Eight of us made it today with the lure of a bacon bap, seeing as it’s the first workday of the month.

Mark, Ian, Marcus, Steve, Reece, Matt, Martin, and Paul turned out with a plan in mind. Marcus, Ian and Steve headed north to sort out some branches that had dropped and were likely to cause a cyclist a serious headache if they didn’t duck in time.

A huge branch had dropped which had brought others down with it. Even walkers were having to duck to get under it. We made a decent log pile for insects out of some of the cuttings

The rest of us had to change our plans, for reasons that we can go into next week, so instead we strimmed to keep the width where it needs to be.

It means we can all play nice, rather than cyclists and walkers bothering each other and pushing each other into the scrub and risk getting bitten by the many mini-beasts lurking in there.

This is the view up and down from the Oak Tree picnic bench.

We’re going to thin the trees and use the straight bits of timber to mark the path edge. This will be where we strim up to, and beyond that, we want a nice wide wildflower-rich grassy margin, before moving into scrub and shrubby understory.

This will be the challenge as soon as we get to September.

If MasterChef did a segment on bacon cooked outdoors, just maybe…

Everyone is telling me that they like their bacon “well done” and I think our little camping stove, with its two settings – OFF and FULL ON, pretty much delivered.

Good to stuff our faces and have a laugh whilst standing about in the woods. What passers by must think, gawd knows…

We released the Potford Dam bench from the jungle underneath it, and admired the view.

We also noticed that some stumps that we had drilled loads of holes in, to kill them off (middle of path so trip hazard) are sprouting new shoots!!!!

It really feels like an uphill battle at the moment!!

I found a couple of pockets of time, so litter picked the south part of the greenway and the whole of Dunchurch Bridleway. Bigger bag is the bridleway.

Not bad considering the school holidays.

Lastly, I found an app that maps the acres of fields. We are actually looking after 36 acres of woodland, so I suppose that makes us woodlanders…?

Dunchurch Bridleway on Friday, and back in the same place next Wednesday, where hopefully, all will be revealed…

Until then!

Paul