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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Hawthorn Walk

Posted on September 28, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We kinda finished our work on the new lower path today.

It’s a welcome alternative route for anyone using the path as a there-and-back walk.

The path runs from the middle round picnic bench, northwards towards the birdfeeder glade.

The more people who use it, the flatter the ground should become. If it remains a little sloped in places we will rake it flat.

It was lovely to see birds flitting in and out and so many insects like hover-flies buzzing about.

If we can work on the hedge to make it dense and full of wildlife it will be superb.

Whilst me and Marcus worked on this, Mike snipped back and litter picked further up the path.

Next week we start to clear out all the spent wildflowers and bramble. Starting at the birdfeeder clearing and working northbound until we are nice and wide and dry, ready for the wet winter months.

Until next week!

Paul

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Coffee and Pretzels

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A little bit of an American flavour to the workday today with pretzels – or so I thought… It seems pretzels originated from Germany and were invented by monks!!

American or European, I don’t think anyone would be impressed with my anaemic looking coffee!! It was wet and warm so it did the job!!

Just me on the Potford Dam glade, clearing out the spent wildflowers and starting to prep for next year.

Cutting everything back to ground level now that all the seeds have dropped, and making a habitat pile on the other side of the path. Loads of bramble that we will let re-grow and then grub out the roots.

The glade needs to be bigger. We are getting a lot of perennial wildflowers growing in it so it is doing exactly what it is supposed to. This is year four since creation.

I managed to strim around two of the circular picnic benches before I ran out of charge.

It just makes it more pleasant to sit at the benches.

Mike cut back and litter-picked from Cawston Bridleway northwards.

We have had the quadrant benches replaced and an exciting mural painted on the Cawston Bridleway bridge.

I am not massively sure about the bench top left. It’s driving my OCD into overdrive!! Whoever painted the mural please feel free to do the other side, and I litter picked the path as well as Mike.

Well that’s it for this week. Patron us a couple of quid a month if you like the path and want to support us, come along and help (great for mental health and making friends). We will be starting up weekenders again soon.

Until next week!

Paul

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Quiet and Respectful Session

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We just gathered and carried on letting light onto the new path. We are being heavily guided by Forestry England and the Woodland Trust at the moment. Their suggestion is trees being about two metres apart so that they can grow unhindered, and lots of dappled sunlight.

As you can see, we are getting more and more sunlight onto the path and seeing a lot of butterflies and bees coming in from the wildflower meadow next-door, searching for food.

Views from the path.

As I said last week, the view in not really about the houses, but the wildflower meadow and the edge, that will be home to so much wildlife.

Our coffee and cookie break where we received a lovely surprise visit from Pat (I forgot to grab a photo!!).

Back here next week just easing the path open and trying to make the entry/exit points obvious.

Until then!

Paul

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Stressful Day

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Today was incredibly stressful due to oldest child going up to secondary school and today was his first day. It has been a stressy slow-burn getting here and suddenly the ratchet notched up to the max as the day finally arrived. It all turned out OK, of course, and I am sure most of us have been there.

For me and Kerrie, there is a no better way to try to dissipate that stress than a session on the greenway.

I am allowing myself to be heavily influenced by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and their woodland management guides. Basically it is all about varied canopy, lots of sunlight, the woodland edge, not overcrowding trees, and paths so people can actually enjoy the woodland.

So with this in mind, we eased back the heavy growth on the edge of the path to help the dappled sunlight hit the ground.

Some people might say, “oh but the view is of houses…” but it’s not really about the houses, it’s about the wildlife on that edge.

This is not what we want…

An old oak tree having a load of other stuff trying to grow through it causing all sorts of stress.

From the Woodland Trust: Oak, English (Quercus robur)

The ruling majesty of the woods, the wise old English oak holds a special place in our culture, history, and hearts. It supports more life than any other native tree species in the UK; even its fallen leaves support biodiversity.

So there you go!! We really need to be giving our large trees the space and room to grow without competition.

To finish, here is us lot having a cuppa and cookies!! Seven of us today (me and Mick out of shot) – a good turn-out.

We carry on working on this bit next week. It’s starting to look pretty blooming good as a secondary walk and we will make it open and non-intimidating, like the top path.

If you want to join in, be a patron, or support us by buying us biscuits (Lotus Biscoff are my faves), you know the drill….

Until next week!

Paul

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Quite a bit to share this week

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

The main thrust of this week’s workday was clearing some of the thicker branches along the new 225 metre Hawthorn Walk at the south end.

In my mind’s eye, I can see a hawthorn and bramble hedge along the fence-line, mature trees released from the tangle, the dense canopy broken down, and the tree structure varied in age and type.

