We finished re-staining the benches…

Posted on April 26, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Today, we cracked on with re-staining the rest of our bench collection with my mate, who does what it says on the tin, Ronseal. And it didn’t rain!!! There’s a first!!

Don’t they look absolutely divine. Simple, yet elegant design, apart from the one near the underpass wildflower clearing, and every one of them has a view to die for. The reason the underpass bench lacks the elegance of the others, is because crowds of crazed teenagers hang around the underpass when it’s raining, and I couldn’t risk spending money on something that might get vandalised after a few cans of the fighting juice. The wood was found in a skip and the brackets holding it together cost just £1.28 in total. I can live with losing that, but thankfully it has survived attempts to set it on fire and stuff, despite looking like it came out of a 1970’s park in Moscow.

Whilst I happily painted away, Marcus and David litter picked two bags of grot. I finished first, so I build a little habitat pile out of sticks.

It all helps the little creatures find a comfy home.

After that we bumped into Mick and had a good old chinwag. Muggins here was so excited to see Mick, that I forgot to take photos of the bags of grot, but believe me when I say they were heaving.

We also had our weekender this week, where Charlie is creating a wildflower-rich clearing for his DofE Silver Award.

Grubbing out bramble-roots and then seeding with a wildflower seed mix.

Proof indeed that I don’t just hang around taking photos of everyone else.

It’s gonna look fantastic! Well done so far, Charlie.

And that, really, was that!! I popped down to Draycote Meadow afterwards to see if we are on the right track.

It’s possibly a bit early in the year to draw any inspiration yet. But I will keep checking it out.

We have some pretty massive stuff happening over May and June so watch this space. I think you will be amazed, and the tag-line, more than just a path, will really come into its own.

Thanks for reading and until next time!

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Playing Farmers

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

It’s always a tremendous feeling to be at the start of a wildflower-glade creation. Sowing the seeds that we collected last summer, and adding new seeds to the mix, to try to increase the biodiversity.

To not do this means we are left with a much reduced diversity and a drab block of aging bramble scrub from start to finish, with nothing really happening underneath it.

What we want, instead, is a mixture of wildflower-rich grassland, young bramble scrub that is up to three years old, and hedges at the edges.

Obviously, we cannot eat the wildflowers, well we could if we put them in a salad, but we do provide food in the form of nectar for pollinators, and we do harvest seeds ready for next year, so in effect, we are doing the farmering bit, from sowing to harvesting.

Unfortunately, muggins made the typical school-boy error of forgetting a mattock to grub out the bramble roots. Leaving the roots means we will be overrun with the wretched stuff by mid summer.

Grubbing the roots out with rakes was interesting, to say the least!!

The transition from path to grass, to longer grass, to hedge or scrub is so important for the movement of insects, birds and mammals. Even now, whilst it is still a little cool, there are signs of life.

If you look closely, you can see the trees that I laid into a hedge starting to sprout new growth!! It’s amazing, but I doubt it will win any awards for looking pretty and neat.

Next, we cracked on with staining the last two picnic benches at this end of the trail.

If I had £1 for every time these benches have been tossed down the bank by the angry teenage mob, I’d have enough cash for two pints of lager and a packet of crisps.

Whilst they have served us well over the years, some serious TLC needs to be carried out on them towards the end of the season. Another fun wood-working workshop to look forward to, and we are let-loose with the power-tools again. A win win!

Some early wildflowers popping up, not that I was particularly looking for wildflowers today.

  • Lesser Celandine
  • Ground Ivy
  • Dandelion with Furrow Bee
  • White Dead Nettle
  • Brimstone

All recorded using the iRecord tab above, which feeds into a national database and lets the flora and fauna boffins know what sort of state the UK wildlife is in.

Next one is a weekender at the Heath View bench and then after that it’s at the same bench, staining it, and the others, working northwards.

Until next time!

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Renaming The Benches

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We have some new additions to our bench collection, and some modifications, due to the over-enthusiastic youth trying to wrestle with them last year, after too much fighting juice.

We also have the first of the Spring blossom. The feel-good feeling is enormous!!

There are a couple of funding applications in, for a bench at the butterfly bank, so people can enjoy the area when it’s a riot of insect activity. One way or another, this will happen, so I have included it.

Here is the list (north to south). I will update the map and put the http://www.what3words.com locations so we all know where to find them.

Bear

Berrybanks

Hillfort Pair

Underpass

Quadrant

Bethel

Heath View

Snowdrop

Daffodil Picnic

Bridleway

Butterfly

Birdfeeder Picnic

Tent Picnic

Dainties

Middle Round Picnic

Double Picnic

Potford Dam Picnic

Today we managed to stain Middle Round Picnic and Potford Dam Picnic, despite my over-optimistic head telling us that we could do all four. Don’t sit down or you’ll get a stripey bottom. We did have our greenway-little-helpers, though, so muggins had to somehow keep them amused.

