Last workday on this section for a bit.

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Five of us today, John, Aaron, Kerrie, Chris and myself, with a cameo appearance from Mike at Butterfly Conservation. Always happy to take guidance from the experts. The good news is that we are on the right track in creating a superb butterfly habitat.

We spent the first hour clearing the last bit of brash from the bank and when this was done, we brought down a few more trees on the edge of the clearing and started stripping these and throwing the brash on the fire.

We now hand this area over to Sam and gang to work on it to get their Duke of Edinburgh award. They will be clearing the north bank and creating a dead hedge at the top of the bank.

When we got to the point where the fire was starting to burn down, Aaron and John had a look at the flooding at Berrybanks. Before long a trench was dug on top of the underground aqueduct and most of the water was running over to the other side of the greenway.

A lot of work to do in this area, but whilst it is so wet, it is easy to see where the water is trying to flow to, and redirect it. Because of this, we decided to work on this area next Monday. We can route the path either side of the trench and create a lake in the middle.

Our next weekender is 5th December at 12:00 helping Sam and gang clearing the north bank of Bluebell cutting.

Our next weekday is 16th December at Berrybanks starting at around 9:15 am.

Thanks for all who made it today.

Paul

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Saturday Family Workday

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We had an army of helpers today. Eight in total and we spend the afternoon clearing the brash from the previous workday. We had torrential rain all morning so everything was absolutely soaked. After a slow start by myself, Andy rescued the fire with dry kindling and after about two hours it was finally roaring away.

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The bank was incredibly slippery but we managed to get a good few larger logs up onto the dead-hedge. I found a holly sprig up next to the hedge. I will try and get this to grow over the hedge in the summer.

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This cutting is going to be the centre-piece of the greenway, with its south facing bank. However, we need to sort out the drainage issues by Berrybanks.

The water needs to run across the greenway and carry on its merry way to the river Avon, not up and down it. A project for April when the bird nesting season starts, I think.

Next workday is Monday in the same place, 9’ish start time, and then we hand over to Sam and his gang to do their Duke of Edinburgh award for the next 12 Saturdays. We will join them on weekend workdays, but will concentrate on the other clearings on our mid-weekers.

Next weekender workday will be Saturday 5th December at 12:00.

Thanks to all who made it today.

Paul

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Damp Squib

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

All the expectation was there today with John, Kerrie, Chris, myself and Mick, but everything was just so damp, and no wind to fan the flames, that we eventually kicked the fire out and called it a day.

We did bring down a lot of brash ready for the next workday, however.

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At one point we looked like professional loggers, with trees down all over the place. The fire just could not keep up and, with all of us with other stuff to do throughout the day, we just tidied the path ready for next time.

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We are so close to finishing this bit. Probably two or three more sessions and then rake off the bank to expose bare earth. It will be so interesting to see what comes up in the spring.

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Clearing the way.

Next Saturday is our family weekend workday starting at 12. At the moment it looks dry on the days leading up to it. The plan is a big bonfire and burn off all the brash lying about, and add to our hedge of tree-trunks.

Thanks to all who came along today.

Paul

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The end is in sight….

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Beautiful day today and five of us volunteered our time and effort to crack on with what hopefully will be Bluebell Cutting.

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Chris, Mike, Aaron, Mick and myself got a fire going really quickly and half of us brought down some trees whilst the other half of us stripped and burned the brash, and also dug out a load of old brash.

We put a lot of branches onto our dead-hedge and this is going to be hugely beneficial for wildlife in the future. Many insects, mammals and fungi will slowly get established here. We maybe could of packed it down a lot more densely, but again, time is not really on our side to make everything pretty and perfect.

Just one last bit to do and we are finished on this bit. This is a picture of what we need to clear. The whole area was as dense as this, back in August.

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Just remember that we are trying to create a haven for wild-flowers to grow, to attract butterflies, bees and birds, and small mammals.

Thanks to everyone who gave their time today. We are making great progress.

Paul

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Clearing.

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A lovely morning where we just spent the time catching up.

IMG_6198Mike, Aaron, Chris and myself. We caught up with burning off the brash from last week, and adding the the hedge at the top of the cutting. We also planted a load of bluebell bulbs that were kindly given to us by a local resident.

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Next weekender is Sat 7th November starting at 12:00.

Same place next week where we can carry on towards The Bear. There is a lovely mature tree that will make a nice feature of the cutting. This is where we need to get to.

Great day today.

Paul

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Back on it…

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Chris, John, Aaron and myself today on a fine autumnal morning. We quickly got the fire going and I dragged out a load of the old brash and burnt it off, whilst Chris took the bigger logs up to the top of the cutting and added to the hedge that we are creating.

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Aaron and John brought a few more trees down and we managed to burn off a fair bit of the brash from them, but soon enough it was time to let the fire burn down, so we left a couple of felled trees to be stripped and burnt off on our next work day.

