How to Bee Happy

By the Session Leader:

Red sky at night, Shepherd’s delight – but what if it is orange?  Does that count as a good omen?

Orange lights at sunset, looking towards Wallingford Oxon, the day before Green Gym (10 Sep 2018)

We are never quite sure what the tasks will be when we go to the Abbey [The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, that is – Ed.] except that one of them is sure to be renovating the dead-hedge fence.  We constructed most of it in the first place, and over the years maintenance work has fallen to us.  So our chief engineer went off to assess the state of the hedge at the back of the site:

Meanwhile the bulk of the group went off to clear a woodland path, mainly huge quantities of leaves, even though autumn leaf fall had not started properly:

One member seemed to have grown oversize hands especially for the job:

One area was cleared to reveal a dip in the ground which The Abbey hoped to make into a pond.  Perhaps not the best place in the middle of the wood?  The intention is to construct a feature which will be good for wildlife: frogs and such like.  [Hence the joke among some Green-Gymmers that the cheerful hand signal above was semaphore for ‘Frogs approaching’ – Ed.]

Two volunteers set to, to dig out a circular pond:

Plans were revised into a lozenge shape when a “bees’ nest” was discovered in what was going to be the middle, guarded by the fork in the picture:

None of us have more than a theoretical knowledge of how to set about re-locating a bees’ nest.  [Among the early suggestions, “Call an apiarist,” seemed to me to bee the best advice – Ed.]  

It was only later that it was discovered to be a wasps’ nest that we “could”(?!) have removed.  We shall know another time: before discussing nest-moving strategies, first positively identify nest-occupants.

(Spot the wasp?)

At tea break something about the venue made one person think of yoga, or was it to straighten their back after the digging?

The section of hedging by the road also needed attention with a number of uprights needing replacing:

As always there was one tool needed that we didn’t bring: the long spike to make holes in the hard ground.  So not much progress was made here, other than topping up the filling in the middle of the fence-line.

Finally, the ‘pond hole’ reached a full circle [or classic mint shape – Ed.] ready for the next stage when the wasps have retreated.  The hard work seems to have given some of us permanent bows.

 

Fun in the air and sun

By ‘C’:

It being a while since we were last at this site, it was a bit of a shock to be reminded – or in the case of newcomers, to discover – how long and tiresome a walk it is from the point where vehicles have to be left.

Little Meadow Goring sits on the bank of the River Thames – that much I had remembered.  I did not recall, however, there being quite so much metalwork on the way down there:

On those rare occasions when we do Little Meadow, it is at this time of year: for the cutting and raking of the wildflower meadow.  “Can’t it just be left?” asked one volunteer, not unreasonably: “The flowers will die off over winter anyway.”  The answer: “If the vegetation decayed on site, this would become an ‘improved meadow’ – and cease to be a wildflower meadow.  Because wildflowers like poor soil.”

So there is a fair amount for us and other volunteer groups to do:

Most of the flowers have by now seeded.  There were just a few spots where some plants (and pollinators) were hanging on – a reminder that in spring and summer this meadow is a very English carnival of colour and biodiversity:

Among the many avian site residents are: a Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis); Blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla – warblers, which will be leaving us soon for the migrating season); and a Buzzard (Buteo buteo). 

Blackcaps were heard on site today.  The most interesting creature seen was a lizard, but it was not easy to photograph, as it relocated pretty hastily from underneath a patch of nettles.  So blog-readers can play the game of Spot The Lizard:

The most interesting ‘find’ of the day prompted one volunteer to recall a song from the 1930s.  [No not from personal memory: he knows about it from his other volunteer job, because it is in Lord Nuffield’s 78 collection – Ed.]  

Another Green-Gymmer wondered aloud who said golf is “a good walk spoiled.”  [The saying is attributed to Mark Twain – Ed.]

And did we actually get any work done in all this?  Sure did!  Without wrecking more ground than Columbus found, but not exactly allowing everyone to have fun in the air and sun.  The cuttings were disposed of by fire:

This meant that forces mowing with sickle and scythe advanced behind a smoke screen:

At tea-break, most volunteers relaxed beside the river.  On the other side of the meadow, the stokers had their tea and cake delivered to them on a tray.  [Sadly, no silver service: tray improvised from tea-crate lid. – Ed.]

By session-end yes, we could see where we had been.  “It’s almost a medieval sight,” remarked one volunteer, only to be reminded that “The blue plastic tarpaulin is a bit of a give-away?”

This was the last load of the day in terms of Green Gym:

The site warden had set himself to stay on, and keep the fire going.  For there was still a lot to be disposed of from previous sessions where plant-life of various sizes had been thinned out, then left in piles until there was an opportunity to dispose of the cut material responsibly.  Indeed the job I did this morning was to move great quantities of dead wood from out of the corner of the meadow (I can remember us dragging it there in the first place!) to piles near the burn-site.

As we trod the path back to our vehicles, we could look back, and see the fire was indeed still going strong: