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

Back On Top Of It…

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing via WordPress Reader, please click on Cawston Greenway so that the slideshows work properly.

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Keeping The Bugs At Bay…

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re reading this via the WordPress Reader, please click on Cawston Greenway to make the slideshows work and the pictures to scale.

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

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

I Thought I Had Seen It All…

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you are viewing through WordPress Reader, please click on Cawston Greenway so that all the slideshows work properly and the photos are the correct size.

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

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

Last Chance Saloon

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you are viewing via the WordPress Reader, please click on cawstongreenway.co.uk so that all the slideshows work and the photos are the correct size.

Six of us turned out this morning, with some of us looking very nicely tanned, so good holidays had been had. Marcus, Steve, Martin, Dave, Mark, and Paul.

We had a dilemma – do we replace the youth area under the bridge?

These are the things that we needed to consider.

1, what if it gets used for undesirable activities? Turned into a drug den?

2, what if it gets smashed up again?

3, we are allowing a very small percentage of youth to spoil it for the youth in general, which means this tiny element has won.

4, one of our founding pillars is “a path for everyone”, and we don’t really want to start excluding groups.

So we decided to tentatively go for it one last time.

Firstly, we made some super-strong benches out of 6×2 inch timber, with 120 mm screws through the top and steel brackets on the underside.

We then cemented them in place after lugging the bottom of the legs.

Whilst I hate to say, but if anyone tried to kick these in, there is serious risk of injury. So let’s all appreciate it for what it is, a place for the youth to sit, out of the rain, and away from annoying adults.

If it gets broken again, then that’s it. We are going to give this a 6-month trial, and if it works out, we will do more under the other two bridges.

We broke off at half-time for bacon rolls and a caffeine boost. The bacon rolls kindly supplied by Pauline via buy-me-a-coffee, and they were superb, so thank you very much.

The smell of the bacon seemed to bring everyone out. We had so many people either walking or cycling past today, and everyone was eyeing up our brunch.

We then strimmed the path back so people can walk in pairs and have an actual conversation.

We’re going to do some major thinning-out in the autumn.

Nowhere near enough sunlight is getting in, and consequently, nothing is growing. Even the nettles and bramble have given up!

We strimmed around the benches so people don’t get their legs chewed off whilst enjoying a sandwich and a cuppa.

And we cleared some of our entry points for easy access.

It just makes it as easy as possible for everyone, regardless of ability.

Someone has tried to have a small bonfire at one of our triangles.

I think a bushcraft course is needed. This was never going to work!!

The naughty squirrels have moved our Berrybanks picnic bench again, due to it raining or wanting to be hidden in the woods.

We might just leave it, rather than get into a game of cat-and-mouse with it. The more it gets dragged about, the more chance of it falling apart. Maybe we might install a bin in the little squirrel den??

I will litter pick around it and then see if the squirrels start using the new under-bridge benches, or continue to use this one. If the former, then we can pull it back to where it should be.

Lastly, the gift that keeps on giving is still being as generous as ever.

This is actually two weeks’ worth, apart from around the Berrybanks bench, so really I shouldn’t be complaining.

Next one is Friday at Dunchurch, doing a quick bench repair and then strimming. Then back in Cawston next week at the birdfeeder clearing, strimming southwards the first week and northwards the second week.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

From Plumbers to Carpenters

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing via the WordPress Reader, please click on cawstongreenway.co.uk so that all the slideshows work properly and the images are the correct size.

Last week we came dressed as Italian plumbers, this week we put on our carpenter outfits and decided to do some woodwork. Ian, Reece, Mark, and Paul turned out on a low numbers day. Various members of the team are on holiday, and others have more pressing commitments, like working to earn actual money!

Our three oblong benches were starting to “flex” a bit, so needed something doing to them. Of course, I had the job of chief photo-taker, so left the guys to figure out exactly what was needed.

We have a bit of rot on the last bench, so we will be stripping that out probably in July at some point, but a very successful first half of the session and all three benches no longer “flex” when we sit at them.

At half time, I rustled up some bacon rolls to keep us all fed and caffeinated.

Today’s brunch was sponsored by Jacquie via an amazing buy-me-a-coffee donation, that will keep us in bacon until the end of the year. Pauline has also done a buy-me-a-coffee donation, so we get a double hit of bacon rolls this month. Thank you both so very much.

The second half of the morning was pushing back the path so people can walk side-by-side and not get their legs chewed off by critters lurking in the long grass.

