These golden days

Does anyone else remember that the weather was supposed to have ‘broken’?

It appears to have settled again, as days grow to gold.  As one Green-Gymmer said: “This summer seems to be going on for ever!”  

Nevertheless, looking ahead perhaps to the days growing short once we reach the equinox, our principal task this morning was to attend to pre-winter checks on the perimeter boundary of today’s site:

• topping up the dead-hedge fence

• ensuring the ditch outside is free of encroaching vegetation

Before

After

Other hands were occupied cutting back nettles and ivy on the other side of the site 

– and removing the debris:

The ideal worker for clearing away slashed nettles would be one who had big hands:

Among the arresting sights this morning – or at least those which captured the attention of volunteers – were:

• “the circular tree”:

– actually more of a tree with a U bend:

“It would be good for building a boat”

• a large slug, which prompted recollections of mishaps of outdoor eating:

• leaf gall on a scale few of us had seen before:

Fortunately, leaf gall is rarely fatal to a tree, although it can cause early leaf drop.  There are even enthusiasts, in the form of the British Plant Gall Society.  On the whole, though, I think it fair to say that Green-Gymmers would delight more in a well-earned pint of one of the local brews. ‘Oxford Gold’ or ‘Hobgoblin Gold’ anyone?

After the party

Inspirational videos abound about how to plant a wildflower meadow, and how wonderful it will look when it’s in full bloom.  There are not so many about what happens towards the end of summer, after the lovely flowers have blown.

Cutting and raking are not very glamorous tasks.  From a habitat-conservation PoV, however, clearing up after the summer party is a vital job.  Cuttings have to be removed from the site, so that the (poor) nutritional value of the soil remains about the same. 

Enter Green Gym:

Warden goes ahead with a cutter – preferably, as with today’s session, a few days ahead, so the volunteers’ ears are not distressed by the sound of the motor, and the cuttings have time to dry.  Green-Gymmers and other volunteers come after, doing the raking and loading into wheelbarrows:

This generates a third job, that of the pitchfork-wielding lord of the compost heap:

“I do enjoy this job: a few seconds’ maximum effort, and then I can stand and enjoy the sun.”

Raking!  I can’t say it is a favourite occupation of Green-Gymmers.  It’s simple, repetitive, and surprisingly hard work:

A Green-Gymmer takes a well-earned 'five'

This isn’t raking the yard or even just a lawn that we’re talking about: it’s systematically raking a small field.

One good point about raking after a meadow cut is that it allows for plenty of conversation between the workers.  Which at Green Gym means a lively mix of:

• the serious (“Did you know Red Kites look for worms?”  Answer is YES)
• the fun (hearing of someone’s holiday home in Bergerac, “When I hear the word Bergerac, I think of the Jersey detective”; “I think of Cyrano de ...”; “I think of wine”; “Where is it?”  Answer is south-west France, in the Dordogne)
• and the frankly bizarre (“Was Hiawatha a woman?”  Answer: NO!)

Being Green Gym, faced with a large task which not even the warden seemed confident we would complete (though I was sure we would), the trick was to break down the job into a series of smaller patches to clear.  This in turn led to an interesting discussion of the definition of a scalene triangle (not equilateral or isosceles, so did not feature much in school ‘trig’) and the proof that angles inside a triangle always add up to 180° (well, they do in Euclidean geometry).  Why?  Because that was the shape of that particular patch which could be cleared by tea-break. 

Humble Pie Time

My apologies to fellow-Green-Gymmers: was so busy at the time thinking of the right-angles used in one proof that I think I said “360” when I meant “180 degrees”.  360° is the sum of the angles inside a quadrilateral.

Tea-break is, of course, an important component of Green Gym.  Time to ‘replen’ on hydration and high-GI carbohydrates.  Time to chat – or to chill out:

There is also often the fruit of our labours on previous visits to be seen.  This morning we could gauge the health of trees we have planted in previous years.  This young spindle is doing particularly well:

As more of the seeds ‘pop’, there will be a striking display of bright orange:

There were also ‘finds’ to look at.  Here, a mallard egg uncovered by raking:

It was only when examined a little more closely that one could get a sense of how large the egg was:

Left back on the ground where it had been found, it will make a good meal for some predator.

This is comfrey (Symphytum officinale), long used as animal fodder and for herbal remedies – also good as a compost activator:

Use of this plant internally or on open wounds has been questioned in recent years.  As far as I can see, one would have to ingest industrial quantities to be at risk; but it may be not such a good idea to pour a cup of traditional comfrey tea.

Finally, at the end of the session came what one volunteer describes as “the best bit: when you look back at what you’ve achieved – it’s very satisfying.”  For some Green-Gymmers this morning the finish also meant a visit to the stream to pick a little watercress …

plus an invitation from a villager, who lives nearby, to call and collect surplus apples from the tree in her garden.

Fence-posts ‘R’ Us

South-Oxfordshire rain is very patriotic.  Monday was a bank holiday.  So naturally it rained, so that our weather could demonstrate its commitment to ‘British values’

There were even severe-weather alerts in force for Oxfordshire yesterday.  Today, when most people with 9-5 jobs were back at work – and Wallingford Green Gym was set to be outside working on fencing – the severe-weather alert for the county had been lifted. 

Unfortunately, the forecast for precipitation had only improved from >95 to 50% probability.  It probably did in fact rain only half the time, but it remained a disappointingly grey morning in an otherwise lovely spot by the River Thames:

Nothing deterred, Green-Gymmers confidently announced, when told today’s task consisted of repairing fencing in a meadow which floods in winter:

“We’re big on fence-posts.”

 To be more precise, it was the men on the team proclaiming their prowess with spade, drivel, and tamper.  However, whenever I got the camera out (between outbreaks of rain) to try and capture a shot of Green-Gymmers at work today, it was women doing the heavy work of sinking a new fence-post: 

They insisted I take a photograph of them “doing all the hard work, while the men stand around and watch”:

The camera doesn’t lie, they say; but, of course, it can only capture a moment in time.  I am sure that overall this morning the work-loads were fairly distributed between team members.  For myself, when I had delivered fresh fence-posts to where they were needed (that means carrying them), I spent most of the morning removing old staples from moribund fence-posts (and reflecting how odd it feels to be using a hammer to take staples out). 

Even as simple a task as removing metalwork from a redundant fence-post makes for a good work-out, when you meet a stubborn staple which has to be levered out by brute force & ignorance.  But that’s why we do Green Gym: to get the exercise – as well as doing nice things for the sheep which will eventually be able to go back in that field.