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Seven of us ventured out in what seemed like a reasonably warm day. Marcus, Reece, Steve, Ian, Matt, Dave, and Paul. It soon turned into that sticky heat as the cloud cover dispersed and the sun rose high in the sky, but onwards we ploughed with the last 500 metres to make the connection between Dunchurch and Cawston work, and allow people to walk along the path without being mauled by all the critters in the undergrowth.

It’s a constant battle to keep a 2 metre wide path at the moment, but we are pretty much on top of it.

Something else that is proving to be a little bit too aggressive is bramble.

We literally turn our backs for five minutes and the stuff has grown into the open space that we have just created. I reckon that if I had a ruler I could physically see it moving as it reaches out for the light. The last thing that we want is people getting their clothes snagged or their legs scratched, so we snipped it all back.

The views are pretty outstanding which makes the morning session so nice and relaxing.

The woods are down there and really need someone to take charge of them with a clear management plan and a decent group of volunteers.

We broke for coffee and, thanks to Matt, had an Australian theme this week.

These biscuits have travelled over 10,000 miles to be scoffed by us lot. And they were very tasty, too.

I took the obligatory photo of us on our break but for some odd reason, it blurred!! Most annoying!!

If you want to sponsor our breakfast/brunch break you can use the buy-me-a-coffee link, rather than jumping on a plane and flying half way around the world.

We had a bit of help from the contractors, who are currently building the warehousing, on the last bit of our path.

It all helps, and the guys are joining us on a Corporate Volunteering Day in September, so we are looking forward to that.

The warehouses become a feature of the landscape and eventually will be hidden behind a wall of trees.

I know some people get really upset with our green fields being gobbled up – it is what it is…

Someone asked me today why we do what we do. We have been doing it for so long now that it has just become part of my weekly routine. But I guess that thing that got me started some 16 years ago, was a desire to give back to my local community somehow. I went out, armed with an old bow saw and just started cutting back what seemed like a jungle, and it just sort of grew from there.

I’m a big fan of men doing stuff to get out and make new friends. Everywhere, I read about men being lonely and finding it difficult to make those connections, show a bit of vulnerability, and kinda just do what really should be natural. I think working shoulder-to-shoulder with a common goal in mind really helps, and with the workday being at the same time and day every week, means people who want to join in, can shuffle their diaries about to make it happen.

Of course, we are more than welcoming of women as well as men, so please don’t think that we are exclusively just a man-group. Far from it. It’s just the mix at the moment is heavily skewed to males for some reason.

To finish, here is a rather nice wildflower that I noticed along the route. I think it’s some sort of Sweet Pea.

On Friday we are back on the Dunchurch bit, in a day that is supposed to reach 32 degrees, which is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so that will be interesting. I think I will ditch the coffee for iced juice…

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Until next time!

Paul