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

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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

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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

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Now you see why…

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

With the heavy and what seems like continual rain over the last few weeks, you can see why we clear off the higher ballast path…

It gives people the option not to have to walk through the muddy puddles. It also removes the spent wildflowers, bramble and self-seeded tree saplings. If we leave these, the ground becomes more fertile so nettles and bramble will flourish and crowd out less competitive wildflowers and eventually, become dense scrub. I also litter picked between the quadrant benches and the bird feeder clearing.

Whilst I do enjoy working on this section of the greenway, I am starting to feel like we are a bit bogged-down here. What’s left to do? We need to cut deep scallops into the west side of the path, remove the overhanging tree branches, seed the butterfly bank with a meadow grass and wildflower mix, thin out the tree canopy on both sides, and fix the picnic bench.

I plan to do a session on Thursday morning and the same on Friday morning this week, just to crack on a bit. If anyone wants to pop along, feel free.

To keep us on the right track, I always try to visit a wood, or a forest, or nature reserve every week.

This week I was at a Butterfly Conservation site.

This area is absolutely buzzing with butterflies, bees, and loads of other insects in the summer due to the carefully managed grassland and wildflower habitat.

It’s what I hope our butterfly embankment starts to look like next year.

Usual mental wellbeing message – join in if you need company, bring biscuits and we will love you forever! Things seem very bleak for a lot of people at the moment. We always have a bit of a laugh doing what we do with purpose and vision.

Until next time!

Paul

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Butterfly Bank

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

More work on the butterfly bank today. It’s looking good as far as I can tell…

It needs to be sheltered grassland habitat so the scrub on the side will act as a barrier and the dead-hedge at the top will also offer a bit of shelter from prevailing south-westerly winds.

There will be a load of seeds in the soil already but we may need to pull out what we don’t want.

What we need is grass and kidney vetch, but we also have to kinda work with what nature gives us.

I draw a lot of inspiration and knowledge from sites managed by Warwickshire Butterfly Conservation, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and The Woodland Trust, to name but a few. It’s always useful to see what they are up to.

Bubbenhall Wood showing glades, rides and scrub management.

Until next week!

Paul

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Look what I discovered!

Posted on November 12, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

More work on the butterfly clearing.

Where we started clearing last week, we have nettles popping up!! What we want is grasses and kidney vetch wildflowers. It’s early days and there is still a load of scrub to clear. It’s starting to slowly take shape though. We will probably clear about ten metres along, dead-hedge the top, thin the trees to allow maximum sunlight and see what grows in the spring of next year.

We can put a bench in on the other side for relaxed viewing.

I had a cheeky coffee break and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

I then took a walk northwards and happened upon a new bench that must have been put in by Andrew (thank you)!!

The view is fantastic and the birdboxes in the trees around the bench will make this a year round favourite spot.

We are back in the butterfly clearing on Wednesday. Join us if you like.

Until next time!

Paul

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Do We Actually Know What We Are Doing?

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

This time of year probably makes people think that we don’t. It’s all very much work in progress and does look very messy.

However, there is method in our madness.

The path becomes a quagmire where it’s in cutting over the winter, so we need to clear the raised ballast side-track so people don’t have to walk in the mud.

We also need to push back the bramble scrub so that we get a decent transition from path, to short grass, to longer grass and wildflowers, to scrub and woodland. This is ideal habitat for wildlife and makes it so much more interesting than a mono-green corridor.

Now, here is the second part of what we are doing in this area – The embankment on the south side of the Cawston Bridleway bridge gets a huge amount of direct sunlight, and is very sheltered.

What we want to do is clear off all the scrub, encourage a sheltered grassland habitat, cut back the low value trees and seed it with a wildflower called Kidney Vetch. This is the sole food plant of the endangered Small Blue butterfly larvae. We might be lucky and establish a colony. The nearest colony spotted is around the cement works, so not too far away.

If we don’t get Small Blue butterflies, it will still be hugely beneficial to a whole range of insects and birds.

