Cawston Greenway

Change of Plan

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

The schedule was telling us to re-stain our picnic benches ready for the spring. The hoar frost told us different!!

So we extended our wildflower meadow slightly, and made it a bit more even on both sides of the path.

The path in general needs to be about 3 metres wide for cyclists and walkers to be able to share it without compromising each other. This is advice from Sustrans, so don’t go shooting the messenger!!

We also repaired our woodpecker ravaged bird-boxes and put up the ones that needed repair from last season.

Contrary to popular belief, the shiny metal plates do not scare or deter the birds using the nesting boxes.

We have more Cawston Greenway mugs available, modelled by our wonderful Head of Retail, Ruby.

Just head to the shop if you would like one. More exciting merchandise is on the way so keep your eyes peeled.

A quick YouTube of the area before we started today. Wonderful views as always.

Well that’s about it for this week, and a few bits from last week added in. Keep the faith – it’s going to look amazing from April onwards.

If you want to get involved pop along and see if it’s for you, or PATRON PATRON PATRON if you want to help the project financially. Just £2 a month multiplied by 40 or so people means we can keep delivering the good stuff. At the moment our costs are outstripping our income, but we really don’t want to be just another green path with nettles and bramble scrub dominating the edges.

Next week we are at the snowdrop area trying to rebuild the bench on the A-frame that Rugby Borough Council gave us about 12 or so years ago. There is a sad story attached to this, so it’s a bit close to my heart and maybe if I can find the right words, I will share it.

Hope you enjoyed reading and until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged Bird-boxes, butterflies, cawston greenway, clearings, community, conservation, cycling, glades, Heath Views, moths, nature, outdoors, volunteer work, walking, wildflowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

January Weekender

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We enlarged the Potford Dam wildflower mini-meadow and doubled it in size.

The before foto, the work, and the after foto…

Thanks to Charlie, who is getting some Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award hours under his belt, for the photos. Some rare ones of me for a change.

Cutting back the bramble scrub needs to be done on some sort of rotational basis, according to the Wildlife Trust. If it’s just left it becomes horribly leggy and the understory is shaded out and it loses its thicket qualities, which decreases usefulness and biodiversity.

We can grub out the bramble roots when we overseed with a wildflower meadow seed mix in March.

What we are looking for is a mosaic of wildflower-rich grassland, scrub at various ages of maturity, and then the closed canopy woodland on the edges.

Some good news in the area where we had to rip out a load of Spanish bluebells that we inadvertently planted. We have our native English snowdrops coming up, and lots of them!!

A fantastic recovery and hopefully we will have a carpet of snowdrops as they thicken up.

A couple of fungi finds along the new Hawthorn Walk path.

Bracket Fungus
Velvet Foot Fungus

And lastly our YouTube showing the new clearing.

Well that’s about it for this week. We are putting up bird-boxes on Wednesday and I will update the rest of the month activities in a bit. I have put in a bulk order for our mugs, a totally unique gift. Just visit the shop on the right if you want one.

Looking forward to life at the end of the ladder next time…

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged Bramble Scrub, butterflies, cawston, Cawston Greenway Mugs, Cawston Warwickshire, community, conservation, nature trail, outdoors, Railway path, Wildflower rich grassland, Woodland | 5 Comments

This is as good as it gets…

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

…well, for now.

We will probably restart from the Berrybanks end in March, and work towards where we got to today. It’s just gonna have to be “little and often” or we’re going to be stuck here forever.

Just the three of us today and not a single passer-by came past. Probably for the first time ever!!

Our YouTube for people who like to see it in video format.

The goal here is to make the path wide enough so it dries out and a mobility buggy or pushchair can be used without any difficulty. We also need to get huge amounts of sunlight onto the left-hand side for wildflowers, butterflies and bees.

We have our weekender this Saturday down at the Potford Dam wildflower clearing, and then next Wednesday we are putting up birdboxes, meeting at the snowdrop bench and working northwards.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged birdboxes, butterflies, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, mobility buggy, mobility scooter, nature, outdoors, rambling, running, volunteer work, wildlife | 2 Comments

That sinking feeling…

Posted on January 18, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

That sinking feeling when we realise that we’ve bitten off far more than we can chew!!

South of Berrybanks or north of the underpass, it feels like we are gonna be camped here for a long time…

The before foto, the work, and the after foto… It needs to be a flat bottomed V like this \_/ and everything is in such a tangle. It’s gonna be a long process to get rid of the sun-blocking overhang.

My new pole-saw broke almost immediately.

Next week I will bring a ladder so we can get up amongst it.

