Cawston Greenway

Community Bench

Posted on January 5, 2018 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We have our community bench. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA This is in the bird-feeder area and the point of it is so people can sit and watch the birds feeding, have a bit of fun recording what they see and most importantly, it gives people a subject to talk about. A nice ice-breaker. When people start to chat about what they are interested in, it leads to new friendships being formed and that could be a big thing for anyone who is feeling a little lonely, or simply does not have a support network of friends or family.

You would be surprised at the number of middle-aged men who find themselves in the above predicament and simply have lost the skill to reach out to others and make friends. The stats are pretty shocking and it leads to serious Mental Health issues.

Thank-you to the developers of the Elliott’s Field retail park for making this happen with the #FieldGoodGrant.

I am going to get two more feeder posts and a few more feeders. We want to have a regular seed mix in a couple, peanuts in a couple, sunflower hearts and suet balls in the others. This will ensure a maximum number of visitors and hopefully make it a really busy little clearing.

We have planted over one hundred tree saplings and have a load of bird-boxes in the area and up the path.

Jobs for this month are, clearing the wind damage. A couple of trees are down and a load of scrub has blown onto the path. Litter pick – there are a few drink cans lying about. Posts for bird-feeder area. Move the rectangle picnic bench from the bird-feeder clearing down the path a bit and create a little clearing for it. Pollard the mature trees where we planted saplings up on the embankment.

I am having surgery on my back next week so I will be out of action for the rest of the month.

There is probably a few other things but it was so wet that I couldn’t really get a good look today.

Lastly, a big shout out to Pete, who was out walking his dogs, and helped me carry the component bench parts up to the clearing. I was really struggling.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bird watching, community, conversation, cycling, friendship, fungus, meadow flowers, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, photography, rambling, Rugby, running, volunteer work, walking, wildflowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Penultimate Workday of the Year

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We are fast approaching the end of the year and Marcus, John and myself put up two of the four bird feeder posts.

I have made these so that they have as little value as possible, so if they go missing, we will not be too upset.

The feeders cost just over £1 each.

The posts cost just over £2 each.

It is all very cheap and cheerful, however what we have is the start of our hub. We had a couple of walkers come past today and the conversation started around the bird-feeders and then meandered on about benches and how tame robins are. It’s great to have a conversation starter.

534251875 We cleared off the other side in readiness for two more posts in the New Year.

I had to get a fungi picture in, of course…

The last workday for this year is Sunday 10th December 12:30 to 3:30. We will be building our communal bench.

Thanks all today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bird watching, cawston greenway, community, conversation, cycling, friendship, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, photography, rambling, Rugby, running, walking, wildlife | 2 Comments

We Planted More Trees

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We got the rest of our tree pack from the Woodland Trust, planted today. Somehow we found ourselves north of the picnic clearing but it just seemed an ideal spot to start putting them in. In total we have planted 105 native British trees. The birds and other wildlife will love us for this.

John, Marcus and myself worked on getting the trees in whilst Aaron worked on the path widening.

I must say, it is looking rather good.

We planted some up on the bank as well. We are going to pollard all the other trees around the saplings so everything has a chance to grow.

A quick look up and down shows how lovely and wide the path is.

And lastly the obligatory fungi picture.

Next one is making our big round bench in the bird-box clearing, after that we will be cutting back the trees where we planted saplings today and then we will do some widening on the southerly part of the path. We are bringing the bench on-site via the gate way down past the clearing.

The bench has been funded by the Elliott’s Field #fieldgoodgrant and we are extremely grateful for their support.

Thanks all for today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged community, cycling, Elliott's Field, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, photography, rambling, running, Woodland Trust | Leave a comment

We Planted Some Trees!!

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Yes, you read it correctly, we actually planted some trees rather then cutting them down.

It was Reece, Aaron and myself today. We got stuck in and planted about sixty trees.

They are all native British varieties that include hawthorn, rowan, blackthorn, silver birch, hazel and common oak. We got the trees from the Woodland Trust, a great charity doing fantastic things. They have earned a place on our sponsor page.

We are putting in a bigger round bench here and the rectangle bench will go down the path into another area. We want to attract as much bird activity as possible and I, for one, cannot wait to start recording what we are seeing.

