It is with great sorrow that report that Edmund lost his battle with cancer this morning. Edmund was a popular volunteer on the greenway and touched a lot of us with his kind nature. I have sent my condolences to Sally, his wife.

In terms of today’s workday, it was all about trying to connect with the cycleway that runs along the Western Relief Road. This is part of National Cycle Network 41 and as soon as we connect with it we can then connect with the rest of the route at Draycote village.

After trying to work out how to put steps into the very steep slope by the bridge, we eventually gave up because it would be more of a ladder that steps. We then tried to make a ramp but with no retaining barrier it was just not possible with spades.

Eventually we went to the area where the field next to the greenway narrows, and cut a small tunnel through to the edge.

Small tunnel leading to the edge of the greenway.

From the edge is a small bit of land that hopefully the landowner will give us access over and then our connection with the outside world will be made.

View from the edge to the gate. Just twenty yards.

The rest of the workday was spent pulling up nettles around any other wild flowers to give them a chance to establish themselves and spread a bit.

The cows found our nettle pulling quite amusing!

And just as we were finishing we found a Kidney Vetch plant. This is the sole food-plant for the Small Blue butterfly. If we can get this plant to spread we can hopefully have a Small Blue colony establish itself. This would be fantastic because the Small Blue is on the endangered species list in Warwickshire and needs as much habitat creation as possible.

Kidney Vetch.

Good day today up to the point where I learnt about Ed. I will put some more workdays on in the next couple of days, but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a great Jubilee celebration.

Paul