Here is our YouTube of the after…

We have some new graffiti in the underpass. This is what Kai, one of our volunteers, felt about it…

An interesting and thoughtful perspective.

We are gonna have to dig in and get this bit done. The ladder will help, I’m sure. It’s all about creating areas of sunlight on the southerly facing bank to encourage wildflowers and butterflies.

Which nicely moves us to our assistant showing our new book.

This will help us loads in getting the habitat right.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, running, volunteer work, wildlife | Leave a comment

The Three Pillars

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A Path For Everyone

Creating a path that is accessible for walkers, cyclists, joggers, families, pushchairs, mobility buggies. Wide enough so people can pass comfortably or walk two abreast, can see far enough ahead so as not to feel intimidated, plenty of benches to stop at and rest. Areas for youth and areas for families to enjoy a picnic. Geocaching and dino trail activities. Duke of Edinburgh Bronze, Silver and Gold Award Assessor.

A Wildlife Corridor

Joined up habitat for wildlife. Plenty of sunshine and clearings for wildflowers. Bird boxes and bat boxes. A bird feeding station. Biodiversity is maximised by continual clearing of scrubby bramble.

A Safe Place For Mental Wellbeing

Doing the workdays with a positive purpose, a reason, and a goal, is so good for mental health. But just using the greenway to walk or cycle, to have a little less screen time and a little more green time is so good for all of us. Connecting with nature reduces stress and anxiety.

So today I donned my hi-viz and went for the ultimate thrill of an hour on the brush cutter. My hands are still tingling some five hours later!

We need a nicely widened path with a decent transition from path to short grass, to longer grass and wildflowers, to scrub and trees so wildlife can move in and out easily. We also need to get rid of the overhanging branches and cut windows on the south-easterly side to allow lots of sunlight in.

Next week is just bow-saws, loppers and pole-saws. It’s gonna be a tough one!!

We also did a little bit of maintenance on our Bilton Grange underpass mural…

Remember, there are various ways to support the project. The best thing is to come along and get involved, but if that doesn’t work for you, please consider becoming a Patron. Just £2 a month multiplied by 40 or so people means more of the good stuff, or make a one off donation via our crowdfunding page or the “buy me a coffee” link on the side. Everything helps us enormously and it will give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Thank you to all who have, and continue to, support the project.

Lastly, you can get some Cawston Greenway merchandise to impress your friends and family with. Imagine going for a walk along the path in the summer and then heading back home and enjoying a coffee in one of our mugs…

What a fantastic talking point!! Just visit the shop on the right.

Until next week!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, jogging, Mountain-biking, nature, rambling, volunteer work, walking, wildlife | 2 Comments

Welcome to Season 14

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Yes, you read that right – our 14th year of keeping the path open for everyone.

That’s as many seasons as The Great British Bake Off.

Pretty amazing stuff and a double-bonus because food is always close to my heart!!

This week we finished off the underpass wildflower clearing, a delightfully sheltered suntrap with a bench to rest and enjoy a cuppa.

Whilst the westerly side did well last summer, the easterly side struggled with wildflowers. We can get some shade loving seeds to try and have a better go this summer. We started a dead-hedge to create a border and transition from the scrubby bramble, to the wildflower mini-meadow. This gives insect larva something to burrow into and then habitat to live in when they become adult insects.

A view from above.

And our YouTube for people who prefer to see a video.

This month is pretty bleak for a lot of people, with short and cold days, long nights, and the massive come-down from Christmas and New Year’s Eve. The third Monday of January is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year and has been dubbed “Blue Monday” because of this. So, as always, come and join in. It will lift your spirits doing something with purpose and a goal. There’s always plenty to do, from putting up bird-boxes to hunting for fungi…

Turkey Tail Fungus
Velvet Foot
Bracket Fungus

There really is something for everyone…

Next week we are carrying on northwards from the underpass, making the path wider and cutting scallops into the side that gets the most sunshine, and also adding to our dead-hedges with the cuttings.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bird boxes, Blue Monday, butterflies, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, fungi, green space, nature, outdoors, running, volunteer work, walking, wildflower meadows, wildlife | 2 Comments

Last workday for 2022

Posted on December 28, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well, we finally got here! Lots of things learnt or re-learnt over the year as we try to keep the three pillars of what we do equally balanced.

A path for everyone

A nature trail for wildlife

A safe place for mental wellbeing

Today we cleared out the west side of the underpass clearing, pushed the scrub back by a couple of foot, and created a bit of a dead-hedge for insect habitat and larva to burrow into.

This is before:-

And after:-

This area is an absolute suntrap in the summer and will benefit from all the seeds dropping from the wildflowers last summer, plus we can over-seed it with some of the local seeds that I collected in the autumn.

