So Near But So Far

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We got tantalisingly close to finishing the connector path that runs between Cawston Greenway and Dunchurch Bridleway. Just about 50 metres to go with a hedge-trimmer and we are about there.

Eleven pathfinders turned out on this cold and blowy morning to forge the trail through No Man’s Land.

Ruby, George, Ram, Steve, Marcus, Ian, Martin, Andrew, Matt, Dave, and Paul braced ourselves against the bitter Arctic wind and smashed through about 120 metres of aged scrub.

It’s savage work because the spiny briars are so intertwined with everything and nothing comes away without a fight.

It feels like we are making no progress as we get to the halfway point, where we break for coffee and a bag full of treats.

A good photo for our “diversity” issues, with Ruby and George both off school due to the half-term holidays.

We cracked on, and it suddenly starts to clear.

We have had so many people complaining that this section is overgrown and not very pleasant. I think we have brought it up to our standard. This was never really our intention; we just wanted to trim the path through it, but those standards are kind of ingrained in us now.

There is just the last 50 metres to do before it breaks out onto a grassy trail. I did the other end over the weekend, so we don’t need to worry about that.

The views are what make this section special, apart from the new warehousing, but it is what it is. They don’t bother me at all, but I know some people feel that the green fields are being gobbled up.

We litter-picked all the way down to the new butterfly clearing.

We are literally just waiting for everything to green up!!

We are also trying to get an information board set up.

Hopefully looking something like this.

We noticed a few trees with numbers on them.

I think possibly tree preservation orders. There is going to be a road cutting through the railway path with a cycle bridge spanning it, so probably something to do with that.

And lastly, benches.

I always thought that we are possibly a bit heavy on our bench numbers, until I saw a trail up north.

The Tissington Trail in the Peak District, and we cannot fail to see the benefits of low hedges along the edges and open views across the countryside.

Can our Warwickshire countryside deliver the same…?

Next one is this Friday, and then next week we are at the last workday before the bird nesting season starts.

We kinda go into a bit of a limbo before it all comes alive in April, and the battle to keep the path wide and open becomes our mission for the spring and summer months.

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

More importantly, if you are feeling like you need something to get you excited and motivated, do something like this, or come along and say hello one Wednesday morning. Bring biscuits, and we will love you forever…

Until next time!

Paul

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Bramble Bashing

Posted on February 11, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

More bramble bashing, or scrub bashing, on the connector path today.

I think we had a 92% chance of rain, but it turned out to be just a few minutes of drizzle, and that was it.

Nine bushwackers (not the slang meaning) turned out to do more, err, wacking of the bush. Dave, Ram, Ian, Steve, Andrew, Matt, David, Martin, and Paul, and we covered a fair bit of ground.

It looked like we were going nowhere fast, and then suddenly the whole thing just opened up.

Remember, it’s all about people being able to see 40 metres or so ahead of themselves so that they can use the path without feeling anxious.

This is the horribly aged scrub that we are removing. It’s the width, and also trying to take out the height so that people can see to the sides.

It looked and felt really good towards the end.

We broke for coffee and super-healthy snacks at half-time.

It was nice to have something a bit different for a change.

We cracked on and managed to get to about the 250 metre point. There is about 150 metres to go before it naturally opens up into grassland, and about 100 metres at the other end before the path goes off to meet the Dunchurch Bridleway.

This is where we got to, looking back, and looking forward. The big clump of scrub on the right-hand side needs to go, so that will be the first job next week.

But it looks welcoming and ready for the spring.

We made a couple of nesting boxes and put them up in the butterfly clearing.

It just adds to the biodiversity and interest. The nesting boxes work out at about £4 each for the timber and odd change for the screws. I could run a sander over them to make them look less rustic, but I like the rough look.

We now have 60 boxes along the trail, so we should see a lot of young birds in May.

We are going to have a lot of bramble coming up in the newly cleared areas, so with Pauline’s generous buy-me-a-coffee donation last week, plus a bit of cash that I found on a gift card, I bought this…

It looks like an ice pick, but it will help us to grub out the bramble roots and allow wildflowers to get established. It’s going to be a battle to keep the bramble down, but it needs to be done.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Me and Dave battled away to try and get around the flooding.

