More bramble bashing, or scrub bashing, on the connector path today.

I think we had a 92% chance of rain, but it turned out to be just a few minutes of drizzle, and that was it.

Nine bushwackers (not the slang meaning) turned out to do more, err, wacking of the bush. Dave, Ram, Ian, Steve, Andrew, Matt, David, Martin, and Paul, and we covered a fair bit of ground.

It looked like we were going nowhere fast, and then suddenly the whole thing just opened up.

Remember, it’s all about people being able to see 40 metres or so ahead of themselves so that they can use the path without feeling anxious.

This is the horribly aged scrub that we are removing. It’s the width, and also trying to take out the height so that people can see to the sides.

It looked and felt really good towards the end.

We broke for coffee and super-healthy snacks at half-time.

It was nice to have something a bit different for a change.

We cracked on and managed to get to about the 250 metre point. There is about 150 metres to go before it naturally opens up into grassland, and about 100 metres at the other end before the path goes off to meet the Dunchurch Bridleway.

This is where we got to, looking back, and looking forward. The big clump of scrub on the right-hand side needs to go, so that will be the first job next week.

But it looks welcoming and ready for the spring.

We made a couple of nesting boxes and put them up in the butterfly clearing.

It just adds to the biodiversity and interest. The nesting boxes work out at about £4 each for the timber and odd change for the screws. I could run a sander over them to make them look less rustic, but I like the rough look.

We now have 60 boxes along the trail, so we should see a lot of young birds in May.

We are going to have a lot of bramble coming up in the newly cleared areas, so with Pauline’s generous buy-me-a-coffee donation last week, plus a bit of cash that I found on a gift card, I bought this…

It looks like an ice pick, but it will help us to grub out the bramble roots and allow wildflowers to get established. It’s going to be a battle to keep the bramble down, but it needs to be done.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Me and Dave battled away to try and get around the flooding.

There’s a path through. Hopefully, when it stops raining, we can work out why the water is not draining away.

We discovered Common Ivy actually has a fruit.

Who knew? A superb food source for birds over the winter.

We litter-picked this section as per usual.

It just makes it so much more pleasant to walk when there is no litter about.

And lastly, we have a huge number of hawthorn trees, which are normally better off when used in hedging.

After a bit of YouTube and research, I reckon we can get these trees to look more tree-like and less bush-like.

Watch this space.

Until next time!

Paul