It is certainly a big shift in what we have been doing. We still want a nice wide path, but we also want to create a couple of hubs where people can meet and talk about what they are seeing around them. This is how friendships are forged.

Next one is next Wednesday 29th November, where we will be putting in the rest of our trees, and then we will be building our round bench on Wednesday 6th December so as much help as possible will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged bird watching, cawston greenway, nature, photography, rambling, wildlife, Woodland Trust | Leave a comment

My Gosh This Is Hard Work!!!

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Hard Work!!! – second day in a row where we had the wrong tools for the workday!!

But we soldier on and make the best of what we have. But back-breaking not having the right tools so I had to use the hedge-trimmer to clear off a load of low level scrub. We need to think about how we can get all of our tools on-site for every workday.

This is where Reece and myself started.

We probably cleared about 80 meters or so and made habitat piles for insects and small mammals. We switched sides a couple of times to create the wriggle to the path.

We have confirmation today of our new partner. Another department of Jaguar Land-Rover coming on board and creating something special. There is also more good news in the pipe-line that I will share when it is publicly available.

Another fungus to add to our collection of fungi.

Loads going on, plenty of plates spinning… Phew!!

Cannot quite believe what we have created here!!!

Thanks everyone.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged community, cycling, Jaguar Land Rover, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, NCR 41, outdoors, photography, rambling, Rugby, running, sustrans, wildlife | 1 Comment

We made safe the path to Cawston Wood

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

For years people have been asking me if we could do something with the steep path that leads to Cawston Reservoir and Cawston Wood. So today we made it a lot safer by putting in steps. This is pretty much what we did to connect with Cawston Bridleway that crosses the greenway in the big clearing. Tim and Marcus put the steps in whilst Aaron, Linda and myself found the wood to make the steps and pegs to hold them in place. We also dead-hedged our boundary and put in a high step-over to deter motorcycles, not that anyone would be brave enough to attempt the steep incline.

The slope as it was:

It is horribly steep and when we do our weekly run it is a pain to get up. Getting down it is twice as hard.

Working hard to get the steps in:

And the place that everyone wants to get to:

The finished article:

So we now have a safer route along the greenway, past the reservoir and either out past the Nature Trails nursery, or into Cawston Wood and out onto Cawston Lane.

We have agreed with Nick and Helen, the Sustrans Greener Greenway’s Wildlife Champions, that we will go no further than our last bench, which is about 200 meters south of Potsford Dam. The path pretty much naturally opens up to Dunchurch station anyway. Any work that we do will be with Nick and Helen so that we can work with them and learn how to do things correctly. Our Mick is also a great source of knowledge.

Last photo is the obligatory fungus shot:

Lastly, I noticed how you were all admiring my apparel – lol

If you would like a T-shirt the cost price is £9.12 per shirt and P&P is £4.80 and is the same regardless of numbers so if everyone coordinates we can keep this cost down. There are 16 different colours that they come in. I do not make any money on this – I am offering at cost price.

Here is a link to the website that will show the colour options.

https://www.clothes2order.com/T-Shirts/Fruit+Of+The+Loom+Valueweight+T-Shirt

Thank-you so much for today. Next one is Thursday this week not Wednesday, as a one-off. We are in the bird-box clearing making it ready for our bird-feeder area.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged cawston, cawston greenway, Cawston Reservoir, Cawston Wood, conservation, cycling, NCN41, photography, rambling, running, sustrans, walking | 4 Comments

Revisit the Risk Assessment for Power Tools

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great workday today with Marcus, John and myself.

No power tools because I just wanted to remind us all of our safe working practices.

We must give the person using a power tool at least 15 meters distance. It is not fair on the person using the power tool if people are coming from behind to rake up the brash. I will invest in a whistle so that we can notify them to stop for a passer-by or any other reason.

I think we need “Men At Work” signs too.

This is not aimed at anyone in particular and I am the first to put my hand up and admit to dropping my guard and being a little bit over-enthusiastic.

Let’s work safely together and not put each other at risk of injury.

So, on to the workday. We have a partner who wants to help us get the bird-feeding area set up. This is really exciting and I can already sense a change of direction where we slow down and start to work on making the bird-feeder area the best it can be.

We started clearing the bramble today.

A quick before and after shows what we did.

