Tasks old and new

By the Session Leader:

Exhausted by the end; dirty; wet.  All the signs of a tremendous session and a really good workout! 

And in perfect autumn sunshine too:

Green-Gym colours of fall:
warm top swiftly discarded, and hung up alongside the turning leaves

With so many of us (a turn-out of 18), we had a wide variety of tasks.  Mostly wet (hooray!) and in amongst the watercress:

Keeping the water channels running free, clear of overgrowing vegetation, is a never-ending task.  Naturally volunteers had their own ideas about how the excess-watercress problem ‘ought’ to be tackled ;)

I think SODC should send a sprig with every council-tax bill.
– And if the customer doesn’t pay within 18 days, send a larger one!

Unusually, the other tasks included planting bulbs, and making a planter out of rubbish which had been left on site.  The tools this morning therefore included some items we had not used before – and which volunteers ended up not using this time either.  Of the tool set below, it was the trowel Mk 1 which was preferred, in order to set bulbs by a variation on the slit-planting technique we have used for tree whips:

Another thing that was unusual for Green Gym: by the end of that particular task, you would (by design) hardly have known that we had been there:

Before: remains of fallen tree had to be cleared first

After: you’ll be able to see where we have been next spring (all being well),
when wild-daffodil plants begin to spring up

Meanwhile, another small Green-Gym team had been despatched to look for the rubbish which, we were told, had been left near an area which kids use for a playground.  One of us remembered where that was likely to be, and indeed there was no mistaking it when we found it.  The totally unofficial play kit was greatly admired (but no, not used, however tempting it looked):

These were the materials for the planter, which needed to be carried/wheeled to their new location – for the inevitable Green-Gym discussion on how the construction project should be carried out:

It was largely a solo project, with the odd helping hand and provision of extra tools, eg a narrow-handled spoon from the tea-crate for forcing a cable-tie through the thickness of a rubber tyre.

This is the (almost) finished product.  Just one more load of soil to be added when the first batch has had time to settle.  What the local youth will make of it is another matter – a central feature for an improv race-track?

The other task was one we have done before.  The pond-dredging team manfully coped with lovely sticky silt, getting stuck, over-balancing, and nearly playing dominoes with their colleagues.  [I wonder why this job always seems to come up on the Tuesday nearest Armistice Day? – Ed.]

The tea-crate volunteer did us proud with his delicious filo pastry flans (“It’s nice to have savoury for a change”) and a spread of cakes, with plenty of tea and coffee.  Thank you! 

Naturally, tea-break was the time for the really serious Green-Gym discussions ;)  This, for instance, on the subject of how to build up the six layers of filo for optimum effect:

“I didn’t make the filo pastry myself.”
– “I don’t know anyone who does.”

After the break, it was noticed that a pair of mallards had been quick to explore the area which had been cleared – presumably in the hope that Green-Gym efforts would have stirred up something nice for ducks to eat.  The male is reasonably easy to spot, the female is well camouflaged:

There was also some discussion among the pond-digging-out squad as to whether to carry on with that task (“There’s a small amount of room left in my wellies for water”) or to switch to something different (“It’s jolly hard on the back”).  In the end, it was judged that the team had already done a grand job at the pond, and it was time to trade in one set of tools for loppers &c, and go and cut back some of the trees overhanging the stream.

At session end, our final tool count found two forks missing, one of which emerged from the silt with just its handle peaking out, and the other might be gently rusting over for discovery sometime in the future.  Or maybe it’s that one still in the site-warden’s car.

Happily, the final head count produced all 18 of us; no-one gently rusting over in the silt. 

One task, two teams

By the Session Leader; photos by ‘C’

Coppicing time again!  Our chance to see how much everything has grown since last year. 

There are two main sites at Earth Trust where we do coppicing; down in the depths of the woods the far side of the Clumps – a long walk – and today’s site, the Broad Arboretum, which is just a short walk from the Centre.

We were not disappointed as there had been masses of growth and plenty of work for the day’s large turnout.  To our surprise we were asked to split into two teams.  The smaller group was to go round to the far side of the arboretum where we were told there was “a smaller group of stools that are quite thin and easily cut”.  That team set off, together with the leader, never to be seen again except at tea-break and at session end.  As the leader omitted to take any photographs, posterity will just have to take his word for it that they were doing just as much work as the main team! 

You may notice in the photos the lovely sunshine and colours which the main group enjoyed.  Round the other side of the arboretum, the small group found that far from being thin and easily cut the trees were twice as high and thick, so we didn’t see any sunshine.  Some stools had not been cut for several years.

What the photo above does not show is that the select few set off to work in the company of a certain black dog [a real canine: not a metaphor for mental-health difficulty – Ed.] who is very sweet, but could not stand still, but had to roll in a substance not positively identified, but odiferous.

Meanwhile, on the sunny side of the wood, some members of the main team couldn’t wait, and got stuck in straight away:

Well almost straight away.  Shortly after work had commenced, there was a pause for some deliberation and exchange of views: to be sure of knowing exactly how the task was to be carried out.

The team in which the photographer was embedded, was working beside a memorial oak, not to be cut down:

This tree was planted by Hugo Brunner, the Lord Lieutenant of the County, at the launch of the Oxfordshire Collection of Native Trees and Shrubs on Thursday 5th December 1996

In both teams, volunteers worked in pairs most of the time, taking it in turns with one cutting, the other supporting and dragging away:

Once the hazel was cut down, it had to be processed into stakes, binders, and brash:

Some of the brash was used to cover over the newly cut stools to protect fresh shoots from nibbling deer.  The small team on the other side had so much brash that it had to be heaped at the side of the main track for future collection and disposal.

At session end there were several scenes of a good morning’s work to admire.  This was just one:

Final job of the day: close the ‘Hampshire gate’.  Don’t worry, this photo is not of two Green-Gymmers having a fight.  [At least not a fight with each other – Ed.]  They are wrestling with the primitive gate that didn’t want to be closed:

Apparently what makes it a Hampshire gate is the loop of wire which hooks over the gate-post.  Volunteers were singularly unimpressed:

“If that’s a Hampshire gate, I don’t think much of Hampshire.”

– “Why have we got a Hampshire gate in Oxfordshire anyway?”

– “Well this hasn’t always been Oxfordshire.  This was once Berkshire.”

– “Berkshire yes, but not Hampshire!”

The site warden was delighted at the end to drive off with a trailer full of stakes and binders.