and the spire of St Peter's Church Wallingford

Wallingford Bridge.  In the background: remains of Wallingford Castle

Given its location – between the town of Wallingford and the increasingly urbanised village of Crowmarsh – I think Riverside Meadow would count as the kind of “urban nature” for which NDD-campaigners contend.  NDD: Nature Deficit Disorder (not a real medical condition – just a term used to describe post-industrial-age alienation from the natural environment.) 

To counteract NDD, there is nothing like working outdoors on a nature-conservation task.  One of our volunteers reflected how lovely it is just to be out and about in that beautiful surroundings, then added, “Actually it’s a good thing to be doing something!”  To which the inevitable reply was: “Well that is rather the point of Green Gym!” 

Shortly after, came one of those wonderfully surreal passages of Green-Gym conversation, among a group of members of pensionable years, on the question of which one of them was going to climb back over the barbed-wire fence to fetch an extra tool:

“… You stay there: it’s easier for me, on account of my junior age.”

– “And you’re taller.”

– “And you speak French.”

That led in turn to musings on what ‘Green Gym’ would be in French.  [Answer is: La Gym au Vert. – Ed.]   

Meanwhile, today’s task was more ‘green engineering’.  ‘More’ in the sense of further engineering works to complete a project, rather than adapting materials or methods to make the works carried out yet more eco-friendly.  We were aiming to complete a job started last month (25 October): installing/topping up the willow bundles on the larger of the two sections of bank which have in the past suffered from erosion.  

First, there was a trailer to unload:

This proved a little tricky, as the detachable sides proved reluctant to allow themselves to be detached.  Then the materials, which had settled during the ride, were reluctant to allow themselves to be taken off the trailer.

Bundles which had come undone in the year since they were fashioned, were re-tied.  And all were carried for the last leg of their journey, the short distance to that stretch of the river-bank under reconstruction.  At least one was greeted with a snatch of song:

“There’s a bundle coming in!”

There the willow-packs were laid parallel to what will be the new shore-line in due course:

Other Green-Gymmers raked up the remains of the tall-herb vegetation which had been given its cyclical cut:

The cuttings were spread over the willow-bundles in situ, to deter those members of the public who think the wood has been gathered and piled up specially for them to use as firewood for their bank-side BBQ parties.

All this activity stoked up an enthusiastic response to the magic words “Tea break!”  For weeks, one of our volunteers has been giving away apples by the boxful.  This week, he had recycled some of the surplus fruit from the apple tree in his garden:

Apple cake made according to the recipe in the WGG Cake Book (for which we cannot post a link – sorry! – because the book, which we wrote and self-published, is sold out)

By session end, the task had duly been completed.  And not only were we warm from the exercise, but as the last stakes were being hammered in to secure the bundles from floating away next time the river rises, the mercury had risen to 4.3 Celsius: