Reduced Numbers…

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

There were only four of us this week. Various commitments like holidays, and actual paid work, kept about half the team engaged elsewhere. But Reece, Steve, Martin, and Paul made it and we did a bit of strimming and also pulled down a few dodgy looking branches that potentially might have fallen.

The main thing for today though, was a bit of a test to see how much ground we can clear per session. If you look at the tabs above, there is one called September Jobs. Each workday needs us to be clearing between 150 and 180 metres per session, and not just strimming back.

We need to be clearing the overhang so sunlight can get into the path margins and allow the strip between the path edge and the scrub edge to become wildflower-rich grass. At the moment it is mostly just nothingness because it is so dark.

Here are the photos from today, just to give people an idea of kinda where we are going.

We did about 200 metres, which fills me with confidence. However, the proof will be in the pudding…

Some bits of “tunnel” will be left so that wildlife like dormice, which are arboreal (live in trees), can get from side-to-side, but we really want to get that flat bottomed V on most of the path to increase the biodiversity and just make it a bit more airy and let everything have space to breathe a bit.

If we are thinning out the trees, the ones that are left should put on a lot of girth, because we have taken away the need for them all to compete for the light and put all their energy into doing upwards.

We broke for coffee.

You will notice that I typed just coffee. Muggings here forgot to bring biscuits. Normally, the one who is on holiday, will bring the treats and I plain forgot. Pretty much kicking myself because I could’ve gone cap-in-hand to the local butchers, got the stove out, and done us some sausage batches.

Oh well!!

One thing that we all noticed was the amount of leaves falling. It was almost like green snow.

We are officially now in a drought and trees will preserve their energy by shedding their leaves to conserve water and protect themselves from further dehydration. This is sometimes referred to as a “false autumn”.

I think the last time we had this situation was 2020, and everything bounces back and normalises pretty quickly, so it really is nothing to worry about.

We did our usual litter pick.

Lots of cans and sweet wrappers with the kids still being off school. Just a week and a half to go before they all go back, and then I might publish a full damage assessment? Probably not, I don’t know. I just don’t want to give away the energy to idiots who feel the need to smash things up.

The next one is this Friday on Dunchurch Bridleway, and then next week we are making sure the two paths connect and everyone can enjoy the circular walk between the two villages.

Until then!

Paul

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Unscheduled Bench Work…

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Seven brave souls turned out today in the scorching heat. I think it went over 30 degrees C (almost 90 in F) as the sun slowly melted everything and everyone. Mark, Ian, Steve, Reece, Marcus, Dave, and Paul.

We were able to split into three groups again. Mark and Dave headed south with the strimmers to keep the path width where it needs to be. Ian, Steve, and Marcus went back to the same location as last week where we had the dropped branches to just tidy up and get a feel for the work that needs to be done in September.

If you cast your mind back to last week, we had a forced change of plan. We were supposed to be putting a canopy above the park-style bench that keeps getting pebble-dashed with bird poo.

Sadly, some foolish squirrel had decided to give it a good old clout the day before.

We’re not sure if they thought that they could smash it off the ground and stick it in their garden, or what? But they pretty much wrecked it.

Today, me and Reece got our heads together and fixed it up as best we could.

It’s a bit wonky, but it works. If it gets broken again I think it will become firewood. It really is designed for light garden use, but the lovely lady who gave it to us, Jacquie, really wanted to give it a try on the greenway.

Let’s hope we get some use out of it.

Our other benches are a bit more robust, due to the nature of them being in a public place.

Whilst it is always a bit frustrating when stuff like this happens, and we all feel a bit down about it, we have to quickly pick ourselves up and soldier on. If we caved in at every setback, we would’ve given up a long time ago.

We broke for coffee and flapjack at half-time.

This is where we plan and stuff, as well as having a laugh and just bonding as a group.

Looking at the up and down photos…

We are where we need to be with the path width. We need to create a two metre wildflower margin between the path edge and the scrub, on each side. We will use the straight trunks of felled trees to mark the path edge so people hopefully don’t wander off it and start trampling the wildflowers. We also need to get rid of the overhanging branches to let loads more sunlight in.

After our break we got back to it.

A good morning’s work and finished off with a litter-pick.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Ian, Steve, Dave, and Paul turned out last Friday morning and we managed to do another 400 metres of strimming.

Remember that the paths are connected and make a really decent circular walk.

Plenty of places to stop and enjoy a picnic, or just the peace and quiet of the countryside.

It’s a good place to get off our phones and the continual doom-scrolling, and just have a bit of green-time.

Two more weeks of the bird nesting season before all hell breaks loose with the onslaught of the cutting back season.

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Until next time!

Paul

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Bacon Time

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Eight of us made it today with the lure of a bacon bap, seeing as it’s the first workday of the month.

Mark, Ian, Marcus, Steve, Reece, Matt, Martin, and Paul turned out with a plan in mind. Marcus, Ian and Steve headed north to sort out some branches that had dropped and were likely to cause a cyclist a serious headache if they didn’t duck in time.

A huge branch had dropped which had brought others down with it. Even walkers were having to duck to get under it. We made a decent log pile for insects out of some of the cuttings

The rest of us had to change our plans, for reasons that we can go into next week, so instead we strimmed to keep the width where it needs to be.

It means we can all play nice, rather than cyclists and walkers bothering each other and pushing each other into the scrub and risk getting bitten by the many mini-beasts lurking in there.

This is the view up and down from the Oak Tree picnic bench.

We’re going to thin the trees and use the straight bits of timber to mark the path edge. This will be where we strim up to, and beyond that, we want a nice wide wildflower-rich grassy margin, before moving into scrub and shrubby understory.

This will be the challenge as soon as we get to September.

If MasterChef did a segment on bacon cooked outdoors, just maybe…

Everyone is telling me that they like their bacon “well done” and I think our little camping stove, with its two settings – OFF and FULL ON, pretty much delivered.

Good to stuff our faces and have a laugh whilst standing about in the woods. What passers by must think, gawd knows…

We released the Potford Dam bench from the jungle underneath it, and admired the view.

We also noticed that some stumps that we had drilled loads of holes in, to kill them off (middle of path so trip hazard) are sprouting new shoots!!!!

It really feels like an uphill battle at the moment!!

I found a couple of pockets of time, so litter picked the south part of the greenway and the whole of Dunchurch Bridleway. Bigger bag is the bridleway.

Not bad considering the school holidays.

Lastly, I found an app that maps the acres of fields. We are actually looking after 36 acres of woodland, so I suppose that makes us woodlanders…?

Dunchurch Bridleway on Friday, and back in the same place next Wednesday, where hopefully, all will be revealed…

Until then!

Paul

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Benched Out…

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A bit of a weird one this week where I need to take you back to 2020 when me and Kerrie, my wife, put in a little pedestal bench with views across the heath.

In June of last year we had a freak storm and a large tree smashed the bench quite badly.

I did a makeshift repair with every intention on getting back to it, but never did, so it ended up broken some more a few weeks ago and back in the repair shop.

Today we replanted it where the Berrybanks picnic bench used to be, after fixing some leg extensions to it.

Super job from David and Matt. The repair was with random bits of wood from my shed so all it cost us was £6 for the bag of Postcrete.

It’s a big tick for the reuse-recycle-repair ethos that we have.

There were actually nine of us today. Matt, David, Marcus, Reece, Steve, Martin, Dave, Mark, and Paul. Martin did a good litter pick whilst everyone else strimmed. However, the bench story, unfortunately, doesn’t end here.

The original picnic bench, which we kinda gifted to the youth in their little den, has been broken.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this. It seems utterly stupid to smash one of the seats off. I just don’t understand why the dots don’t connect that if there is no seat – there is nowhere to sit. Anyhow, I am not doing anything with it, if at all, until after September when the kids go back to school.

I’m sure someone has been handing out the stupid pills this week.

Someone decided to have a BBQ. A bit risky with it being so dry, but then to not realise that you have to take the thing out of the cellophane and cardboard box, and place it on a non-flammable surface… Come on…

I hope you enjoyed your sausage!!

Anyway, enough of the woe is me.

We tackled the stretch from Berrybanks to the underpass with the strimmers and pushed back a lot of wet grass. We had rain last night, despite the flood plain being pretty dry.

It’s hard to imagine that this was a deep pond only a few months ago.

We pushed back the width and all the time kinda having one eye on the cutting back season, which starts on the 1st September.

We have plans, and to keep us on the straight and narrow, I have put them in the tab above called September Jobs so we hit the season running. There’s a lot to do…

We broke for coffee and cake. Someone gave me a farmhouse fruit cake and not really being a cake sort of person, I brought it along.

We had lost Martin at this point, but we found him later on with a big bag of litter.

A good haul.

The wildflower glades are struggling a bit this year, but there are little pockets of goodness.

We probably need to grub out the bramble roots and agitate the soil a bit.

I visited a Forestry Commission reserve last weekend and this is their idea of laying a hedge.

No mercy spared here at all…

In other news, we have had a new buy-me-a-coffee subscriber. Thank you so much, Simon.

After a busy morning, we retired to the Bear Pub and enjoyed a lovely lunch, and more planning.

It’s all good stuff.

Next week we are attempting to fix our schoolboy error at the park bench.

I will not lie, it’s been a bit of a challenging week with the benches. Let’s hope it’s just a blip.

Until next time!

Paul

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Finally Fixed an OCD Niggle

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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Eight of us turned out on a morning where rain was threatening from about 11 o’clock. Reece, Marcus, Steve, Martin, Mark, Ian, Matt, and Paul. We had a bit of bench maintenance to do, and a lot of path maintenance.

Strangely, everyone grabbed the strimmers and Zubat saws and left me and Reece to work out how to unassemble the benches.

The first bench has been bugging my OCD for ages. Every time I look at the thing, I cringe.

The seats don’t match. For some reason I cannot buy the size of the original wood off-the-shelf, so we were forced to use a different size.

We had rot on the next bench so I thought of a cunning plan…

Take the seat from the first bench to replace the rotting slats on the second bench, and replace taken seat with the same wood from our local DIY store, Wickes – utter genius!!

Sometimes I amaze myself at my ability to think so far out of the box.

We broke for coffee and flapjack at half-time.

I like these moments because it gives us a chance to chat, bond and just have a laugh. If you want to see us eating more bacon, you can always sponsor our brunch via buy-me-a-coffee. The last donations that we had were from Tony, Bev and Julie and after we take a slice off the top for our next cooked breakfast, we are going to use the remainder for “mile marker posts” as a nod to the railway heritage of the path. Thank you very much for your generosity, it really is appreciated.

Geek Time

Unfortunately for some, it’s that geeky time of the month.

We have had some very thoughtful friends go abroad and click on the blog. Ruth is actually at the Faroe Islands as I type. I follow her blog and wish that I could write just 20% as well as she is able to. Have a look and subscribe if you like it, which I know you will. It’s called walkingaway and is brilliant!

Andrew, who does the superb geocaching trails on both Cawston and Dunchurch paths went to Jersey a couple of weeks ago and made sure we got a click.

So that takes us to a super geeky 135 countries who have tuned into the blog – world domination is inching closer and closer…

Right, that’s enough geek! Back to it…

The remaining six of us strimmed and gently cut back branches that were overhanging onto the path. I think we covered about 600 metres or maybe slightly less.

When we have the numbers it becomes so easy to rip through it and keep the width, so pedestrians and cyclists can share without bothering each other.

Talking of cyclists, we are seeing a lot of mum, dad and child on bikes and also groups of kids, which really warms my heart. My whole childhood back in the 1970s was out on our bikes just exploring and discovering. This is a safe off-road place to do just that.

We have someone leaving cryptic messages on some of our pedestal benches.

I cannot quite summon the energy to work out what they mean, but I guess it brightens the place up a bit??

Lastly,we litter picked the whole path and amazingly, the rain didn’t show up, as per the forecast…

Not bad for two miles, but let’s see what happens over the school holidays before I start to blow my trumpet too hard…

Next week we are at Berrybanks with a bit of a bench story, and then we are going to the Bear pub to work out a bit of a plan for Sept to March, and enjoy a bit of lunch.

Until then!

Paul

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Bring On The Summer Holidays…

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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Eight of us turned out this morning. Matt, Reece, Marcus, Ian, Dave, Steve, David, and Paul, in our last workday before the six-week school summer holidays start.

We wanted to be ready for the onslaught so we did our best to make the trail as exciting as possible for young explorers.

We started with the alternative path that runs alongside the top path. It’s just over 200 metres in length and is there just to break up the there-and-back of a lineal railway-path.

The entry and exit points. We definitely need some sort of marker posts.

We cleared it as much as possible.

What we want is mum or dad walking on the top path and kids going off on an adventure along the other path, but still being in earshot and popping out at the other end. Hopefully it gets some use.

Here is our rather hammy YouTube of the side path…

I know, I know… Don’t give up the day job…

We also strimmed around the benches so people can use them without getting their legs chewed off by the critters in the undergrowth.

We have an issue with the park style bench and blooming pigeons…

I think we are going to get a heavy-duty triangular canvas and create a cover about 5 metres above it, lugged onto the trees.

It should be high enough to not get messed about with by the naughty squirrels, and offer protection to keep the bench clean.

We cut back the triffid-like brambles that just don’t give up!!

This stuff grows at a crazy rate.

And we also removed some dodgy looking branches on the main path that looked like they were about to fall down.

A busy morning. Thank goodness for our coffee and flapjack break.

Lastly, a litter pick from the southern end, to the Jaguar Land Rover bench, and along the new side path, too.

We now need to think of a name for the new trail and get some marker posts.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Dave, Ian and Paul went back to the start and re-strimmed about 400 metres, and also the paths that go off it to make decent circular walks.

We enjoyed coffee and a very decent view.

I think the crop is barley, and we all know what barley is used for – BEER!!

These are the circular walks.

And, of course, there are loads of benches along the bridleway for people to sit and just enjoy the countryside and get a bit of green-time instead of screen-time…

That’s about it for this week. It has felt like it has been super busy, but I think we are ready for the summer holidays and lots of use.

If you want to get involved, come along and join in, or become a patron from as little as £3 per month, buy us a coffee that will pay for tools or our breakfast, when we have bacon batches on the first workday of the month, or just following the blog and giving us a like and a comment. It all helps.

Until next time!

Paul

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Connecting Communities

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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Seven of us ventured out in what seemed like a reasonably warm day. Marcus, Reece, Steve, Ian, Matt, Dave, and Paul. It soon turned into that sticky heat as the cloud cover dispersed and the sun rose high in the sky, but onwards we ploughed with the last 500 metres to make the connection between Dunchurch and Cawston work, and allow people to walk along the path without being mauled by all the critters in the undergrowth.

It’s a constant battle to keep a 2 metre wide path at the moment, but we are pretty much on top of it.

Something else that is proving to be a little bit too aggressive is bramble.

We literally turn our backs for five minutes and the stuff has grown into the open space that we have just created. I reckon that if I had a ruler I could physically see it moving as it reaches out for the light. The last thing that we want is people getting their clothes snagged or their legs scratched, so we snipped it all back.

The views are pretty outstanding which makes the morning session so nice and relaxing.

The woods are down there and really need someone to take charge of them with a clear management plan and a decent group of volunteers.

We broke for coffee and, thanks to Matt, had an Australian theme this week.

These biscuits have travelled over 10,000 miles to be scoffed by us lot. And they were very tasty, too.

I took the obligatory photo of us on our break but for some odd reason, it blurred!! Most annoying!!

If you want to sponsor our breakfast/brunch break you can use the buy-me-a-coffee link, rather than jumping on a plane and flying half way around the world.

We had a bit of help from the contractors, who are currently building the warehousing, on the last bit of our path.

It all helps, and the guys are joining us on a Corporate Volunteering Day in September, so we are looking forward to that.

The warehouses become a feature of the landscape and eventually will be hidden behind a wall of trees.

I know some people get really upset with our green fields being gobbled up – it is what it is…

Someone asked me today why we do what we do. We have been doing it for so long now that it has just become part of my weekly routine. But I guess that thing that got me started some 16 years ago, was a desire to give back to my local community somehow. I went out, armed with an old bow saw and just started cutting back what seemed like a jungle, and it just sort of grew from there.

I’m a big fan of men doing stuff to get out and make new friends. Everywhere, I read about men being lonely and finding it difficult to make those connections, show a bit of vulnerability, and kinda just do what really should be natural. I think working shoulder-to-shoulder with a common goal in mind really helps, and with the workday being at the same time and day every week, means people who want to join in, can shuffle their diaries about to make it happen.

Of course, we are more than welcoming of women as well as men, so please don’t think that we are exclusively just a man-group. Far from it. It’s just the mix at the moment is heavily skewed to males for some reason.

To finish, here is a rather nice wildflower that I noticed along the route. I think it’s some sort of Sweet Pea.

On Friday we are back on the Dunchurch bit, in a day that is supposed to reach 32 degrees, which is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so that will be interesting. I think I will ditch the coffee for iced juice…

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Until next time!

Paul

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Back On Top Of It…

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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Four of us turned out today (Martin, Ian, Steve, and Paul) in what was another beltingly hot day. Records have been broken all week with high temperatures and wall-to-wall sunshine. Of course, being British, everyone starts to complain about it being too warm!!

We spent the session trying to keep the connection between the Cawston Trail and the Dunchurch Trail open and accessible. We covered about 500 metres, which was pretty good going with all four of us on the strimmers.

We started with this.

And ended with this.

It’s just easier to walk through without rubbing up against the vegetation.

I felt myself getting a bit (very) stressed-out because the wildflower strip between the path and the scrub is so tight.

Next year we really need to manage the scrub a bit better so that the wildflower bit has the width that it needs to support whatever wildlife is in there. I felt like we were robbing bees and butterflies of life-giving nectar, which left me feeling a bit conflicted.

We broke for coffee and decided that we would chance-our-arm at some sausages, instead of the usual bacon.

Not just any old sausages either. These were 95% meat “Taste the Difference” Sainsbury’s sausages. Do they look burnt, or is that just delicious caramelisation? No complaints so I am guessing the latter, although the stove does seem to have just two settings – OFF and FULL ON!!

The views from here are superb.

Even the new warehousing in the background cannot take away the beauty of the countryside.

We had two very generous buy-me-a-coffee donations the week before last (Anne and Irene) which enabled us to buy more batteries for our strimmers. This just keeps us all on it for the whole work-day and we can get so much more done.

We had a surprise fly-by from some huge beast of a plane which was very low in the sky.

It was a real “wow!!” moment. We could almost see the whites of the pilot’s eyes…

Dunchurch Bridleway

Dave, Ian, and Paul turned out last Friday and got to the end, this is why the connection between the two paths is so important.

We’re struggling to keep on top of it at the moment, but hopefully as more and more people use the trail, it will keep it worn down and open. If there is no connection it just gets overgrown and wild.

We had a bit of a French vibe to our coffee-break, and enjoyed some lovely countryside views.

Once again, the new warehousing sitting in the background doesn’t distract from it too much…

The circular walk connecting the two paths is here.

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/activity-february-2-2025-0e900ad

It’s a good’un, even if I say-so myself.

All in all, across both workdays, I feel like we have finally got back on top of the paths and are in a better place. Loads of learning points to take into next year, but that’s life, I guess.

Thanks for reading if you managed to get this far…

Until next time!

Paul

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Keeping The Bugs At Bay…

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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Six wildlife superheroes turned out today. Marcus, Reece, Ian, Dave, Martin, and Paul. The main aim being to keep the path width a decent 2 to 3 metres wide so that cyclists and walkers can share without ramming each other into the undergrowth, the wildlife can do its thing, and humans can do their thing without getting bitten by the critters in said undergrowth.

Until you get bitten and find that some critter has had a free lunch via the back of your leg, you probably don’t realise how irritating a bite will be for the next few days, made worse by you constantly itching the thing!!

And made doubly worse if you were minding your own business trying to enjoy a coffee and biscuit at one of our benches.

So that is why we are so obsessed with keeping the width like it is.

We strimmed back about 400 metres today, so good going. Here’s our YouTube just to give you a bit of a flavour of our progress.

We broke for our own coffee break at half-time.

It’s great to chat about stuff and have a bit of a laugh.

We also spent a bit of time removing more of the elder tree hangover.

It blocks out so much light and stops wildflowers and insects getting a full blast of warm sunlight. Obviously, we checked for any second-brood nests, but unlikely being this close to the path edge.

I fired up our “Beast from the East” in readiness for September…

We have some serious scrub clearance to do and we are planning now for it. This thing will eat through the scrub like a family of mountain goats.

We had two incredibly generous buy-me-a-coffee donations last week. Thank you Anne and Irene. It helps so much whether it be for bacon for a breakfast, or tools and equipment.

Please donate if you can. It all helps so much.

A bit of geekiness from me (sorry, it’s that time of the month again).

We had two new countries tuning in. Montenegro and Azerbaijan…

Still nothing from Svalbard and Estonia, despite following blogs and YouTubers from both places. Although someone from Norway has been looking over the last 30 days. I wonder if Svalbard is somehow connected to Norway via undersea cables?

Anyhow, that’s 133 countries that have tuned-in to read. Not quite world domination, but slowly getting there.

Iran is a rather irritating large white blob on the map so I need to find a friend there. Not sure if my friendship advances will be greeted with open arms at the moment though!!

Right, that’s enough geek, back to it…

As we move into summer everything that has been growing like mad, goes to seed and literally flops onto the path, which is another reason why we need the width.

This Friday we are on the Dunchurch bit, keeping the connection open so people can travel between Cawston and Dunchurch without having to go on the road.

Next week, being the first workday of the month, is bacon batch time. Time to roll out the camping stove and do our thing…

Thanks for reading.

until next time!

Paul

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I Thought I Had Seen It All…

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

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The day started with a lone litter pick around the Berrybanks squirrel den… The naughty squirrels have moved our picnic bench into a secluded wooded area on the path, and goodness knows what hedonistic stuff is going on.

I was greeted by a pair of undies hanging from a tree, and a lot of rubbish. Someone is having a good time!!

I tidied up and trimmed the branches back for easier access. If this keeps the naughty squirrels contained, then I can live with it. We just need to think about replacement picnic seating in the area where the picnic bench was originally.

The area that we were worried about seems to have got off quite lightly.

Just a scrunched-up Coke can. Someone has dragged a branch, maybe to sit on, so I’m wondering if we need to put a third bench in to close the triangle? We’ll let it run for a couple of months across the summer before doing anything.

Anyhow – moving on to the main part of the day, after I had washed my eyes of the sight that I had just witnessed.

Seven of us turned out on a super-hot Wednesday. Steve, Marcus, Dave, Ian, Martin, Mark, and Paul. We only had 5 strimmers and I thought we were going to have to fight for them, but Ian and Paul went off to do something else after being completely strimmed out, as you will see in a minute.

We have always tried to get the profile of the path to look like a flat-bottomed V.

Today, we started to chip away at the overhang and it let so much more light in. We checked for nesting birds but it’s so near the path edge so there were none. This gives us a taster of the work needed in the autumn.

Everyone else set off southbound happily strimming away to keep the path wide enough for cyclists and walkers to share, and not be brushing up against the vegetation and getting savaged by the resident critters.

It keeps it all open and keeps wildlife and humans in their respective lanes. If you stray out of your lane, you have things like this to deal with…

I spotted it at our coffee and flapjack break…

It looks ready to pounce and give us a good old mauling, until it got camera-shy and scuttled off.

If you would like to sponsor a bacon brunch for us bunch of renegades, feel free to click on the buy-me-a-coffee link and we will love you forever…

We had a lovely visit from one of our long-term supporters.

Pat came down on his mobility scooter. Firstly, it was great to see an old friend, and secondly, it was superb to see how easily he could move about on the trail. “A Path For Everyone” being one of our three core pillars.

Lastly, in the autumn, we want to knock back the scrub loads and get more wildflower-rich grass.

Less of the first photo and more of the second and third photos.

Dunchurch Bridleway

You will see now why I was doing everything possible to not strim today.

Ian and me met on Friday and did a quick bench repair.

And then we strimmed about 250 metres back.

I realised that the blooming bracken had gone from nothing to six feet high in the space of about a month, so I set about reclaiming our path over the next three days, and 700 metres.

It was hard graft, and I will never let it catch me out again. We especially don’t like bracken because it outcompetes everything else, has little wildlife value, and harbours ticks that will attach themselves to humans quicker than anything, and start sucking on your blood…

After being thoroughly broken by this jungle, I strimmed around the benches to keep people safe from the blood-sucking critters.

It was an experience…

The next one is next Wednesday, back at the birdfeeder clearing in Cawston.

Until then!

Paul

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