The entertainment, of course, was a litter-pick from the south end to the Cawston Bridleway bridge and back. Not a lot of litter, considering the school holidays and good weather! David found an ASDA shopping basket. It might come in useful for carrying tools on and off the path? Possibly might find it hard to give up my Waitrose bag of magic tricks, though.

Everything is slowly turning green and a few early wildflowers are popping up. I’ve not seen a butterfly yet, but it has been a Gale Force 8 for the last few workdays, so anything that sticks its insect head above the parapet is likely to get it blown right off. Shame the grey squirrels cannot meet with a similar fate.

We did, however, spot our first Bloody Nosed Beetle, thanks to the greenway-little-helpers’ sharp eyes.

I have recorded it on iRecord using the tab above.

The squally views up and down.

I don’t know how, but we managed to dodge the rain completely!!

Next week we are starting in the same place, sowing our wildflower glades with a mixture of new seeds, and what I collected last summer, working northbound. I will bring a rake. We are also going to stain the last two benches at this end.

Until next time!

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You Could Drive A Tank Through That Gap…

Posted on April 5, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A question often debated, by the various people who claim to know what they are talking about, is how wide should the path be.

We have the one side who would opt for the skinny single-file track, and then the other side who want to chop all the trees down, much to the horror of the people of Cawston.

Personally, I would happily trundle up and down the path in one of those Challenger 2 tanks that have been in the news recently. That would give us a 4-metre wide path and I could take pot-shots at grey squirrels, as I roar through the undergrowth. Nothing would give me quite as much satisfaction as killing two birds with one stone!!

I imagine now, that people think I have gone totally bonkers. Or maybe, there is some sort of logic to my madness. Behold, there is… And it is two-fold…

Firstly, if the path is 3-plus metres wide, people can walk two, three or even four abreast and have one of those old-fashioned things called a conversation, you know, where one person speaks and the other person listens, and then the other person speaks, and so on…

Secondly, the more sunshine that gets onto the path, the drier it makes it for pushchairs and mobility scooter users. It means more wildflowers will grow on the edges, which means more bees, butterflies and other pollinators will enjoy the habitat, which means more birds and mammals, and on, and on…

Oh, and an added brucie bonus – if people can see a good 100-yards ahead of themselves, they feel far less likely that the Cawston bogeyman is going to jump out at them, so feel less intimidated whilst pottering up and down the track.

Today we cracked on with re-staining the benches.

We only managed four, despite me over-optimistically thinking we could do the whole lot in two hours. I was mindful though, of using slow and deliberate strokes, after last year’s near catastrophe when Chris was let loose with a paint brush, and we all went home looking like spotted dick!!

It’s important to us that we look after and maintain the benches. Nobody will want to sit at them if they’re not in tip-top condition. I think we have done a pretty good job here, especially when you notice the battle-scars and war-wounds on each bench, as the stain is re-applied.

Marcus and Reece headed off southwards armed with litter-pickers, and came back with a bounty of litter. Nothing exciting, just the usual grot.

We then enjoyed coffee and cookies using our world-famous Cawston Greenway enamel mugs. People have been asking me when they are going to appear in the shop, and a dude in America wants me to ship one over to him, as soon as they are!!

Loads of people thanking us for the new temporary path up to the Cawston Bridleway. It’s getting a lot of use, so is obviously needed.

That’s about it for this week.

Get out onto the path and enjoy it!

Until next time!

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Nearly Rained Off…

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

The blog schedule told us that we were re-staining the benches today. The weather told us different.

I looked at the forecast yesterday and thought it would be rained off, so didn’t bother getting the woodstain. Today looked dry at 9am, so I raced across town like a maniac to get the stain and brushes. It then started raining!! And not just a little bit. It was literally cats and dogs by about 11am.

Luckily, I had a plan B…

The new picnic bench seats were a little bit too springy for my liking. Sitting at it reminded me of a Citroen 2CV that I owned back in 1972. That, probably had wooden suspension, too.

So we fixed the springiness with some blocks that I just so happened to have in my Waitrose bag of magic tricks.

Whilst Kai played with power-tools, I sauntered off to find another job for us to do.

It wasn’t long before I found just the thing. We have a new bench called Bethel. The view has been getting a tiny bit obstructed so I sent Kai over the top to do battle.

And there we have it, view restored.

Whilst we were battling the bramble, David was snipping some of the pesky ash saplings, that never seem to give up in their quest for world domination.

We also had a weekender helping Charlie with his wildflower clearing, for his Duke of Edinburgh Silver Award, this week.