There’s a path through. Hopefully, when it stops raining, we can work out why the water is not draining away.

We discovered Common Ivy actually has a fruit.

Who knew? A superb food source for birds over the winter.

We litter-picked this section as per usual.

It just makes it so much more pleasant to walk when there is no litter about.

And lastly, we have a huge number of hawthorn trees, which are normally better off when used in hedging.

After a bit of YouTube and research, I reckon we can get these trees to look more tree-like and less bush-like.

Watch this space.

Until next time!

Paul

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Frankenstein’s Box

Posted on February 4, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Here we are in a new month and with a new challenge.

We are now on the connector path that connects the Cawston Greenway with the Dunchurch Bridleway, to make the circular route, which means that the three communities of Bilton, Cawston, and Dunchurch are all joined together via the off-road trail.

Eight trailblazers made it out today. Matt, Andrew, Marcus, Ian, Ram, Mark, Reece, and Paul, and we had the one task of taming the bramble scrub to allow unhindered passage through, and also to be able to see above it. This stops the feeling of being trapped in an oppressive and long green tunnel in the summer.

It goes from photo one, to photo two. A much better view.

We did about 100 metres of the 500 metres of scrub before the path naturally opens up.

We possibly went a bit wider than we intended, but it is all good for new growth in the spring.

The aged bramble cuttings were brutal.

I think we are all suffering from embedded thorns in various parts of our bodies.

Coffee and cake was very welcome at half-time.

And then it was back to it.

The path needs to be between two and three metres wide to allow people to walk side-by-side. The end result was encouraging.

400 metres to go and only three workdays left in the month. Hmm, it’s going to be tight.

In other news, we had a bird nesting box fall off a tree late last year, and then some oaf decided to smash it up further…

A little bit of TLC in our workshop soon got it back together again. Sadly, some of the bits were missing so we had to borrow a few items from the pile of scrap wood down the side of my shed. Not the prettiest thing and a bit of a Frankenstein effort, but if it lasts for a few more seasons, it’s a win-win.

We also put up our two new nesting boxes.

We must be getting close to about 60 nesting boxes in total along the two-mile run.

We did a last tidy, down the other end at the butterfly bank, and just thought about trees that would cast shade.

All the decent-sized bits of timber were added to our log pile. This will be an amazing habitat when it starts to soften up as it rots.

We also litter-picked mostly all of the trail.

It helps so much with the calming and peacefulness of the path when there is no litter, or anything else, to distract from the overall experience.

A phrase that I heard this week was “creating complexity out of sameness”. If we just left the scrub edges and simply maintained the path through the middle, it would all be the same limited biodiversity and be pretty boring to walk up and down. We are trying to make it as diverse as possible, both for wildlife and humans.

Lastly, thank you, Pauline, for the generous buy-me-a-coffee donation last week. Much appreciated. I will share with you the exciting new item for our toolbox that it went towards, next week.

Next one is on the Dunchurch Bridleway on Friday, and then back here next Wednesday to push on.

Until then!

Paul

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Butterfly Bank Done

Posted on January 28, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well, this is just about as good as it gets for now.

Ten wildlife superheroes turned out this morning, on what was the last day working on this section.

Andrew, Reece, Dave, Mark, Steve, Martin, David, Ian, Ram, and Paul made a last-ditch attempt to create a platform for wildflower-rich grass to grow and be the perfect habitat for butterflies, bees and other insects.

We have left some trees, which goes against Butterfly Conservation advice, but we are just a bit overloaded with cuttings, so we need to give nature a chance to catch up by rotting down all the brash from the last few weeks.

We will seed the bank with a wildflower mix at the start of March to get it off on the right foot.

We broke for coffee and biscuits at half-time.

And then cracked on with the job in hand.

I’ve tried to take follow-on shots to show the whole bank.

Basically it’s 30 metres wide. We could extend it in September (when the bird nesting season is over) but I think we want to keep a decent bank of scrub between clearings, so we will probably try to copy this one a little further north and leave a 20 metre block of bramble in between. It’s all about balance and biodiversity.

