Myself and Aaron today, and what a beautiful morning to be outdoors.
We pushed the edges of the path back with our weed-whips and really this is the width that we need to maintain all along the greenway.
Plenty of new wild flowers starting to come up and lots of Orange Tip butterflies dancing around.
Next week we will be working on the section between the underpass and the picnic clearing. Same as today, just keeping the path pushed back wide.
Paul
Just me today, so I started pulling nettles. I started clearing around a clump of forget-me-nots. I will keep working on this area so that we can see if anything else starts to come up. If it does, it will be in May or June.
It’s not at all bad once you get going, and proper clothes meant that I didn’t get stung, for a change.
There are all manner of bugs on the nettle leaves, so I just threw them in a lose pile to preserve as much as I could.
I wandered down to Berrybanks to see what was happening. The bluebells are slowly starting to bloom.
Lastly, I did a litter pick on the section between the Picnic Clearing and Berrybanks.
Another big bag full of litter!!
Back in the Picnic Clearing next week and next weekender is 21st May at 12:00.
Paul
Myself, Aaron and John today and we walked the whole southern section and just kinda planned what we need to do in the future.
Aaron and John are down there somewhere!
Basically we want to keep the twists and turns in the path whilst we are on embankment, however we all agreed that it needs to be about three metres wide so that it does not feel so enclosed. We also agreed that we need to get rid of overhanging branches as much as possible.
In the cuttings we want to keep the nettles and scrub in check.
A tree that has split into two and kept growing. We want to make a feature of things like this.
The more nettles that we can get rid of, the more wild flowers like this will grow.
Next workday is Monday in the Bird-Box clearing. This is where we start to clear the nettles.
Great work today and two bin-liners of rubbish removed whilst we were walking up and down.
Paul
Back at Berrybanks today and disaster. All of our work last week has been washed away by the torrential rain last Thursday. The drain had become blocked so we had a lot of water.
After about an hour of thought I eased the drain off and soon got it flowing again.
Whilst thinking about the drainage problem I did a litter pick.
Beer cans, dog poo in bags, crisp and sweet wrappers, a hoover, a bath, etc, etc..
Someone has kindly cut the stumps on the northern bank, and tidied the southern bank.
Next Monday we are back in the Bird-box Cutting. I will pop down to Berrybanks mid week to see how the drainage is working.
Thanks to Mike, John and Mick who all made it today.
Paul
Just John and me today – trying to sort out the brook that is leaking down the greenway, when it needs to go across it and drain into Lawford Brook, which then eventually goes back under the greenway and drains into Cawston reservoir.
We want the water to create a good sized pond, so as to attract a whole new and diverse type of insect. There is already lava of some sort hatching out. We are creating a hedge around it so that the children who play in this area don’t fall in.
We are just on the cusp of this area really greening up. Now that we have raked the bank off things are starting to shoot up.
Great day today. Back in this area next week to see how permanent this weeks work has been.
Paul
Me, Mick and Tim today and we just spent the day burning off as much of the brash and chippings as possible. We are trying to leave the leaf mould and the smaller stuff, and just get rid of the horribly big chunks.
Our bluebell has bloomed into something else!!! Worried now about what we have planted…
Whilst the fire was burning away, I did a quick litter pick. Loads of empty pop bottles, beer cans and dog poo in bags!!
Utterly disgusting that people use the greenway presumably because they enjoy it, but choose to leave their rubbish behind to spoil it for everyone else…
Anyhow, next workday is Monday at 9:30. Same area.
Cheers for all who made it today. Way nice to see so many people using the path as we worked away.
Paul
At one point we had six of us working today. Aaron, Mick, Mike, John, me and a cameo from Sarah.
Boy-oh-boy was it such hard work today. Butterfly Conservation cleared the area last year and the contractors put all the felled trees through a shredder. This has left the whole area covered in rough chippings. Today we started to rake it all off the bank to get back to bare earth.
My initial thoughts were to cover the path with all the chippings, but ended up just heaping up piles, so that all sorts of insects can use them for habitat.
The end result was very satisfying to look at though.
The plan is for Butterfly Conservation to seed the bank with a wildflower called Kidney Vetch, which is the sole food plant for the endangered butterfly called the Small Blue. If we can get a colony established it will ratchet up our importance massively.
NEXT WORKDAY IS OUR FAMILY WEEKENDER ON SATURDAY 9th APRIL at 12:00.
Same location, just burning off a load of the brash dumped into the bottom of the north facing side.
Massive thanks to everyone today. It was tough. Special thanks to Aaron who fixed two of the three broken rakes. It will be good to get another six years service out of them.
Paul
We started on the section by Berrybanks today and started raking the chipped wood onto some sort of piles. I figured that this would create habitat for insects, whilst bearing the earth for wild flowers to grow.
A bit messy but better that it looked before. We also had the added complication of a blown down tree.
We stripped a lot of the smaller branches off today. We will need to saw it up next week.
The bluebell bulbs that Chris planted last year are starting to come up.
The first one to flower is pink! The others that are about to bloom look like they are blue.
This whole area will be a blue carpet of bluebells in a couple of years.
Great day today.
Paul
It is always hard when we finish an area and move on to another. Today was one of those moments. You kind of get attached to the area as you discover more and more about it, and of course, transform it from an unruly mess to a blank canvas where nature can start to do her thing as spring starts.
Nice wide path with low shrubbery leading to higher mature trees on the edges. When this lot greens up it will be perfect. Lots of coppiced wood and piles dotted around for wildlife and loads of clear ground for wild flowers to grow.
John and Aaron meeting up after each of them tackled opposite ends of the last bit of scrub that we wanted to get rid of.
Mick inspecting his hedge-laying. We have certainly created an area that is incredibly diverse, with warm open sections, dappled shade in other places, sheltered bits and mossy damp areas.
Next week is just a final tidy up in this area, and then we need to tackle the area by Berrybanks.
Basically we need to rake up all the shredded wood and bare the earth. This will be a toil, but worth it.
Great day today.
Paul
It really did feel like we had crossed the Rubicon today. From a few months back, it seemed like ripping out and joining up the Picnic Clearing and the Bird-Box Clearing was an impossible dream. Even this morning, with all the piles of brash that needed to be raked up just seemed an endless, and very prickly, task. But towards the end of the session today, we stood up straight and looked around and saw that we have finally broken the back of our work on this section.
A very smoky fire that was burning well. The smoke was making the sunlight go a funny colour.
We discovered log piles that we had laid down years ago, a proper dead-hedge on the east side of the cutting and Mick’s live hedge on the west side.
We have a bit of brash to burn off next week, a little bit left to cut, probably give the ground a good old rake over, and then we are finished.
The next job will be working in the section by Berrybanks. We need to rake of the ground ready for Kidney Vetch seeding. This will attract the endangered Small Blue butterfly. We will need to keep down any nettles and other things that try and compete, so that will be interesting to see how this section develops. I am also looking forward to seeing the bluebell bulbs that we planted start to come up.
Great work today.
Paul
Cawston Greenway 