This bit is in glorious sunshine all day, has a bench, and the hedge at the end has a couple of ash saplings that I managed to lay into it. We seed it next month and we are very excited to see how it turns out.

Brilliant job, Charlie.

And that really, was that! We had a cuppa, the heavens opened, so we called it a day at 11:30 and scurried off to find somewhere to dry out.

Thank you to all patrons, old and new. Thanks too, to the people who have bought stuff from the shop, or used the “buy me a coffee” thingy. Everything helps. I do have the option of putting the enamel mugs in the shop if there is a demand for them. Just let me know and I will see what magic I can muster.

Until next time!

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Goodbye Big Will

Posted on March 22, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We had to say “goodbye” to Big Will today. But more of that, later…

The greenway is all things to all people – a path for everyone. So I took my family at the weekend and planted some trees. Note the word, “family”.

We bolstered the hedges at various places so wildlife has a hedge-habitat when the trees have grown and integrated with the existing edge.

So… back to that word, “family”.

I don’t really want to be the one explaining to my seven year old daughter what the symbols and words on the bridge mean. So they had to go!

Aaah, that’s better.

We also did a litter-pick from the bird-feeder glade to the underpass, finished our temporary path, to create an alternative to the treacherous “nutcracker” slope down the side of the bridge, and enjoyed a cuppa and cookie using our new mugs.

That’s about it!! Next week we are at the snowdrop bench working northwards staining all the benches, and snipping back anything growing into the path.

Join in, but if you can’t do that, visit the shop and buy a mug, or even better, become a Patron for £2 per month. A little shiver of goodness will go down your spine and a little shiver of appreciation will go down ours.

We start seeding the wildflower clearings after the last frost, so mid to late April. After that, I promise, you are gonna be wowed!!

Until next time!

Paul

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We Have New Mugs…

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I decided that we needed something new to drink our coffee out of. What better way to introduce our branded enamel mugs…

I love ’em. Everybody loves ’em. And these bad-boys are not for sale in our shop… yet!!

Let me know what you think?

We had to leave planting our tree pack due to children joining us and we would have been too spread out to keep an eye on everyone. I will pop them in over the weekend at some point.

So we marched ahead with our snowdrop splitting and transplanting from our secret supply.

This bank is going to look amazing in a couple of years. Literally a carpet of white.

David and Reece worked on the transition to the new temporary path. It’s not quite there, but will be after next week.

There’s a pretty decent hedge forming at the top of the bank so this will be fantastically useful for wildlife.

And lastly, our butterfly bank on the other side of the bridleway bridge.

We want a pedestal bench about a third of the way up the slope, so people can sit and enjoy the butterflies and bees in the spring and summer. I’m working on the funding for it. We can seed it with a wildflower and grassland mix after the last frost, so roughly late April time.

So what have we got on our two-mile nature walk? 15 bench areas, some pedestal, some picnic, some in clusters, some stand alone. This means that there is a bench every 200 metres, on average. five wildflower glades that break up the scrubby bramble. 50+ bird nesting boxes of varying types, and 5 bat boxes. Eight access/exit points that are safe to use. Our birdfeeder glade and lovely murals on our underpass and bridges. We also have our Geocaching Trail and Dino Trail for you to enjoy.

Finally, we are happy, and now we will work to maintain it as it is.

If you want to join in, read our “joining in” guide in the tab menu above, and if you bring biscuits we will love you forever.

Support us by buying some merchandise or becoming a patron. If 40 people sign up for just £2 a month we can keep the good stuff happening.

Until next time!

Paul

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Emergency Measures!!

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Please don’t use the slope that runs between the Cawston Bridleway and the greenway. It’s like a Val-d’Isere ski run.

Some poor bloke came off his pushbike trying to cycle down it a couple of weeks ago. The wail of pain could be heard in Dunchurch as his nether regions smashed into his crossbar!

There are plans afoot to get a proper wooden flight of steps put in, but these things, as I am sure we all know, take forever to organise. I just have a horrible fear that in the meantime, someone is going to slip and crack their spine on the protruding rocks. It’s just not worth the risk.

What we have done is made a temporary path along the top of the cutting, and it gently pushes people out where the drop is far more sedentary and manageable.

We as a group, cannot build steps or any other physical structure where people might trip over and hurt themselves, so hopefully this is a halfway measure to allow people to get on and off without having to scale the Alps.

Did I mention that it was snowing today?

It was nice to get under the bridge and enjoy a hot coffee and a coconut cookie.

Still a little bit of work to do with the transition from the greenway to the start of the rise upwards. We will tackle this next week to make it as seamless as possible.

We also litter-picked two bags of grot. Beer cans and bottles, and dog poo bags, mainly.

