Green-Gym Allsorts

By the Session Leader:

A return to Millbrook Mead after just two weeks, for a nice mixture of jobs, and correspondingly a nice mix of before and after pics.

The biggest job was repairing the frame of the boardwalk.  This we had hoped to do last time, only the materials had not arrived.  This time, our engineers were not to be denied:

Before

During: “Spot on!”

After

Only one passer-by decided that the ‘Path Closed’ sign did not apply to her.  Not that her dog minded!

The last of the willows was pollarded – just in time before nesting season is in full swing:

Before

After

Some more of the brash was burned:

This put to the test a new item of clothing, which had been bought on the grounds that it was advertised as ‘flameproof’:

During the morning, the top became liberally sprinkled with hot ashes, which left not a single hole in the fabric, but left instead one very pleased unburnt gymmer.

 

Elsewhere on site, a stream was uncovered:

Before

After

Some gymmers needed a little assistance to escape from the sticky sucky mud.

The site welcome-&-information-board had its weed carpet lifted, and the base made ready once again for planting with wild flowers:

Before

After

And another two bucket-loads of whips were planted, thus extending the area that we planted last time:

Just a fortnight after our previous visit, and already there were more flowers to be seen around the ‘gym’.  Here some hellebores flourishing in the neighbouring gravel garden:

And here, some flower beginning with a ‘b’, whose name we knew at the start, but could we remember it at tea time?  

Someone’s brain spluttered into life eventually, and we got the name back – only for it to be forgotten again!  [‘Butterbur’?  The name of the plant, that is, not a description of the state of a Green-Gymmer’s brain after a hard work-out. – Ed.]

Altogether, a most productive morning, as well as an enjoyable one.

Smart and not-so smart moves

By the Session Leader:

The warning that the car park was likely to be muddy wasn’t quite right: it was just pools of brown water with patches of bare earth. 

Nevertheless, we managed to park without getting soaked.

At this point, the leader’s camera decided its battery was flat.  Never mind: use phone instead.  Little did he know.

A very pleasant and easy task to start with.  A different volunteer had already cut back the overgrown trees that lined the edge of the field that borders the road between the Wittenhams.  [The South Oxfordshire villages of Long Wittenham and Little Wittenham. – Ed.]  All his cuttings were lying in the field, but needed to be thrown over the wire fence on to the roadside ready to be picked up by another worker, with a trailer, at a later date.

So: a gentle stroll along the sheep-mown grass, stopping every few yards to toss cuttings into piles over the fence.  There were many stops, and it was a long walk that took till coffee time.  It was obviously going to be an easy day ...

After coffee, a very different task.  Along another edge of the field, a hawthorn hedge runs under a row of 11KV electricity poles.  As the hawthorn was growing close to the wires, the Electricity Board had come along and cut them (the hawthorn, not the poles) down to 3’, and almost ruined the hedge.  All the cut wood had been put though a chipper, and the chippings piled around the base of the trees.

To make the hedge effective again, the hawthorn needed to be chain-sawn to the base so that it would regrow into a dense thicket.  So the piles of chippings had to be cleared away to ground level so that the chain saw could get close to the base.

At this point other volunteers with smarter phones started to take photos, just in case:

This task was not so easy: this is where the exercise came in.  A variety of methods were used.  Spades were best where there was room to get them between the trees:

Forks could get between the thinner shoots: 

When all else failed, then down on one’s knees and scrape with gloved hands:

Boots were quite effective too.

The sun had come out, we had warmed up, and we had cleared most of the length of hedge.  This is what it looked like when ready for the chain saw:

It was only when the photographer got home that he discovered that his not so smart phone was not recognized by his PC.  So his twelve photos of the day stay out of sight.  The ones you see are from two members with smarter phones.

Fire and Cold Water

By the Session Leader:

The bonfire was burning bright as we arrived, and so was the sun.  

February, they say, is “the border between winter and spring”.  It was definitely winter at first light today.  Spring from around 9 o’clock – very convenient for those wending their way to Green Gym.  Winter again in the afternoon.

We had a great choice of tasks today, on a return visit to Millbrook Mead.  Some of us set about disposing of brash, which had been cut in previous sessions, by chopping it up into bite-size portions and feeding it to the fire:

If fire did not appeal, there was water to work with/in instead.  There were two ponds to clear of well-established reeds.  The first thing to do there was to find each pond.  This was one:

“Did someone say something about there being a pond here?”

Then there was the matter of clearing each one, while loftily ignoring remarks from passing colleagues about “more water-raking”:

Reach and pull – with special ‘water-raking’ rake …

then toss ‘product’ on to bankside pile

That’s one pond done

And now the other pond is revealed too

The village brook accumulates rubbish and litter, but after several bags full collected by Green-Gymmers, it is now pristine.  [Who knew that humble litter-picking could be such an interesting sport to watch for those pond-clearers now leaning on our forks? - Ed.]

Litter-picking GG style

– note snowdrops in the foreground

The brook also gets overgrown.  So those with wellies (sadly, mine sprung a leak) tackled the brambles, ivy, and other assorted overgrowth to reveal the brook flowing full tilt towards the river Thames:

Spot the Gymmer

Other side streams and gullies needed clearing too, without disturbing the frog and his/her frogspawn, and the nascent Loddon Lilies. 

“Mind my Lilies!” cried the warden when some of us were bordering on the too-enthusiastic.

The snowdrops have already been mentioned – they were gorgeous:

There was also some fascinating fungus to be seen …

before it was time to count back tools, count up volunteers, and head home before the weather turned, and some decidedly cold rain started to fall.