As you can see, plenty of work to do!!

We can create a hedge at the top of the cutting to further protect from south-westerly winds and just add to the biodiversity here.

It’s all super exciting stuff and will look brilliant in the spring and summer of next year.

As always, come and help if you want to get involved, or pop along for a chat if you feel the need for a bit of human contact and conversation. This time of year can be a little depressing for people as it gets dark and cold, and Christmas looms. We are always here doing our thing with a laugh and a joke.

Until next week!

Paul

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Saturday Scallops

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Our first weekender for a while and we are back at the bit south of Cawston Bridleway bridge.

The path runs in a roughly south-westerly direction so the edge of the path is never going to get full sun, unless we make it wavy with loads of sheltered scallops, where micro-habitats can evolve in that south facing edge of each scallop.

You can see how the sunlight is hitting the edge already. We can seed with wildflowers in the Spring to create a decent transition from short path grass to longer grass and wildflowers to bramble scrub and woodland.

We also started to work on the overhanging tree branches that are blocking out sunlight.

Again, we can see how the sunlight is getting to the edge to create wildlife-rich habitat.

We have some new tools on the way to help cut back the overhanging tree branches and create that flat-bottomed V profile. Thank you to our generous Patrons for enabling us to make this happen.

Hopefully we get this section finished by the end of October. I am not around this Wednesday (19th) morning but if anyone wants to carry on, you can see what we are looking for.

Until next time!

Paul

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Ahead of Plan

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We made great progress today, and the next one is our weekender (Sat 15th 10-to-12).

A speeded up clip of where we got to…

Next one is either carrying on clearing the easterly side to the bridge, or come back and clear a metre deep of the westerly side.

We also need to get rid of the overhanging tree canopy so that the profile of the path resembles a flat bottomed V \_/ rather than a flat bottomed O (_). This is to really maximise the sunlight hitting the edges of the path and creating ideal opportunities for wildflowers to grow and the wildlife that then thrives on the edges.

We are hoping to get this side of the bridge finished by the end of October. We are ahead of plan at the moment.

Mike cleared a little further south towards Potford Dam.

If you want to join in, just pop along. The dates and places are always published on the right-hand side of the blog. Or if you want to contribute financially, click on the Patron link and bung us a couple of quid a month. The yearly renewal for this blog and our public liability insurance are due soon and these are our biggest costs by far.

I cannot do Wednesday next week (19th) but if anyone else wants to lead it, feel free.

Paul

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The Clearing Out Has Begun

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It’s that time of the year again, probably a few weeks late, but everything that grew over the summer is spent, seeds dropped and needs to be cleared and stacked away from the area.

The reason why we need to rake up the cuttings and stack them in piles is two-fold. We don’t want all the goodness going back into the soil and feeding the grass and encouraging thuggish stuff like nettles and thistles. And we want to create habitat piles for all sorts of things to live in, and hopefully help the full cycle of life for all sorts of wildlife.

Here are before and after clips (speeded up so as not to bore you to tears) spliced together to make a single video clip. I put it to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Autumn masterpiece, which is quite apt.

Whilst this looks a bit over-the-top!! It is just clearing out this year’s growth so we get new wildflowers next year. To leave it means it just turns to scrubby bramble and it dominates the area very quickly and nothing else grows.

Here is the scrub raked into the centre and then stacked up.

That’s really about it for this week. Same again for the next few weeks working northbound, to create dry and bare ground to walk on and wildflowers to flourish next year. When we have cleared out this years growth, we can start to look at cutting back new bits, moving hawthorn and ash saplings into our hedge and do some work on the canopy to let sunlight in.

Patron us via the link above. If lots of people give us just £2 a month each, it means we can keep our tools sharp, the birds fed and buy decent wildflower seed mixes to make the path as interesting as possible. Plus it keeps us stocked up in biscuits and coffee, which everyone is welcome to join us at 11am on every workday and just get to know us and hopefully join in.

Until next week!

Paul

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