Our YouTube of the area for those who prefer video to a slideshow:-

Next week we are in the same place doing work on the east side, and then we work towards Berrybanks making the path nice and wide, with deep scallops cut into west side as it curves eastwards and becomes almost south facing.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, green space, Mental Wellbeing, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, running, volunteer work, walking, wildlife | 2 Comments

Another chilly one…

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Bloomin’ heck!! Another absolutely freezing day today. However, after the first half hour we were starting to get a little warm under the collar!!

As stated in last week’s blog, there is an abandoned bench somewhere at the bottom of the embankment. Rugby Borough Council gave us two pairs of A-frames to make picnic benches, probably 12 or so years ago. One got destroyed by fire, and one went missing. Today we were on a mission to find the missing bench. The wooden seats and table-top had totally rotted away, a tree had fallen on top of it and one of the A-frames has minimal fire damage. But we got them up…

I kid you not, these bad boys weigh a ton!! They are made out of recycled car tyres. I have seen some abandoned wood that we can use to make new seats and a table-top. It will be nice to get further use out of them, and for free, too.

We also did some work on the snowdrop clearing.

The snowdrops on the inside edge of the path get trampled ever since the increased traffic happened during the COVID lockdowns, and daily exercise options.

What we have done is create habitat piles to try to gently push people back into the centre of the path, so the snowdrops have a chance to reach maturity and hopefully spread to create a white carpet in the early part of the year.

We want to encourage bramble and ivy to grow over the piles to make them more permanent. Yes, you heard that right – we want to encourage bramble growth!!

A robin redbreast was hopping around today inspecting our work. He seemed happy enough.

Here is our YouTube of the area…

Subscribe to our YouTube channel if you like, or you can “buy me a coffee” via the yellow button on the side, or do both… It keeps us with a little bit of cash to do stuff.

No greenway workday next week due to Christmas (Merry Christmas, everyone). But we are back the following Wednesday after Christmas for our last workday of 2022!!

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, buy me a coffee, cawston greenway, community, conservation, mountain biking, nature, picnic benches, recycle, snowdrops, wildflowers, wildlife, woodland habitat piles, youtube | Leave a comment

Thank goodness for hot coffee!!

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Has Winter started? I never know if it’s the 1st or 21st of December… But whichever way you look at it, it was a cold day today…

We made superb progress today and have the whole of the southern part of the path, that’s in cutting, wide enough to avoid the muddy puddles in January and February.

We also did a litter-pick. We need to return in the early part of next year to cut back the overhanging trees and also thin the canopy to increase sunlight and biodiversity.

Next week we are meeting at the snowdrop bench and trying to shape the path to stop people trampling the snowdrops when they start popping up. There is also an old bench that has been thrown down the bank years ago. I think it could be worth seeing if we can pull it back up and get it back into service.

Then we have Christmas.

And then we have the last workday of the year. We move into the stretch between the underpass and Berrybanks. The path curves to the east here so the west embankment gets lots of sunlight. We need to widen the path and create deep scallops. After Berrybanks the path really looks after itself so we can crack on with putting up birdboxes and prepping the areas that will need wildflower seeding in March.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, cawston greenway, community, conservation, cycling, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, running, volunteer work, wildlife | 1 Comment

Finally moving on…

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It feels like we’ve been stuck on this section for an eternity! Today we got to the point where we are able to move to the next section…

We did a last brush cut of the cleared higher path and just had a general tidy up.

We also fixed the picnic bench.

It’s not perfectly flat, but it’s functional, as we found out when we had our coffee and cookie break.

Some Fungi finds today:-

Shaggy Mane
Candlesnuff
Jelly Ear

And of course our butterfly embankment is ready for seeding with a meadow grass and wildflower mix, plus all the kidney vetch seeds that I have collected this year.

We still need to thin the trees casting shadow, but that is a job for January when all the berries have gone. We will put a bench in on the other side of the path so people can sit and watch the butterfly activity next summer. It will be superb.

This week I visited Wappenbury Wood, a site managed by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, just to make sure that we are on the same page in terms of looking after the woodland aspect of our nature trail.

It’s a boggy and wet path which shows why we need to keep the width of ours wide and dry, or people will simply not use it.

Well that’s about it for this week. Please PATRON PATRON PATRON (top righthand of blog!) even if it’s just a couple of quid a month. Seeding the butterfly clearing will cost £52, Fixing the picnic bench is £5 for screws (luckily I scrounged the wood batons), the bench for the butterfly clearing will be £12 for the wood and £4 for the postfix… But on the flip side – come along and join in… I really cannot stress how good this is for mental wellbeing!!

Until next week!

Paul