Looking southwards, the sun is behind the trees. It will be way higher in the sky in the spring and summer, but we will mark any trees that are causing dense shade and thin them out next year.

Hopefully, we have done enough to create the hot zone on the bank that we are looking for.

We had a tree come down in the recent storm, so Andrew and Steve took care of it.

Nature’s way of thinning out trees!!

We also reattached a couple of bird nesting boxes.

We have two new ones to put up next week.

A little gift from one of our sponsors…

And we drilled holes in the new tree stumps to help them to rot away.

I guess water gets in and helps the wood to break down?

Lastly, we got rid of a couple of bigger bits of timber that just seemed to distract from the overall flow.

This will be a wonderful dead-wood habitat for so many insects and is pretty much at the start of the food-chain.

We did the usual litter-pick to keep it a stress-free trail.

And that is pretty much it for January.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Four of us turned out last Friday to release more of the veteran trees.

Ian, Dave, David, and Paul.

We very quickly found that the ground was waterlogged.

A quick change of plan got us working around an old yew tree, and making an area for wildflowers to come up.

It was incredibly wet, and most of the trees that we took out were nearly falling over under their own weight.

Nothing perks us up better than coffee and chocolate biscuits.

We finished with a habitat log pile for insects.

Next week we move southwards to the connector path that keeps the two trails connected and the decent off-road path between the three communities that we cover, namely, Bilton, Cawston, and Dunchurch.

Until next time!

Paul

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We Survived Blue Monday

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

What is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year came and went. Blue Monday, supposedly the 3rd Monday of the New Year. Apparently, a lot of people have run out of money due to Christmas overspending, the weather being totally gloomy, and everyone’s New Year’s resolutions have gone for a burton, so there is not much to be happy about.

It really is a recipe for disaster if you start to dwell on the rubbishness of it all.

But we all seem to have managed our way through it unscathed.

Even the weather played ball.

As of 8am this morning, the forecast was saying that there was a 92% chance of rain. Not a drop came down for the whole session.

Despite scratching my head at how wrong the weather forecasters can be, when they have but one job, I was secretly, incredibly thankful, because it was horribly wet underfoot, so it had rained a lot previously.

Despite the soggy outlook, nine of us braved a good old soaking. Matt, Ram, Marcus, Dave, Andrew, Martin, Steve, Ian, and Paul. Some of us brought waterproof clothing, so that definitely ensured that there would be no rain…

We cracked on with the butterfly clearing.

Ideally, the ground needs to be cleared totally, but we are running out of places to dump all the brash (cuttings), so some trees are going to have to stay. We cleared more of the overhang, so we now just need to wait until spring and summer and see what comes up.

Over the summer a lot of what we have piled up will drop as the smaller branches rot away. The wildlife value that all of this dead wood will bring will be enormous. So many insect larvae will burrow into it and eventually become food for birds and other wildlife. We can already see robins and other small birds hopping about under the cover of the brash, foraging for a meal.

At half-time we broke for hot coffee.

Martin did the honours and kept us all warm and watered.

And then we started to have a bit of a tidy up.

The bank looking from the top, and then from the bottom.

And up and down the path.

As we can see, there are huge swathes to green up with wildflowers and grass. It’s gonna look good.

We started drilling holes into the stumps to help them to rot down.

The impact driver broke so we had to stop. We now have a new one, so we will carry on next week.

The good thing with sticking with Wickes is that all of the batteries fit across our whole range of tools.

We also found a decent-looking fungus.

And we also discovered this strange, almost glowing plant.

Apparently, it’s called Rough-stalked Feather-moss, although it reminded me of Homer Simpson more than anything else.

We also litter-picked.

The more we cut back the scrub, the more we are finding aged litter, and the occasional bit of furniture!!

The next one is on Friday at Dunchurch, and then we are back here next Wednesday for a final sweep through and tidy.

Until then!

Paul

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Blue Monday Approaches

Posted on January 14, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

That third Monday of a New Year, when everyone feels deflated, spent out, and thoroughly down, because of the miserable winter weather and early dark nights, that just seem to drag on and on.

The antidote, of course, is to do something like what we are doing. Seek out the company of others and do something to feel positive about.

I don’t mean start cutting trees down and making paths, although that will probably do the trick to shake off the winter blues, but just do something positive.

If I hadn’t found what we are doing on the greenway, I too would be moping around, counting the days until the ice turns green.

So despite the cold, seven of us turned out like Eskimos, froze to the bone, before we started moving around. Reece, Steve, Marcus, Dave, Mark, Ram, and Paul.

We have taken advice from Butterfly Conservation on how to maximise the southerly-facing bank for butterflies and moths. We are on the right track.

Basically, we need to clear the bank as much as possible and give it a hard rake to get the seeds in the ground to wake up in the spring. It’s hard graft, but we are trying to do a block at a time to at least feel like we are making progress.

Hot coffee and flapjack couldn’t come quickly enough at break time.

Even the basecamp looks drab and lifeless.

And then more of the same.

The clearer the bank, the better, but we need to do it in bite-sized chunks, or we will get dispondent.

Towards the end, we could start to see it taking shape.

Sunshine is already starting to hit the ground. When the sun is higher in the sky, it will transform the whole section.

We also got rid of a load of stumps between the Bear Bridge and the Cawston Underpass. Here is a selection of what seemed like lots more.

We need to drill holes into the top of the stumps to kill off the roots. This is what happens when the woodland is not managed properly. Trees start growing in the wrong place and at funny angles as they fight for daylight.

Sadly, they had to go…

We also litter-picked the whole northern end.

Personally, I would rather the youth sit down here and enjoy a couple of beers. They are not bothering anyone, or being bothered themselves, and picking up a few empty cans is a small price to pay. We could put a bin down here, but then we have to remember to empty it, so it’s probably not really worth it.

I would much rather this be the situation than them hanging around the parks and shops.

We are back in the same place next week, so come along if you fancy sharing a coffee and a bit of company. Don’t let those winter blues get to you.

If you want to see what we are aiming to do, check out last week’s blog and the Long Itchington butterfly habitat.

I promise you, it will look absolutely superb in the spring and summer.

Until next time!

Paul

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The Start of our 17th Year…

Posted on January 7, 2026 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Who would have thought that we would be turning out once a week, every week, for such a long time? Sixteen years under our belts – 832 workdays (appox 10,000 man-hours), and 52 more workdays for this coming year. Incredible commitment.

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We have the northern part of the path turning eastwards. If east to west is our flat line, we are at 31 degrees to it. This means that the northerly bank will get sun for most of the day.

And the northerly-facing side gets a little tickle of sunshine in the late afternoon, from about 3pm as far as I can tell, and the evening, but the main part of the day has our southerly-facing side awash with sunshine and a real hot zone.

We started the week by calling in the professionals.

We just needed that little bit of oomph to get us going.

It was a cold start.

We need to get rid of the overhanging trees on the edge of the path, so that sunlight can get to the path floor and the bank on the other side.

At the moment, it is always in the shade and just a pretty dead and damp space.

Jamie at JR Tree Care did a superb job on the first 150 metres. We now have to decide if we can afford to have him back to do the remaining 150 metres before the bird nesting season starts.

Thanks to all the buy-me-a-coffee donations over the last few months that went towards this.

We couldn’t do it without you.

We regrouped today to tidy up and kinda get a focus on what we are trying to achieve.

What we want is the whole of this bank to be a prime habitat for bees, butterflies and moths. Bear this in mind, and I will show you what we hope to achieve towards the end of this post.

Seven of us made it today and cracked on. Marcus, Steve, Matt, Reece, Mark, Martin, and Paul. We’re trying to manage all the brash into some sort of a hedge, and the bigger logs into piles.

It just seemed like an endless task today…

We’re trying to make scallops that will keep the warmth in pockets along the edge as the sun pushes around throughout the day.

It looks messy. There is no two ways to say it, but just have a bit of faith.

We broke for coffee and bacon rolls at half-time.

Much-needed hot food, and then cracked on…

We can see the sunlight starting to work its way in, even with it being so low in the sky.

It will all green up. Trust me…

This is what an established butterfly habitat looks like.

The path runs in a north-westerly trajectory, which gives us a lot of hope with our near south-facing aspect.

Loads of work to do, so we decided to camp on our section for the next few weeks/months and just get it as clear as possible.

It’s gonna be worth it.

We also litter-picked to keep it a pleasant place to walk, unwind, and de-stress.

Lastly, a new fungus popped up

Sheathed Woodtuft, according to my ID app.

We’ve got loads to do over the next two months, but with our “can-do” attitude, I’m sure we will get to where we need to be.

Here is something funny to keep us laughing.

Next one is this Friday on the Dunchurch bit, releasing the veteran trees from the scrub, and then back here for the foreseeable…

Until next time!

Paul

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Last Workday Of The Year

Posted on December 31, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well, here we are at the end of another year on our quest to maintain a nature trail that does three things.

Create a wildlife corridor for a biodiverse mix of flora and fauna.

Make the trail accessible to everyone. Youth, young families, mature people, walkers, cyclists, geocachers, nature lovers, picnicers, mobility scooters and pushchairs.

A place to go to find balance and mental well-being. Green time is so good for us all.

I think we are doing pretty well on all fronts, and can now add another pillar to the original three.

A trail that connects communities – Bilton (Admirals), Cawston, and Dunchurch.

If you would like to support us as we move into 2026, hit that Buy Me A Coffee link on the right and drop us a couple of quid. It really does help so much.

Today was bitterly cold with a starting temperature of -2 °C (28.4 °F), so nobody wanted to be standing around for too long.

It’s always a bit tricky organising workdays over Christmas and New Year, but we had a good turnout with Dave, Marcus, Steve, Martin, Andrew, Matt, and Paul. The mission was to cut scallops into the section between the Cawston Underpass and Berrybanks.

The path turns eastward, so we really want to maximise the south-facing bank, but we don’t want to open the whole thing up. We felt that it would be better to have large scallops so that microclimates can exist in little pockets.

Still a little bit of work to do, but it’s taking shape nicely.

We broke for coffee and an assortment of chocolates at half-time.

Great camaraderie and a few groans from my “Christmas Cracker” jokes.

Very much a “don’t give up the day job” response.

We started clearing the wildflower area, but we need to come back and push it out about another two metres.

This does really well in the summer, so it is well worth keeping on top of it.

Lastly, we found a new fungus.

According to my phone ID app, it’s called Brittle Cinder.

Next year, we are hoping to run regular weekend workdays, so that will open up the opportunity to get involved for a few more people.

We also have some smashing plans in the melting pot to make the trail even better.

And with that, thanks to Andrew, Dave, David, George, Ian, Marcus, Mark, Martin, Matt, Nathan, Reece, Steve, and Paul for a fun-filled 2025.

Happy New Year, and don’t forget to hit that Buy Me A Coffee link if you want to support us.

Until next time!

Paul

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Last One Before The Christmas Break

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Yes, you guessed it. I let them have Christmas off…

Nine of us turned out on a very soggy morning with just one mission on our minds. Steve, David, Marcus, Reece, Ian, Andrew, Mark, Dave, and Paul armed ourselves with strimmers and Zubat saws and went for it.

The objective is to clear the overhang and widen the path on the section between Berrybanks and the underpass.

We’ve never really got to grips with this section properly, which is a shame because the path turns to the east, so the southerly facing bank will get a decent amount of sun in the summer, but only if we thin the trees out on the northerly facing bank. Another issue is the deep cutting that we are in, so more sunlight and air moving around should help to dry the ground out. Still a bit to do here, but it felt like progress.

We found trees that we cut down years ago.

Beautiful habitats for lichens and all sorts of insects and wildlife.

At half-time we enjoyed hot coffee and snacks.

All the benches were pretty wet, so nobody fancied a sit-down and a soggy bottom.

Lastly, we pushed a rod through our drainage pipes to clear debris and get the pond flowing across the path and not down it.

It worked, and the levels dropped as the flow increased.

Once we get this section sorted, it is then just a case of keeping on top of it.

We’re pretty happy with it so far, and have one more workday on it (31st December), so it should look good in the spring and summer of 2026.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Three of us made it for the last workday before Christmas on this Dunchurch trail. Actually, it’s the last workday of 2025 on this bit.

It was back to the start, and it would be nice if we could do the whole length again before the bird nesting season starts on March 1st next year.

