Lumberjacking – Week 2

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

When I woke up and looked out of the window this morning, I uttered a curse or two. It was raining, and the forecast for the morning looked pretty awful.

I sent out a WhatsApp message to the group to meet under the Bear Pub bridge. At least our kit would stay dry, even if we did not.

Somehow, the rain never came! In fact, we had sunshine dappling through the trees. A little miracle, because at about 2pm, it came down by the bucketful and hasn’t stopped since!

We had a bumper work party of nine. Marcus, Steve, Ian, Dave, Matt, Reece, David, Martin, and Paul. We shifted more trees that are growing at funny angles and are just generally overcrowded.

We eventually want trees that are growing straight upwards and have the room to put on decent girth. The cut-down ones will make fantastic habitat for all sorts of insects as they slowly rot down.

We broke for coffee and flapjack at half-time.

I’m not sure about everyone else, but I was desperate for an energy boost at this point. This really is hard going, but the difference as the sunlight floods in is pretty amazing to see. We had a huge number of people passing by, so word is out about this section becoming a nice place to walk.

We had a dilemma… Someone had smashed the seats off our Berrybanks picnic bench. I was going to rebuild it and place it somewhere else, but then I thought that it’s just going to get dragged back, and whoever is getting upset that the youth have a little den will probably smash the seats off again.

When I pulled it out, I was pretty horrified at what I saw, but I got to work and made it sort of usable again. I placed it in the middle of one of our friendship triangles. Nobody is smashing these seats up!!

Lastly, a quick litter pick, and our day was done.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Four of us turned out on a sunny Friday morning with the idea of making a bit of a glade around our picnic bench. Dave, Ian, David, and Paul. This is south-facing, so absolutely prime for wildlife.

We want the area to grass up and be full of wildflowers. A lot of the trees were dead for some odd reason, and as you can see, massively overcrowded.

The path needs to be a little wider so people can walk two abreast.

This will be our focus across the winter. It’s not massively opening it up, but just pushing it out gently.

We had a coffee and cookie break before the really backbreaking task of removing the stumps.

If we leave them, we never kinda get back to them, so we need them gone.

When the grass starts to grow, you will never know that they were there!

Lastly, a log-pile for insects to make a home.

Cursing that I got my shadow in the picture, but the sun is so bright and I cannot see the phone screen!! Well, that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

Tritax Corporate Volunteer Workday

We had the lovely people from Tritax helping us out last week, too. 15 eager volunteers helped push back the scrub, cut trees, and really let the light in on the section that we are working on at the moment.

This is so helpful and gets us ahead of the game a bit. The session was led by Marcus and Steve, and was super successful.

Marcus and Steve have made the corporate days into something really good. I simply couldn’t do this because I am just not a people person. I am glad that I can identify my limitations, and we have enough strength and depth in the squad to still make the magic happen.

Lastly, the Tritax crew did a litter pick, so we are looking good for autumn walks.

Thank you, Tritax!

Next week, we are at the furthest north friendship triangle benches, where we need some of us to go southwards, and some into the deepest north. The week after, we are all northbound, just easing the trees back and letting the sunlight in.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Lumberjacks For The Next Six Months

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Seven of us turned out on a soggy morning. Reece, Ian, Steve, Dave, Martin, Marcus, and Paul. Rain was threatening and the forecast didn’t look good, but the only actual drops of rain were from what was held in the tree canopy as we started to shake it.

We set up camp fully prepared for a good old soaking.

Thankfully, the rain didn’t come, well, it did, but just a little later than the forecast. This allowed us to go into proper lumberjack mode and start to thin the trees out.

We want every tree to have a distance of between 2 to 2.5 metres between its neighbouring trees. This allows so much more light to get into the understory, and allows the trees to stop fighting for the light by rushing upwards, or growing at funny angles, and just slowly put on girth and become decent upright specimens. And it allows for everything to just breathe a bit, rather than being so tightly knotted and dense.

We have been advised by the Forestry Commission to cut the trees as low to the ground as possible. By break time we were all feeling it in our arms, shoulders, and backs.

Being the first workday of the month, bacon batches were the order of the day. The lads say they like their bacon crispy…

I think our little stove delivered, and thank-you to an anonymous buy-me-a-coffee donator who sponsored our brunch.

We carried on chopping and cutting.

And the sunlight started to stream in. You can see how the trees are growing at odd angles here. They will need to come out, sadly.

With about half an hour to go, we realised that we had a bit of a problem. In our haste to cut all the trees down, we had blocked the path and had to quickly clear it.

Thankfully, we just about managed it. A lesson for next week, maybe. We cleared about 200 metres, which is 50 metres more than we had planned, however, there are bits that we need to go back to.

It tells me that the plan is doable, which left me with a good feeling.

Afterwards I had to dart up to the park bench that Jacquie had kindly given us. A rather naughty squirrel had decided to wrench in from the concrete fixings and throw it down the bank.

Thankfully, a friend of Jacquie, who walks his dog along the path and is called Geoff, could not bear for Jacquie to see what had become of her generous donation, so he is going to recover the bench, rebuild it, and put it somewhere where people might appreciate it.

Thank you, Geoff. Proper super-hero.

Whilst I was down that end, I did a quick bit of work on one of our picnic benches. Someone has tried to move it, or just wear-and-tear.. But it needed quick action before bits started to go missing.

The bench gets to live another day.

You might be thinking that my day ended here, with a warm glow in my heart. It didn’t. The rain that was forecast at 10 am and made us put up our gazebo cover thingy…

…suddenly started, and boy-oh-boy, it just didn’t stop!!

Our Berrybanks pond filled up and then overflowed!!

Because we improved the drainage, the overflow will be gone in no time. Beforehand it would have flooded the path for weeks.

Here is a little YouTube of the pond doing its thing.

That’s about it for this week. Lots of stuff happening over the rest of this week, and the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Last Session of the 2025 Nesting Season.

Posted on August 27, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We were back up to our normal numbers this week. Eight of us turned out. Steve, Mark, Martin, Ian, Dave, Reece, David, and Paul. Five of us went southwards to keep the connector between the Cawston path and the Dunchurch path open.

Loads of people coming past so it is getting the use that we hoped for. It’s all about people having a safe traffic-free environment to enjoy, whilst connecting the communities of Cawston and Dunchurch.

The remaining three of us did a bit of bench maintenance. It had become a bit too wobbly so we battened it down.

It was pretty solid after we had put in about 60 screws!!

We also cut back a load of bramble.

This stuff just never gives up. We can see where we cut it back last time, and it just throws out more shoots, almost in defiance. Our old mate, Mick, would take ages kinda weaving his way back along the stem all the way to the root and hit it there. It would take him ages, but I am starting to see that there was a method in what seemed like madness.

We broke for brunch and enjoyed sausage and red onion batches, and a good old slurp of hot coffee. The views here across the heath are good. I could quite easily bring the stove, a good book, a decent bit of scran, and just while away a few hours doing absolutely nothing…

Very nice…

If someone would like to sponsor our bacon batch brunch next week, just smash the buy-me-a-coffee link and we will love you forever. If you do, please leave your first name so we can give you a shout out on the blog next week.

I visited a reserve north of Rugby later in the day to give us a bit of an idea of what we eventually want to look like in the cuttings.

I acknowledge that we need to be careful with the tree cover acting as a buffer for the road noise, so don’t panic if you think that we are going to start chopping all the trees down. We are just trying to create the zone between the path and the scrub and trees that is wildflower-rich and attracts butterflies and bees.

I also visited the other end of our railway path. We are on the disused Rugby to Leamington Spa railway line and a lot of work has happened at the other end.

At some point it will connect with us at Potford Dam, our most southerly bit. The bridge spans the line of the HS2 (High Speed Railway) that is being built, and the mounds of gravel are the foundations for the cycle bridge to get across the Fosse Way, an old Roman road. We can see how the path is raised slightly to get over the flooded bits, with ponds on either side so wildlife can thrive.

It’s all good stuff!!

Dunchurch Bridleway

Ian, Ruby, and Paul turned out last Friday and kept pushing the path back so people are able to see where they are going and feel safe using it. Apparently, if people cannot see a good 100 metres ahead of themselves on a country path, they start to feel a bit unsettled and anxious. This is why we aim to push our paths out to about three metres in width, eventually. And it’s all about cyclists and pedestrians having space to share without bugging each other.

There is plenty to do on this bit, but I think this is our second year, so it feels like we are slowly making progress, and again, plenty of people walking past, so it is getting used.

The real work starts next week. We need to get rid of the overhanging trees so that sunlight can get to the path edges to allow flora and wildlife to thrive.

I have been chomping-at-the-bit to get going so really looking forward to us getting on with it. You can get an idea of what we need to do here – September Jobs.

Well that’s about it for this week. Thanks for reading.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Finally Fixed an OCD Niggle

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Please click Cawston Greenway if viewing through WordPress Reader so all the slideshows work properly.

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Bring On The Summer Holidays…

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Click on Cawston Greenway if you found us via the WordPress Reader, to make the slideshows and picture sizes work.

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Connecting Communities

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Please click on Cawston Greenway to make all the slideshows work if you found us through the WordPress Reader.

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments