Really good day with ten or so of us turning out and we really pushed on with the path widening between the two clearings. We are switching from either side of the original path so that we create a snaking effect. This is really good because it means that for every time that we switch sides, we create a south-facing micro-habitat. If we can encourage nectar-rich flowers to grow in these bits the insect life will be fantastic.

The south-facing edges that we are creating as we snake from side to side.

I have seeded the west-facing bank of the picnic clearing with a calcareous seed mix and I am happy to see that quite a bit of sunlight was hitting the ground today. I still think a couple of the big trees near the bridge need to come out, but other than that, mostly all the tree removal is done. It is now all about scrub clearance and making the path wide enough for the varied users. The more people who trample on the new ground the better. This is the only way that the wider path will become established.

We almost got to the second clearing today.

There is quite a bit of dead wood behind the scrub that could probably do with being removed at some point. However, I think it would be good to get the path nice and wide first and then cherry-pick the bits that we want to push out further. I will buzz over the work done today with the brush-cutter to remove any bramble shoots that we missed. All in all it is really starting to take shape.

Thanks to all who made it today. We certainly had the weather for it!

Next workdays (I will be putting the workdays on a separate blog so that they are easy to find in future)

Tuesday 25th October: 11am to 2pm – finish the path widening between the two clearings.

Sunday 6th October: 1pm to 4pm – work back from the picnic clearing northwards to widen the path.

Tuesday 8th October: 10am to 1pm – push on northbound.

Until the next one!

Paul