Cawston Greenway

Visit from The Hulk

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Marvel must have sent Hulk because everything has turned green!

He left the nettle-pulling for the rest of us superheroes, in the form of Howard, Marcus, Wayne and myself…

Thanks – Hulk!

We set up camp at bench #2, the area where we put down a load of lady’s bedstraw seeds. We need to take care not to pull this out, thinking it is sticky-weed. They are both of the same cleavers family so may well look similar before flowering.

Pulling up the nettles and any bramble shoots. This will give everything else a chance to germinate and grow. Nothing will grow under dense canopy or ground-cover.

The newly seeded areas are starting to really green up. Hopefully, in a few weeks, we will have an idea of what is actually growing.Here’s one we seeded earlier. It’s looking very green!

Something else going green are the whips that we dug up from clearing #2 and planted into our hedge at clearing #3.

It’s a nice feeling to be using the natural resources around us to create something new.

After our coffee and cookie break…

…very tasty and definitely recommended, we had a go at wildflower identification.

ground ivy

white dead-nettle

Butterflies spotted were brimstone, orange-tip, peacock and speckled wood.

iRecord has been updated (please let me know how you get on with iRecord as a recording tool).

Also, please shout out any wrongly identified flowers.

Next week we are at bench #3 with a promise of banana cake…

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged brimstone, butterflies, coffee, community, conservation, conversation, cookies, cycling, dogs, friendship, hobbies, hulk, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, orange tip, peacock, photography, rambling, running, speckled wood, wildflowers | Leave a comment

Wakey wakey!!

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Finally, the greenway seems to be waking up!

A lot of our old favourites are starting to show and the newly planted mini-meadows are full of new shoots.

The new kit-bag has a special place for biscuits, and is starting to fill up with other stuff like our first-aid kit and other gubbins.

The task at the moment is a little bit rubbish, in that we ware trying to weed out nettles and bramble from our newly seeded mini-wildflower areas, but Marcus, Aaron and myself persevered with it on Wednesday morning.

It will be worth it when all the new shoots start to come on.

Flora and fauna:

Bluebell

forget-me-not

lesser celandine

bugle

bloody-nosed beetle

All finds entered on iRecord.

Back to pulling up nettles and bramble next week!!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bluebell, bugle, forget-me-not, railway paths, trail, wildflowers | Leave a comment

Tingling Fingers

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Tingling Fingers – sounds like a real ale brewed at a Warwickshire micro-brewery. Sadly, the nearest any of us lot got to alcohol was the anti-bac hand-wash in the first-aid kit.

The coffee came a close second-place though, for Marcus, Phil, Aaron and me. The biscuits were a treat worth waiting for, too.

Yes, this week was a “pulling up nettles” day. No matter how we do it, the little blighters always seem to find a way through our gloves and sting our fingers repeatedly. It is a strange sensation to then spend the rest of the day with tingling fingers.

It is great exercise, nonetheless.

And gives everything else in our mini-wildflower meadow a chance to grow.

Our new observation bench overlooks the wildflowers and bird-feeders. It is pretty damn good to sit and watch from a slight distance, even if I say so myself. We had birds all over the feeders straight away after replenishing, and an orange-tip butterfly made an appearance.

Please record anything spotted on iRecord (link above) and please let me know how easy, or not, it is to use. I get on OK with it but I am not sure if this is the same for everyone.

Wildflowers

We seemed to struggle to find anything other than green today, which makes me wonder if our scrub to grassland ratio is a bit skewed, but we managed to capture a couple of flowers.

White deadnettle

Violet

Well, that’s about it for this week.

Next week it will be, err… same again, please, barmaid, at bench #2.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged biscuits, coffee, nature, nettles, orange-tip butterfly, photography, white deadnettle, wildflower meadow, wildflowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

We Have Gone All Posh

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Wednesday workday at Berrybanks was very refined with coffee and biscuits at the half-way interval. I liked it. The only thing lacking was somewhere to sit, so we need to make something like this…

log seating

We cannot have a picnic bench on this part, but we can make a nice log circle. A job for Autumn and someone with a chainsaw, maybe?

Mick, Marcus, Victoria and myself made it today and litter-picked from the underpass to The Bear. We collected just three sacks full, thanks to Tom for his efforts whilst doing his DofE Bronze award.

The next litter-pick will be from The Bear, working northwards to the start, but not until May.

It was a little cold for wildlife spotting, but we did start our new activity of photographing and recording the wildflowers that we are seeing.

Common Dog Violet

Brooklime (yet to flower)

There were others, but we just need to gradually get up-to-speed, rather than go mad and then start to drown under the burden of trying to identify loads and loads of flowers all at once. Plus me and Marcus are still waiting for our ID books to arrive.

Both have been recorded on iRecord.

Lastly, look at what happens when people are directed around natural barriers…

…grass and wildflowers grow!

Until next time, back down the other end!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged Brooklime, Common Dog Violet, community, cycling, friendship, hobbies, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, photography, rambling, running, Speedwell, wildflowers | Leave a comment

Coffee and Biscuits is the Way Forward

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

What a difference a coffee, a biscuit, and a natter can make…

I don’t remember where the flask was foraged from, but the cups cost £4.50. In terms of value and use, I would probably say that is £4.50 very well spent!

Marcus, Tom (doing his DofE), Tom’s Dad, Mick and myself got down to the bird-feeder clearing on Saturday and litter-picked up to the underpass and back.

Loads of users of the path. Mountain bike groups, runners, walkers, dogs, children. Really good to see it getting so much use.

We still have our lovely avenue of trees, despite the recent chopping back.

We just need to fill in the gaps.

But all-in-all, it looks, err, OK, if a little different!?

Wildlife spotting…

Bloody-nosed beetle south of bridleway

Bloody-nosed beetle north of bridleway

Yellow Brain fungus south of underpass

And lastly, in our efforts to create the bench areas we have not noticed the ivy growth!!

It has gone a bit mad and needs to be cleared right back. We used to have lovely spring violets growing here, a great early source of nectar. It may be worth trying to clear a bit every time we walk past it?

Until the next one!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bloody-nosed beetles, coffee and a natter, golden jelly fungus, litter pick, yellow brain fungus | Leave a comment

Spring/Summer 2019

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Donations

You may have noticed our menu bar above has become a bit more relevant. One of the new tabs is “donations” and our crowdfunding page for ongoing bits and bobs now works. If you like the greenway and have a spare couple of quid, feel free to throw it our way. It helps us to keep the show on the road. Thanks.

Photos and iRecord

This summer I really want us to get down and dirty with the wildflowers and wildlife. Mick’s suggestion is to split the workdays into two, where we spend the first section doing the task in hand, break for coffee, and then spend the second section photographing and identifying what we spot (Mick recommends a brilliant book for this). Rather than trying to create another database or list of pictures, which becomes a pain to maintain after set-up, we can just upload directly to iRecord. Tab to access is above.

Shorter Hours

I have pushed the start time by half an hour whilst we are on summer hours. We no longer need to be doing the heavy work that the cutting season requires, so now we have a more chilled out workday, with coffee and biscuits, across the summer season. How does that sound?

Things To Make

Anyone who is unable to come down to the workdays, or can, but also has the time and the ability to make stuff, can make bee hotels for us. This is our most needed item at the moment. Oh to have the skill and patience to be crafty!

Bird Food and Storage

We would love to extend our range of food offering to attract different birds, but the problems are, squirrels eating it, humping bags of seeds and nuts up and down to the bird-feeding area, continual damage to the feeders, the rate that the food is eaten and, of course, the cost. If we can devise a way of storing food on-site that is critter-resistant, this at least helps us get around a few of these issues. Thinking caps on!

Observation Bench

We are now the proud owners of an observation bench, thank-you to a very generous resident of Cawston. Anyone can use this bench to observe our bird-feeders from the distance of the opposite bank. We are trying to create a natural hide so binoculars or a camera with a long lens will be required if recording. Remember to update iRecord.

Mental Health

This is all about the part of us trying to open up the path so that it offers something to everyone. The underlying reason is that it hopefully enables people to get involved on one level or another and opens up the opportunity to meet other people, find a common interest, and hopefully, friendships are then formed. There is probably still a load of work to do in this area. However, the menu tab has been updated but we could maybe do with little bit of help or direction with this.

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged Bee hotel, bird food, donations, insect hotel, iRecord, mental health, Wildlife Photography, workdays | Leave a comment

How Many Blokes to Move a Bench?

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I don’t think any of us had our Weetabix this morning… Moving the bench was such an effort!

There it is… Just a few miles away!!

Chris, Marcus, Aaron and Paul made the trip down to the end of our patch. The scrub needed a little bit of a trim so people are not forced to jump into it if a cyclist comes from the other way!

It really is no fun having your clothes snagged by bramble when you are trying to do the right thing by giving way.

And that really is it. The views of open countryside, just a few hundred metres from the built-up areas, are lovely.

To sit at a bench and watch the view change with the season is simply priceless.

And if the view does not grab your interest, take a look a little closer.

We have mini-beasts.

If you are really brave, you can make friends with them…

Moving into spring, we will just be keeping the path clear, monitoring the bird and bat boxes, keeping the feeders topped-up, and weeding out bramble and nettles from our wildflower clearings. Plenty of photographing, identifying and recording opportunities and a real chance for us to slow down and actually enjoy the little slice of paradise that we have created.

With this in mind, I have ordered some picnic mugs and a flask for coffee. Please let me know what biscuits you would like.

Next week we are at the Cawston Bridleway bridge working northwards. Litter-picking and snipping back any encroaching shoots and runners.