Imagine what this walk will look like in the Spring – full of beautiful white blossom, and then Autumn – red berries galore with birds hopping about feeding up for Winter.

When the heavy vegetation on the sides is cleared it really does feel like a more open and friendly space.

Sunlight floods in and this will bring wildflowers and wildlife. It also gives people a different route to take when walking back and forth, which is part of our pledge to make the path as interesting as possible.

We had a coffee and cookie break and also did a litter pick up and down the first half-mile.

Beer cans and bottles mainly collected – sadly all empty!!

We can now have signs telling people where they are and what the path is called.

We are going for the old ‘totem’ style signs in the original LNWR colours.

I like this for two reasons. It gives us an identity and also just recognises the history of the railway line.

The signs will be 92cm long and 25cm at the wider part and 15cm at the thinner part. The question is, do we try and make them ourselves, or buy them from a sign making company?

A few people have expressed concerns about the steps leading up to the Cawston Bridleway.

We’re looking at what we can do and how we can go about it. The days of us lot carving steps out of the slope are well and truly over, so if it does happen it will be a proper job <did I just hear a collective “phew!!”>.

Well that’s about it for this week. Plenty of fruiting trees and shrubs. Blackberries galore. The path is dry and reasonably wide so enjoy it in the last throes of summer.

As the economic landscape worsens and household budgets get tighter and tighter, we are always here doing our thing and having a laugh. Come along and help. It’s free, friendly and does wonders for mental wellbeing. And if you bring biscuits we promise not to tie you to a tree…

Until next week!

Paul

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Another Duke of Edinburgh Award Signed Off

Posted on August 24, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

This week we tried to get our triangle of benches in place. Sadly it was not to be.

Max asked if he could do his DofE with us, so we gave him all the usable bits of the smashed up bench, and said “see what you can make out of this lot”!!

The plan was to have three benches in a triangle to represent the recycle motif. Sadly, due to some really heavy substance under the ground, we had to abandon the idea. We are sitting on a culvert so it might have been something to do with that.

So we set the other two benches on the other side of the path. It gives people the option of sitting face to face if in pairs, or singular if alone, or sit on one bench and use the other for a flask of coffee and biscuits. The permutations are endless!!!

The bench recycle layout was probably a little bit of vanity and a little bit of virtue signalling from my part, anyway. The good thing is that these benches are made from an old bench that was given to us, that we upcycled, a couple of years ago. What we see today is the third incarnation of that original bench!! Well done Max on making this happen. A well deserved Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Just when you thought that you has dodged that little bit of a virtue signalling, I am gonna catch you with another…

I have started my collection of local wildflower and grass seeds. Or course we will be buying a decent seed mix, but we do collect a lot of local seeds from various places to keep adding to the biodiversity.

Lastly, the path up and down and our coffee and cookie break.

By now you should know the drill… Support us via the Patron link above, or even better, join in. To be doing something with others on a regular basis, and with purpose, is so good for mental wellbeing.

Until next week!

Paul

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Itching to get going this year!!

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We are getting close to the fun bit of the year. That time of the year where we can start clearing out the wildflower glades, cutting back, and generally putting in the work for next year. I have a rough plan but more of this later.

Today we welcomed Mitch to the team (thanks for the biscuits) and snipped back brambles between Berrybanks and the Cawston Underpass.

The underpass has had some unnecessary words written on it. We painted over the offending scrawl and colour-matched to cover the rest, next time.

Loads of people have commented on how much better it is, so we want to keep it looking good.

We also replaced a couple of missing geocache containers.

The geocaching trail is complete again with all 12 containers back in place. The caches have been found a total of 1,093 times since we set it up at the start of this year.

Here is the rough plan for the autumn and winter. Nothing is set in stone and everything is changeable…

  • Make Potford Dam wildflower glade larger and seed with wildflower seed mix
  • Develop the hedge next to the middle round bench
  • Develop the hedge and path next to the wildflower meadow
  • Open up the tree canopy to let more light in, especially around the benches
  • Create a clearing on the south-west side of the Cawston Bridleway bridge and seed with Kidney Vetch to try and attract the endangered Small Blue butterfly
  • Cut the path back hard in cuttings to make higher and drier ground available in winter
  • Put up new birdboxes and fix damaged boxes
  • Increase birdfeeder wildflower glade in size slightly northwards.
  • Make underpass wildflower glade slightly larger and seed with wildflower seed mix
  • Reset the missing benches in the quadrant
  • Set the benches in the triangle

That lot should keep us busy and give us a fantastic path next year. We are going to start keeping the path edge shorter throughout next summer so it doesn’t feel quite so tight as everything starts to fill in.

Next week we are at the southern end hopefully putting in the triangle benches.

Until then!

Paul

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