Next week we have a “tree pack” from the Woodland Trust to plant into our hedge along the Hawthorn Walk, we also need to split a load of the snowdrops further down the path and replant them in the clearing here to fill in some of the gaps. And the little bit of work on the path transition.

I think we may split into small groups but meet here and see how the Arctic weather influences our morning workday.

Support us by looking at all the different ways on the right. Buy a unique mug or fridge-magnet, or sign-up to be a Patron. It will send a little tingle down your spine and make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Well that’s it for this week, I’m trudging off to buy some snow-shoes…

Until next time!

Paul

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Another clearing, of sorts…

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

But before we get into it, you might have noticed a new tab on the menu bar named “Join In”.

If you want to join in, it needs to be with us, under a designated workday. This is for insurance purposes and also stops people saying, “can I do ABC” and ending up doing XYZ!!

If you are doing unauthorised stuff on the greenway and something happens, either to you or to a member of public, you are not insured and do not have permission from the landowner to be doing any activity except traversing it.

On your head be it!!

Today we started to tackle all the self-seeded tree whips… There are loads and loads. If we leave the scrub the path becomes bramble and then the bramble gives way to woodland that becomes a dense fight for light, so tree stems become straggly and leggy, all rubbing against each other and causing all sorts of problems.

I can see this area becoming an unplanned wildflower clearing, it will probably be full of nettles but that is not a totally bad thing for butterflies.

The Woodland Trust suggests that trees need to be between 1.5 metres and 2 metres apart to reach their full potential and maturity.

What I am going to do is work out some sort of rotational clearing regime for tree saplings and bramble scrub. This will help loads with biodiversity because it stops one thing becoming dominant.

Our snowdrop bank is looking good for its first year.

I am going to get more clumps and fill in the gaps. Our goal is a white carpet of snowdrops eventually.

We start to seed our newly made clearings with a wildflower seed mix in April. This month is just about getting as much sunlight onto the ground as possible.

Due to the teacher strike I had my young assistant helping…

We litter picked between the birdfeeder bench and the underpass. She then took charge of our coffee and cookie break…

There are a few Cawston Greenway mugs left and a couple of fridge magnets. If you fancy a unique gift for someone or yourself, be quick… It keeps us stocked up with coffee and cookies. Head over to the stuff on the right for ways to support us. Everything helps.

Our YouTube of the area.

Until next time!

Paul

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The bench rises from the ashes

Posted on February 22, 2023 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Firstly let’s talk about this bench. We inherited the frames from Rugby Borough Council in February 2011. They were surplus to requirements so they asked us if we would like to recycle them. The fact that they are made out of recycled car tyres means they were on their third journey with us, back then.

The bench went missing in 2013 and was later discovered down the bank and in a den made by the then youths. It had become quite rickety so moving it back up the bank seemed more trouble than it was worth.

Twelve years later, the bench is restored and now on its fourth incarnation.

Decent views across Lawford Heath, bird nesting boxes can be spotted from it, and good views up and down the path as well. The seats are a little “springy” so we might beef them up slightly. It depends on how we feel about throwing a tiny bit more money at it.

But all-in-all, we are very happy with it.

So that segways us nicely onto nesting boxes.

This season I decided to recycle all the old nesting boxes. Most are on the edges of the path and are out of view, and most have been ravaged by woodpeckers around the holes and are not very securely attached. I sorted the last five out this week.

We have 25mm holes for blue tits, 28mm holes for great tits and open boxes for robins. In total across the 2-miles of the path, there are over 50 nesting boxes. It’s going to be a ruckus in Spring!!

I have also mapped all the nesting boxes with what3words.com so we can monitor them when it greens up again and can no longer spot the boxes from the path.

Next, we have Charlie doing his DofE Silver Award. Charlie is creating a wildflower clearing by the Heath View bench and it’s coming on very well.

It’s just another area where the scrub opens up to wildflower-rich grassland and enhances biodiversity massively. Super job so far, Charlie.

Next we go to geocaching. I really thought this was a complete gimmick when I set it up in January last year… How wrong I was!

We have had people coming from as far at Nottingham and even Cork in Ireland to do the Dino Trail. How amazing is that!! I have cleaned out all the caches and put new logs in them ready for the 2023 season. How many times do you think they have been discovered over the last year? Over 1,500 times!! And I thought it was just a gimmick!!

Lastly (was that a collective “phew” I just heard), support us by buying a mug or fridge-magnet, become a Patron or buy-me-a-coffee.

Every last penny helps and keeps us happy with biscuits and coffee. But seriously, a dull green corridor is not my idea of fun and we have always aimed at trying to make the greenway a little bit more than this.

Our YouTube of the area.

Well that’s about it for this week. We have a really good piece coming on “joining in” so watch this space.

Until next time!

Paul

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