We normally have the luck of the Irish when it comes to rain. Even when it’s forecast, we seem to find ourselves in a little dry micro-climate. Today, that luck well and truly ran out…

I half expected nobody to turn up and thought that I would be having a lazy day watching raindrops snaking down my kitchen windows. But no, seven of us decided that rain was a feeble excuse to stay in the comfort of a warm house, and we cracked on.

Ruby, Mark, Steve, Dave, Andrew, David, and Paul battled with the scrub.

Another big tick in the diversity checkbox, thank you very much!!

We switched next week’s workday with this week’s, so we had the bridge for cover, but before long, we were so far down the track that it really didn’t make any difference.

We’re pushing the scrub back so that we have a wildflower-rich grassy margin between the path and where the scrub starts. The challenge that we have is that the trail swings round to an almost north-to-south axis.

This means that one side of the path is in full sun in the morning, and the other side is in full sun in the afternoon. If it went east-to-west, then one side of the path would be in full sun all day long. We can create a wavy, scalloped edge that has little south-facing micro-habitats, but that sort of detail is for another day.

Insects that love full sun will have to move to the other side as the day progresses. Sorry, but that’s life!

What we’re trying to do at the moment is get rid of the dead zones, where no sun is reaching the woodland floor, and get the tree spacing sorted so that everything is growing vertically, rather than diagonally or even horizontally. This will help nature and people to flourish together, and the mental health benefits of sunshine and open green space will really kick in.

Ruby and me set off to litter pick the path to our most southerly point, and then northwards to Berrybanks and back. Not a huge amount, thankfully, because I had run out of the usual blue litter sacks.

But we did notice a few things that need attention at some point, like a huge hole?? A few stumps that need cutting to ground level, benches that need wood stain, and a fallen nesting box.

And someone was asking me last week if there is enough work to keep us all busy!!

The end result made me think that it was worth the effort today.

This is the width that allows everything to work together: nature, humans, cyclists, and walkers.

And lastly, we made a huge brash pile that will slowly rot down over the winter and provide warmth and habitat for a great many visitors.

We are now well into the fungi season, so I thought I might feature a fungus every week. Every day’s an opportunity to learn something new.

Fungi Feature

Our first fungus is jelly ear, which as the name suggests, looks uncannily like an ear! ​​It grows on dead and dying branches and is most often found on elder trees, but can sometimes be encountered on other species such as ash, beech and sycamore. It favours damp, shady spots and often grows in clusters.

Scientific name: Auricularia auricula-judae

How to identify: A gelatinous purplish-brown fungus that grows in cups on branches. As the cups age, they develop lobes and can look like a human ear growing from the wood. The inner surface of the cups is smooth and shiny, whilst the outside is velvety.

Where to spot: Woodland

When to spot: All year

Did you know? Jelly ear can survive freezing weather, thawing out afterwards and continuing to grow!

That’s it for this week.

I have updated the workdays for the next month and a bit, which is somewhere on the right-hand side of the blog, with the bacon batch days highlighted, so come along if you need feeding up. There is always plenty to go around.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you made it this far into my ramblings.

Until next time!

Paul