Back On Schedule

A surprisingly mild morning with temps at about 12C (54F), which is so nice to be working in; I almost took my outer layers off.

Now that all of the Mile Marker Posts are in, we can get back to the plan. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t like making a plan and then having to flex so much that the plan went pretty much in the bin.

But we are back on it, so I’m happy.

Eleven trailblazers made it out this morning. Ram, Ian, Steve, Martin, Dave, Reece, David, Marcus, George, Andrew, and Paul.

We had one main task and a pesky diversion to deal with.

Main Task:

We are on the stretch between Potford Dam Bridge and the old Dunchurch railway station. At some point, this section will become a proper cycle path that is made of tarmac. This obviously means that everything gets ripped out in the construction. I reckon it will happen by about 2030.

What we need to juggle is making it nice to walk down, without spending a lot of time and energy, which would be a waste in the longer term.

We’re just keeping it pushed back so people can walk next to each other, keeping the hedge on one side at about 5 feet, so people don’t feel like they are walking in a big green tunnel, and raising the crowns of the trees to help with the feeling of airy space.

We have a lot of hawthorn, and at the start of the session, I thought it might be nice to try to lay it down to hedge it, but it didn’t really work, so we very quickly abandoned that idea!

Dave’s Special Mission:

The UK has been ravaged by two storms over the weekend, and we had a tree come down further up the trail.

Dave volunteered to cycle down to it and clear it away as much as possible.

A sterling effort, and everyone can walk or cycle past without feeling that they’re smashing through a jungle.

We need to chop back the trunk, but that can wait for another day.

Half Time:

Dave made it back just in time for coffee and cookies.

Much banter and bonding as we enjoyed chocolate digestives.

The Second Half:

We cracked on with the path and reached the little wooded area. I like this bit and hope that it stays when the JCB bulldozers arrive.

After the disaster trying to lay the hawthorn, we decided to try and make the naturally hedging hawthorn into actual trees.

The hawthorn doesn’t want to be a tree and will fight until the bitter end to remain shrub-like, but we persevered, despite getting pricked all over with the hawthorn thorns.

This is what the section finally looked like at the end.

Hedge height lowered, dead-hedge with all the brash, and hawthorn trees!!

We had a visitor at break time.

A ladybird looking for a bit of warmth.

Stumps:

Readers of the blog will know that I hate stumps that are high, so they had to go.

When a high stump starts sprouting new shoots, it just looks crazy and odd. But we do need to work out how to stop new shoots from growing without using weedkiller.

Mental Wellbeing:

Ralph Waldo Emerson: The American philosopher famously wrote, “The only way to have a friend is to be one”.

It seems easy for men to be quite unfriendly. I had an allotment once, and the older men were very unsupportive and judgemental.

It’s not a great role model and put me off so much that I sacked the allotment off after one season.

Make of that what you will, but it didn’t fill me with the love of fellow brothers on a mission together to grow vegetables…