For context, we did 330 metres, and the path is 1.5 km (1,500 metres) long. We have four more workdays, 300 metres per session should get us to the end.

This first section of the bridleway is used by the farmer to access his fields, hence the ruts. We just want to keep a metre or so wide of short grass for walkers and cyclists. If we leave it, the grass becomes horribly coarse and hard to strim back next year.

It will also be full of insects. We would rather they stay in their lane, and we stay in ours.

Strimming around the benches also keeps the insect life away from our ankles and shins.

We broke for coffee and custard cream biscuits at half-time and wondered why the lake that we drained last year had reappeared.

Yet another job to go on the “to-do” list…

The rest of our time will be spent releasing the veteran trees from the scrub, so that they can stand tall and proud and generally be a feature of the trail.

Well, that’s about it for this week. Next time we will have moved through the Winter Solstice, so the nights will start to draw out again; however, we will be fully into the Winter season, so expect some chilly updates.

Here is wishing all of our followers, and the team, a decent Christmas break, and we will see you on New Year’s Eve.

Paul

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Shall I Let Them Have Christmas Off?

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you found me via the WordPress Reader, click on Cawston Greenway for the full blog experience.

The weather continues to yo-yo between heavy rain and super-bright sunshine, which is great, but the sun is so low in the sky that we have to imagine where it might be in the spring and summer, after being blinded by it every time we look up!!

Luckily for us, today was a sunny day, although very wet underfoot, and nine woodlanders came out of the woodwork for a busy morning.

Matt, David, Steve, Marcus, Reece, Mark, Andrew, Dave, and Paul braved the cold and chopped back the second 150 metre length of this section.

It seems a bit brutal, but these trees are growing horribly crooked and are stopping the path floor from getting a decent hit of sunshine.

In a paragraph or two, I will show you what happens when trees are given the room to grow naturally, but before then, we had to squeeze in a coffee and flapjack break.

The thorny subject of a workday on the Wednesday before Christmas came up, which is Christmas Eve.

Shall I let them have a day off???

I had to have a conversation with Dougie, our Douglas Fir Christmas tree, to find the answer.

Sadly for me, I slipped over and slid 10 metres down the bank on my backside. Not happy and left me feeling even less charitable!!

Anyhow, we finished this part of the section, and it looked pretty good.

This is going to look awesome in the spring and summer.

We have some drainage pipes that we can install under Berrybanks and get this area dry again.

A big thank-you to the kind person who salvaged them for us. A job for the summer, me thinks.

We enjoyed our Christmas Lunch at the Bear Pub after the workday. Thanks, Steve, for organising.

Heavenly food and just nice to chat and chill, away from the actual path for a bit.

So, what happens if trees are allowed the space to grow?

If you remember, the path is part of a circular walk incorporating Cawston Greenway, Dunchurch Bridleway, and Cawston Spinney.

I spent some time with a group on Sunday doing a litter pick on the spinney part, and couldn’t help but notice the tree spacing.

Look at these beauties… Worth all the effort on the greenway path, don’t you think?

And a good haul of litter, too.

I also spent some time with another volunteer group further towards Leamington Spa, but on the same disused railway line. Lots of stuff newly learnt and ready to share, but that will have to be for another day.

Fungi Feature

Today is our last fungus, but oh boy is it a corker!

The stinkhorn is a phallus-shaped fungus that emerges from an egg-shaped base. It has an unmistakable and intense stench that has been likened to rotting meat. It can be found in woods and gardens, and is associated with rotting wood.

We found one in Cawston Spinney, and it don’t half pong…

Scientific name: Phallus impudicus

How to identify: It has a white stem-like structure that erupts from an ‘egg’, topped with a bell-shaped, olive-brown and slimy head. It has an offensive smell.

Where to spot: Woodland and gardens

When to spot: June to October

Did you know? The spores of the stinkhorn are contained within the slime that covers its cap. Flies are attracted to the offensive-smelling slime, in turn, scattering the spores.

I think that’s about it for this week. Thanks for reading, supporting, and otherwise just being on our side. Next one is in Dunchurch this Friday, which we still have space for anyone who would like to join in.

Until next time!

Paul

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