Unwinding Green-Gym style

By ‘C’:

A new site today – and very handsome it looked too, on the day I went to do a ‘recce’:

That was Dorchester village cemetery last week (as opposed to Dorchester Abbey Cemetery), on the afternoon of Easter Thursday.  A slightly more ample area than we are used to at graveyards!

North-east entrance

Site viewed from south-west

A lovely green space, all the more peaceful for there being only one other visitor all the time I was there.  I guessed most casual visitors to the village would have gravitated towards the Abbey and/or the water meadows beside the River Thames; while a good number of village families had made for the rec/playground on the other side of the road.

Today was a slightly different story: 14 Green-Gymmers on site; and the weather nowhere near as pleasant.  The wind had flipped back to ENE, but at least it had stopped raining.  Thus all the reconnaissance photographs were taken in glorious sunshine, and operational pics in dull grey conditions.

An ivy bash (“Goody goody!”) was the reason for our being there whatever the weather.  That the grounds had been kept in a good state of general maintenance, was clear from the recce.  What was also apparent, however, was that there was scope to improve biodiversity by knocking back the latest attempts by encroaching ivy to gain more than a foothold.  

‘HQ’ for tools and tea-break was on a grander scale than we are used to:

History behind it there is aplenty, I am sure.  It is with difficulty – also respect for the Green-Gym colleague who really does work as a tour-guide in an almost-stately home – that where the stories are not known, I refrain from inventing tales after the manner of the wonderful Lettice Douffet.  (Whose exploits will be celebrated in a revival of the play concerned at a theatre near us this very week). 

One story that is true is that the raised ground on site dates back to the time the cemetery was first commissioned.  The water-table in the village was higher then.  So a mound had to be created, in order to allow for a 6’ drop for coffins on to dry earth. 

One of the delights of Green Gym is how much can be achieved when you work as a group, or set of sub-groups.  Volunteers set to rescuing trees by lopping, sawing, pulling, and unravelling ivy – hence the call, “I’m just unwinding!” 

Plenty of targets presented themselves for our own op Iv, both ground and tree ivy.  Our priority, however, was the tree-ivy:

“There’s plenty of ivy to go round”

– All done, of course, without disturbing any live birds’ nests or (where ivy was climbing walls) damaging stonework.

The other useful tool this morning: a jammy bar, for prising ivy away from tree-trunks:

By session end, really rather a lot of ivy had been forcibly removed, and bagged up ready for disposal:

Before leaving, we had time to tour the site: admiring our handiwork, of course, but also searching for our complement of jammy bars.  Along the way we discovered some of the headstones put in by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  Although they relate to the World Wars, they have only relatively recently been erected.  These two are for soldiers of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry and the Berkshire Regiment respectively:

Tool Crisis?

By ‘C’:

Today looked as if it might have been rather a run of the mill session.

The site, not the prettiest of ‘our’ venues; and tasks, not the most exciting.  In fact, however, the site – Warwick Spinney – did look decidedly more attractive than the previous time we had been there.

The various sights of spring suited the place!

Sights also included “an adorably ’fraidy young rabbit.”  Sadly too ’fraidy to stick around to have a picture taken – it was just one of those moments of close encounter with nature which can happen any moment to a person visiting Green Gym.

To reach such delights, there was the small business of negotiating the nearby roads.  Those who knew where they were going, had the option of making their way straight to our worksite.  Those of us who opted to meet at our usual RV point for Benson found we had to find a route round what was other people’s worksite.  First, if coming by car, there was this problem:

That shot was taken by someone who had already made it to the RV point, on foot. 

We had walked to the worksite from there before, so did not anticipate that there would be difficulties on that score.  Ha!  At one point, there was this sign …

which not very helpfully declared the status of the footpath one had just walked along – there having been no corresponding sign to be seen at the other end. 

Then there was a stretch where much thought and care had gone into organizing things for road-users in vehicles.  It was not quite so clear where pedestrians were supposed to go, as the verge was a soggy work in progress:

Once assembled where we were definitely meant to be, our task was to continue from where we had left off last time, making the site nicer for a wider range of species, including human visitors.  This meant that most Green-Gymmers promptly disappeared to the perimeter of the field:

For the task came down basically to three jobs.  First was to level hummocks and fill in holes along the route of walkway round the edge of the field.  [It would have been a good place to have been last week (‘Holy Week’). – Ed.]  There was some consternation that these were all the tools we had for that job:

But then the various jobs were all going to run at the same time, so volunteers could get some variety.

The second job was to move cut wood and fallen timber to slightly more organized and better positioned habitat-piles.  Among the dead wood being relocated was this specimen, which featured holes made by woodworm:

Job #3 was to remove various ancient designs of tree-guard, which were surplus to mature trees’ requirements:

In the course of these jobs, a few more items of litter were discovered.  This, for example, found on the inside of a tree guard:

And this, which could easily be overlooked if spotted at a distance, and turned out to be bone:

Shoulder-blade from some unidentified animal, possibly a sheep

Which, incidentally, reminded us that we asked various friends of Green Gym who are more experienced bird-watchers about the two species we could not positively identify last week:

• the builder(s) of the nest from the previous year
• the lone songster high on the tree

The first expert to get back to us gave this opinion: “Long-tailed Tit and Robin for me. 
I have seen LTT nests that low and the feathers, moss and spiders web is typical.”  Another person observed, “Same conditions and style of building applies to a wren.”  Another Green-Gymmer added, “Collins Birds Pocket Guide says ‘Robins look slender and slim when alert, plumper when resting or crouching in the rain’.”  The rain had eased off at the time.  We had also maybe just got used to seeing birds with their feathers fluffed out against the cold.  Perhaps we shouldn’t have been expecting a robin to sport a Christmas-card look in Holy Week?

Anyway, back to this week.  [Which is the Octave of Easter, so not inappropriate timing for a cute bunny to make a cameo appearance. – Ed.]  The picnic table at the centre of the field had seen better days:

It served its purpose, though, at tea-break:

(Note relative popularity of fruit cake over lemon-drizzle.)

‘Half-time’ was also an opportunity to admire the new loppers which were being trialled:

This had been arranged by the tools officer, who explained:

It has been pointed out to me, very rightly, that the six green, extending, lighter weight ‘bypass’ loppers have had their day.  (Bypass = scissor action rather than the anvil type).  They are well over ten years old and have had a lot of use.   Extending handles often won’t lock, some cutting edges don’t meet, and they need regular sharpening.

[The Treasurer] has said we have enough money in the bank to replace them so I have been looking to see what new ones are available at a reasonable price.  Loppers range from £5 to £40.  I found two which are I think are excellent for our jobs and have bought one of each to start with. 

They have identical cutting heads, but different extending handles.  I will bring both to the next two WGG sessions for [us] to test.  Then we can decide whether to get four more.

The loppers certainly got a good testing-out today.