I cannot quite remember what was here in the summer. Rose bay willow herb or greater willow herb, which was easy to pull out, but the brambles proved to be a bit tougher. Next week we are going to switch to the other side of the path and then switch back as we get near to the bridge. This will create an interesting path with micro-habitats along the way.

Great fungus find today:

Further down the path, the developers are getting ever closer. This felt like I was standing at the edge of a forest watching dinosaurs.

Our Kidney Vetch has distributed its seeds and is shutting down for the winter. It will be great to see this spreading next year.

I HAVE HAD TO CHANGE NEXT WEDNESDAY TO THURSDAY. I CANNOT DO WEDNESDAY AT ALL. SAME TIMES AND AREA.

Thanks for today and let’s remember to keep ourselves and each other safe.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged cawston greenway, community, cycling, mental health, Mountain-biking, nature, NCN 41, outdoors, photography, running | 1 Comment

What a Difference Power-Tools Make

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

What a Difference Power-Tools Make….

Let me explain:

These two bad-boys made ripping out the scrub so easy. Well, easy for everything except my back!!

We had a brilliant turn-out with Marcus, Reece, John, Aaron, Amy, Mick and myself all pitching in.

Just look at what we created.

The challenge in the summer will be keeping the width and letting the flora and fauna happen in the margins.

We had so many people passing us today. Joggers, walkers, cyclists, couples, friends, all sorts of users. It is so nice to see that we are creating something that has such a broad appeal.

We have a couple of funding applications in at the moment to get our bird feeding station made. To recap, it is a round bench able to seat eight people with four poles around it at about 5 meters away to hang the feeders from. Each pole will have a different food and we can start to record and photograph what we see.

There is also the mental health aspect to consider. We are creating a vehicle for people to come along and make friends with like-minded people. It might be photography or identifying wildflowers, or just being a champion of our bird-feeder area and keeping the feeders topped up and recording what we see. Or even just smashing the path through. There really is something for everyone. We are a really friendly group and there is no pressure or heaviness about us, so if anyone is reading this and feeling a bit isolated, come and give us a try. If it wasn’t great we wouldn’t still be doing it eight years down the line.

Anyway, off the soap-box and just thanks to everyone today. Next week we are smashing through from the bridge down to the bird-box clearing.

What a great day.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged butterflies, community, conservation, cycling, fungus, meadow flowers, moths, mountain bikers, Mountain-biking, nature, outdoors, photography, running, walking, wildflowers, wildlife | Leave a comment

Hopefully found a bit of balance…

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I tempered down the last blog entry and tried to make it a bit more balanced.

And today was brilliant. We have a nice wide path so that groups can walk or cycle in tandem along the route.

Mick, Marcus, John and me made it and we completed this section.

We raked off the brushcut scrub and now have a wide walkway.

And look at the sun hitting the ground. This will encourage a lot of wildflowers to grow here.

Last gasp of nectar… Grab it whilst you can…

Next one is next Wednesday just pushing down to open up into the picnic clearing, 9:30 start.

Great day today.

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged community, conservation, cycling, mental health, Mountain-biking, outdoors, railway, Rugby, walking | 2 Comments

Cutting Back

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Cutting back – I am not sure if we are getting a lot of mixed messages and our various advisers telling us one thing and then telling us something else and every message is starting to conflict with previous messages. It certainly feels like it.

So I have looked at the advice that Warwickshire Wildlife Trust gave us when we started, and the Greener Greenway and Managing a Workday booklets that Sustrans gave us, and it clearly states that we need to make the path three meters wide. The reason for this is because the path is used by cyclists and pedestrians, so there has to be enough width for both to work together.

Both organisations then advise to create scallops to create micro-habitats for wildlife.

We will go as far as the drop-down that leads to Cawston Reservoir and our last picnic bench heading south. anything further and we will team up with Nick and Helen so we can learn from them and work with them to create the path that connects with NCN 41.

Today’s workday kind of shows where I am coming from.

This is before we started. A narrow path that means groups have to walk in a one-by-one line and anyone on a bike means someone has to move aside.

This is the end result. People can walk two or more abreast and there is enough room for cyclists to pass without anyone having to dive into the undergrowth.

We will need to cut scallops into this area next week and rake off the ground.