Great morning, plenty of banter, a fitting end to the clearing season!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bloody-nosed beetles, community, cycling, friendship, hobbies, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, NCN 41, nectar, outdoors, photography, rambling, Rugby, running, sustrans, view, volunteer work | Leave a comment

Life Goes On…

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We are ahead of our winter schedule, which is probably a first in all of the ten years that we have been doing the greenway.

Marcus, Chris, Aaron, Kerrie, Mick and myself made it today and seeded the last three of our four bench areas, and also made a couple of smaller clearings between bench #1 and bench #2 and seeded these as well.

The wildflower seeds are – Yarrow, Hedge Garlic, Cornflower, Lesser Knapweed, Oxeye Daisy, Wild Carrot, Teasel, Vipers Bugloss, St John’s-wort, Field Scabious, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Wild Parsnip, Common Sorrel, Red Clover, Dark Mullein and Tall Mullein.

The grasses that came with this mix are – Meadow Foxtail, Crested Dogstail, Cocksfoot, Red Fescue, Yorkshire Fog and Common Bent.

This seed mix is supplied by Habitat Aid.

We also sowed Lady’s Bedstraw and Hedge Bedstraw to help our bloody-nosed beetle colony.

These seeds are supplied by Sustrans.

And lastly, at bench #4 we added Foxgloves, Poppies, Cornflowers and other wildflower seeds to really boost the flower colours and drag in as many pollinators as possible.

So to recap, we have four bench clearings, and two extra scallops between bench #1 and #2. The spring and summer work plan will be focussed on weeding out any unwanted plants that try to dominate in these clearings.

Next week we are working from Potsford Dam, heading south, to site our other benches and ease the scrub between the bridge and bench #5.

We still have enough money in the seed kitty to buy another kilogram of the wildflower mix, but we need to hold fire until the end of the summer, just to see what happens with the work done this winter.

Lots of questions about the trees up the path. I am sure all will come clear over the next few days.

Great day, loads of banter, lots done!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bees, butterflies, community, cycling, friendship, hobbies, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, nectar, outdoors, photography, Picnic, rambling, running, sustrans, wildflowers | 2 Comments

Hedge Laying with Storm Gareth

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

The problem with Google is that there are plenty of examples of how to make a hedge or even regain control of an overgrown hedge, but when it comes to turning an unruly line of trees into a hedge, it is not quite as forthcoming.

So Marcus, Martin and myself persevered with what felt right.

We collected a load of whips from bench-clearing #2…

Spaced them out at bench-clearing #3…

And then planted them…

Apart from forgetting to talk on the video, I think we did OK.

We can encourage the whips to grow into the hedge and kind of see how it shapes up over the spring and summer.

I still feel that a lot more of the trees need to be cut back (don’t worry, tree huggers, they will become part of the hedge) but I think that is a job for the autumn.

Views are good from our bench.

After this, we worked on the scrub in bench-clearing #2.

Next week we are seeding this area with lady’s bedstraw and hedge bedstraw. The whole area should be full of yellow flowers in the summer and literally buzzing with insects and other wildlife.

Personally, I would like a couple of seeded scallops between bench #1 and bench #2 just to encourage as much wildflower growth as possible, and if it is manageable, we can do the same between the rest of the benches.

Great day, great company, great work.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bloody nosed beetle, bumblebee, community, cycling, friendship, hedgerow, hobbies, Lady's Bedstraw, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, nectar, photography, picnic benches, rambling, running, Woodland Trust | 3 Comments

Who Let The Dogs Out!

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Urgh! Here goes… A confession. I have a massive phobia of dogs!

People say, oh you don’t like dogs, then? It is not that I don’t like them, I am just very scared of them.

But after someone told me that phobias are irrational, I decided that it was time to try and overcome mine.

Eight dogs later, yes, I made “friends” with as many as eight dogs, I made a little step forwards. Thank-you to all the dog owners who helped me with this.

The workday was good with four of us braving the lull from the storm. Mick, Aaron, Martin and myself cleared the last bench area.

We extended this area to about the same size beyond the tree, and also on the other side of the path. We are going to seed with lady’s bedstraw and hedge bedstraw at the end of the month.

These whips won a reprieve and will be transplanted into the hedge that we started last week. Everything else had to go, though. We need dappled shade at the very least.

I cannot stress enough, the benefits of getting away from a screen and into the green!

We moved the bench to the other side of the path. When the lady’s bedstraw flowers it will be a mass of yellow and smell like honey. I am madly looking forward to just sitting at the bench and watching and photographing the wildlife in the summer. I think we all need to start enjoying the fruits of our labour, as well as the labour itself.

Next week we can go both ways. We can scallop towards the bird-feeder clearing and sow more wildflower seeds, or we can transplant our whips. Either way, we can meet at this clearing and I will bring a spade and loppers so we can decide on the day.

Paul