We did about 300 metres in the 40 minutes left, which would be 600+ metres if we were just strimming for the whole morning.

We also have some nice wildflowers starting, and a whole load about to pop.

This is what it’s all about – humans and nature living side-by-side.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Ian, Ruby, and Paul met up last Friday, and we cleared a load of dead trees around our picnic bench.

I know that standing dead wood is good for nature, but when it’s all tangled above the picnic table, it’s possibly not so good for humans if it falls. We want to turn this area into a decent glade in the autumn. We can see how quickly the path is being encroached, and we will get into this on the next session.

We litter-picked a good 1.3 km of the path and mostly found plastic sheeting from the warehousing.

Muggins also had to hand-pull the bramble under the benches because the strimmer was back where we started, but a good morning.

Great views of open farmland.

And loads of wildflowers pushing up.

It really is a decent place to walk, cycle, sit at a bench and just feel at one with nature, or join us on our workdays add to this amazing place.

Next week we’re at the Bear Bridge putting in our dry youth area. We are massively concerned that we are creating something that leads to a load of unintended consequences, so we will tread very slowly and monitor before we roll out further youth areas.

At the moment, when it rains, the youth try to drag our picnic benches under the cover of the bridges, which is not great for the benches.

Let’s see if we can all work together…

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Fixing the Waterworks

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing through the WordPress reader, please give us a go by clicking on www.cawstongreenway.co.uk so all of the slideshows work properly.

Seven of us turned out today, and we decided that we wanted to be plumbers.

After looking at the problem, Marcus and Ian quickly decided that maybe plumbing wasn’t their game after all, and headed off southwards, quickly followed by Martin and Paul, who quickly headed off northwards. This left Reece, Dave and George to wrestle with the water, which really is like trying to herd cats.

We have a damp bit, and it’s just a bit irritating for walkers, so we did our usual trick of trying to pipe the water under a sort of bridge.

Well played, Reece, Dave and George. We could hear the huffing and puffing from quite a distance. Hopefully, it will dry out and everyone will be happy.

Something for my fellow geeks…

I haven’t really been following where the blog’s viewers are coming from because WordPress changed the World map to a wishy-washy colour, which just looked rubbish.

However, they have turned up the contrast and made it look all pretty again. If it’s blue, they have looked at us…

There are two places that, for well over a year or so, I have been trying to engage and give us a view. Svalbard and Estonia. Despite following various blogs and YouTubers from both places, no bites yet.

Nice to see that someone from Armenia has popped in over the last 30 days. I had to look it up on a map. East of Turkey and south of Georgia, west of that big white blob in the middle around the Caspian Sea that is Iran and a lot of the ‘stans, although we have had Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan tuning in 251 times between them.

Having read a little Armenian history, I really wish that I hadn’t.

On a lighter note, we have now had a total of 131 countries tuning in, which warms my geeky little heart a bit.

Right, that’s the geeky bit over with, let’s get back to it…

We had a strimmer fail on us last week, and by hook or by crook, I managed to get a refund and use that money to buy the same model that was being heavily discounted, so much so that I bought two.

We now have five strimmers, three hedge trimmers, one pole saw and 18 battery packs. We also have a petrol brush cutter for heavy work in the autumn.

This paid dividends today with about 600 metres strimmed back.

It just keeps it nice and open with a width that means walkers and cyclists can share without pushing each other into the undergrowth. And I personally like to be able to see what is ahead of me when walking. I don’t want Fungus the Bogeyman jumping out at me and giving me the collywobbles…

We broke for our usual coffee and had a rather nice surprise. Andrew and Liz, who have made loads of bird-boxes and super-strong benches, made us some delicious cakes.

It’s days like today, where everyone is being so generous and nice, that make you think, “yeah, the World ain’t such a bad place after all”.

And talking of being generous, we have decided to give the naughty squirrels one last chance under the Bear Pub bridge.

This is the last chance. If this gets wrecked like the last seating that we made out of pallets, then that will be it. This is a place to get away from adults, but not get too far out to be isolated. If it works, we can do the same under other bridges.

Please don’t spoil it for yourselves.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/paul-hayden-hart-720?utm_medium=CR&utm_source=CL

I think that’s about it. We are back on the Dunchurch trail on Friday, and back up the Potford Dam end next week. Please come along if you want to join in, or just want to share a cuppa and a chat. I’m the most introverted and geeky person out there, and I spend most of my life avoiding people and situations. If you feel the same, you will fit in perfectly.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments