Seven of us made it this week. Matt, Marcus, Martin, Mark, Andrew, Dave, and Paul, and it was more about going sideways, as well as covering some distance.

The bit that we are working on is our very first wildflower glade, which we made many, many years ago.

Everything needs to go back to ground level so wildflowers won’t be smothered by rampant bramble scrub next spring.

It was remarkably warm at about 16 degrees, and whilst it felt like it was about to rain, the sun shone between the gathering dark clouds. Apparently, it’s going to be even warmer tomorrow, according to my neighbour, Craig. We’ll all be in shorts by the weekend.

We added all the cuttings to the brash pile.

As this slowly rots down, it will generate a little bit of warmth, which will be so welcome for small mammals when the cold finally gets here.

It’s interesting to see the holes appear as wildlife are creating new nests in the pile.

This is the end result.

Personally, I love it. Everything can breathe, including the people who use the path.

We broke for (drum roll….) bacon batches and a slurp of hot coffee.

Everyone likes their bacon crispy, which is a good job, because the cooking stove seems to have two settings. Full on and off!

I was so busy stuffing my face that I forgot to get the usual group photo.

A bloke (that is such an English word) walked past, and he reckoned that he could smell the bacon cooking from about 100 metres away.

Next, we pushed on southward.

Just more of the same, really. Path width and overhang removal to let the sunshine hit the woodland floor.

Everyone can see way ahead of themselves as they use the path, which helps with mental health and anxiety, and also stops any accidents between cyclists and pedestrians.

Dunchurch Bridleway

I desperately needed some time by myself at the back end of last week, just to churn through a head full of thoughts, and kinda catch up with myself.

Today was the moment that delivered those couple of hours of “me-time”.

I managed to cover 280 metres, so good progress. I forgot my saw, so I will have to go back and cut away tree saplings and low branches (edit: I did this on the weekend), but I’ve pushed us on.

We’re trying to get the path to splay out around the big old trees and bring them into play. If I were a kid, I would want to run behind the trees, and that would make the trail more exciting for me.

Looking back, and looking forward. It gets a bit narrow on the next bit, so I decided to pack up here.

Someone has gone to the trouble of putting up a load of nesting boxes on a tree.

Never seen them like this before.

And lastly, I enjoyed a cuppa and ginger bickies at halftime.

Deliciously fiery ginger biscuits, oh yes…

Just 340 metres to go until we get to the end, and then it’s back to the start.

The painting of the Forth Bridge comes to mind…

Fungi Feature

Today we are looking at turkeytail – a very colourful bracket fungus. Its circular caps can be seen growing in tiers on trees and dead wood – mainly hardwood such as beech or oak. It is a very common fungus that grows throughout the year, but is at its best in autumn.

Scientific name: Trametes versicolor

How to identify: A bracket fungus that forms semi-circular caps around tree trunks. The caps are thin and tough, with very clear, velvety, concentric rings of colour. Colours are variable mixes of brown, yellow, grey, purple, green and black, but the outer margin is always pale – either cream or white. The caps are often layered together, forming tiers.

Where to spot: Woodland

When to spot: All year

Did you know? This colourful fungus was once popular as a table decoration; at one time, it was even used to decorate hats!

And that is it for this week.

Thanks for reading, and well done if you got this far.

Until next time!

Paul