IMG_6112 The clearing is slowly getting bigger and bigger. As soon as all the leaves have fallen we can rake it.

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In the mean time we can just keep pushing on up the path. The speed that myself and Aaron were able to break down a felled tree was amazingly quick, probably about five minutes or so and the trunk was stripped and added to the dead-hedge.

Thanks for today, same time and place next week.

Paul

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Weekend Family Workday

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Our second weekender and a good turn-out with seven of us in total.

Lee cut down the stumps with his chainsaw, which improved how the clearing looked straight away. Mick, Chris, Tim, Tim’s daughters, and myself cleared all the new brash and had a good old go at the old brash on the other side of the path.

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We moved a lot of the tree trunks to to the top of the cutting, to build up our dead hedge. This will be superb for mammals and insects to make into a protective habitat, and also gives the clearing a nice feature.

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This photo shows just how clear the ground is now. When all the leaves have fallen we will give it a good rake over to expose the bare earth, and see what grows in the summer.

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The start of the fire. With little wind, the fire took ages to get going, but we eventually got there.

We now have to make a choice as to what to do. We can carry on up the path towards The Bear for a few more metres, and down the path the other way, all the way to the underpass. The two things to consider are, managing the clearing in future years and, eventually we need to clear out the other two clearings before the bird-nesting season starts next spring.

There is a lovely mature tree up the path, that I spotted today, just at the point where the cutting becomes flat by Berrybanks. I think it would be good to push on towards that, for now.

Next workday is Monday 12th October at 9am back in Bear Cutting.

Thanks to all who made it today.

Paul

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Stumped!

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great turn-out today with six of us, Mick, Mike, John, Aaron, Chris and myself. We built the fire around three of the tree stumps and it seemed to get going pretty quickly, but the stumps stopped anything that we put on the fire from falling down onto the core, so we took ages to get it properly hot. Eventually Mick got it really stoked and we could finally start to throw on the mass of brash that had built up.

After about two hours of intense burning, we let the fire burn down and there stood the three stumps, just slightly charred.

I am well and truly stumped!!

However, a productive day and we pushed on with more canopy removal. We are getting to the end of where we need to be at The Bear end and need to push down towards the underpass end. We cleared out a load of the cutting just past the underpass, a few years ago and it would be good to get along to this bit.

Here we are looking from near the top of the cutting. Loads of light coming through, even on a drizzly overcast day. In August this bank was a mass of scrub and bramble.

With the bigger bits of timber we are creating a dead-hedge at the top of the cutting. This will be great habitat for mammals and insects.

Very much work in progress on this bit at the moment. We have left it reasonably tidy and the path is clear, but there is always going to be an overhang of brash until the last day that we work in this area.

This Saturday is our monthly weekend workday which is from 12 to 4pm. I will light a fire away from any stumps and we can burn off a load of the brash from today, and also a lot of the brash dumped on the other side of the path.

Thanks to all who made it today.

Paul

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Hot One!!

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Four of us made it today. Chris, Mick, Aaron and myself. We had a slight change of plan and caught up with burning off the brash. The fire was full on pretty much from the start and we just kept throwing as much as we could on to it.

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When I got the fire really stoked I thought of a plan for the stumps. If we build the next few fires around the stumps, they will just get burnt away to ground level. Job done!

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We can see the stumps in this picture. I reckon we can get rid of three with each fire. There is still loads of brash on the other side of the path, and we need to take a load more trees down on this side. The sunlight is starting to hit the ground. In the summer the sun is higher in the sky, rather that behind the trees and creating the dappled sunlight.

Good progress today. Next workday is same time next Monday and then it is our weekend workday on Saturday 10th October at 12:00. All in this cutting.

Paul

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Let there be light!!!

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Four of us today, John, Aaron, Chris and myself, and the plan was to clear all the brash that was left over from the last workday. However, the temptation to start hacking down more of the tree canopy proved too much.

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Everything was very wet and the fire was really feeble and took about an hour to get going. Every time I looked behind me I just saw the pile of branches getting bigger and bigger. Not much pressure!!

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Eventually I got it going and threw everything onto it. After about an hour or so, we could see the floor again.

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It was drizzly and dull but from the photo above, we can see how much light is hitting the bank. This will be full of wild flowers next summer.

We made a decision to crack on with this clearing until it is completed. We have a weekend workday on Saturday 10th October so that gives us two more Monday mornings and the Saturday to try and get it finished. There is a large tree that is at one end of the clearing and we want to make this a central feature, so we need to clear the same amount of ground on the other side of it.

I am very aware that we need to remove the stumps at some point. Any ideas gratefully received.

As with last week, there are piles of brash and felled trees ready to be thrown on the fire next week. Very much work in progress.

After Saturday 10th October we can work on the other two clearings. We have about six months before the bird-nesting season starts, so plenty of time, but also plenty to do in other parts.

Thanks to all who made it today.

Paul

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