Cawston Greenway

Lovely day for a workday today and great to see two new volunteers, Chris and Phil.

We cleared the opposite bank in the picnic clearing and raked over the ground to assist any wild-flower seed germination.

If we just keep clearing scrub for now, we should soon start to see some nice wild flowers coming up in the spring.

Next week will be at the same place, starting at about 9am. We can probably get this area finished and then move on to another section, the week after.

Next workday: Monday 16th February at 9am.

Paul

The next workday on Cawston Greenway will be Monday 26th January starting at about 9am, at the picnic clearing by the bridge that goes over the greenway.

We can start cutting back the scrub and see where we get to. I will bring some tools but please feel free to bring your own, if you like.

I will need to leave at just after 11, so probably not wise to start a fire.

Look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Paul

Not able to do any workdays this side of the New Year, but in January both of my boys are in nursery every weekday morning.

This means I can spend a lot of time clearing the areas around the bridge.  Workdays will be just two hours long for me, but at last we can push on and create the habitat to encourage rare butterflies such as Grizzled Skipper and Small Blue.

Keep an eye out for when we start, all welcome and looking forwards to seeing new faces and old.

Paul

I have been a bit quiet of late because I have been wrapped up in looking after my boys, Jack and Kieran. However, Kieran will be starting nursery very soon, so that will give me blocks of time in the week to get onto the greenway.

Weekend workdays are hard to organise because I seem to be juggling childcare with everything else such as bike rides, running, church, spending time with Kerrie and just trying to get my house painted through!! Things should get back onto an even keel at some point, but in the meantime, I think week day workdays are going to be the only way forwards.

I will look at our schedules and see what I can organise for this week, and post it here.

Will be in touch,

Paul

Blog said 12 and then said 4… Sorry, just trying to juggle childcare and failing. However, we got a bit done and it turned out ok.

Beth and Mike helping out. Mick and Graham did a bit earlier as well.

I walked down to the bridge near the Bear and it looks pretty good down there. We still need to rip it all out but our hard work a couple of years ago is holding up.

Next workday TBA but probably 2 weeks away.

Paul

Good old workday today where we did a litter-pick from the underpass right down to the clearing past where the Cawston Bridleway bridge goes over the greenway.

Most of the litter was beer cans, crisp packets and bags full of dog poo. There are dog poo bins on route to the greenway so why people go to the effort of picking it up just to sling the bag into the undergrowth is beyond me? However, it is all litter free once again.

Unfortunately someone has decided to smash up our picnic bench. It might be repairable and I will take a closer look in the week. This is a shame because it has been with us for a number of years and been great for people who want to stop off and enjoy the tranquility of the greenway.

Moving on, the berries are almost over so we can start to really cut back the path and keep it wide and open. This makes it feel safer and allows more sunlight in, which will encourage wild flowers to grow. I also found an interesting toadstool which is something that I have not noticed before. The more diverse the greenway is, the more interesting it will be to walkers.

We have a six month window over autumn and winter to do all the work that we have planned. The big job is clearing the area from the picnic clearing, down to the birdbox clearing. If we clear the banks and lay a hedge on the tops of the banks then this will be perfect for wild flowers and butterflies next summer. We do need more volunteers though. At the moment we barely have enough to keep the brambles cut back.

 Aaron and myself cutting back and picking litter. We did well considering it was just the two of us.

Next workday is Sunday 28th September 4pm until 6pm  at the picnic clearing (where the Cawston Bridleway bridge crosses the greenway). Start to clear the banks and push down as far as we can.

See you there!

Paul

The plan was to start chopping back vegetation that had flowered and gone to seed, but there was just too much going on with late flowering plants and so many berries ripening ready for birds to feed on.

There is no way in a month of Sundays that I am going to mess about with such a huge food-store. What we did instead was just walk up and down the path cutting back brambles. Many people said thank-you as they came past, which was nice.

Plenty of insects were buzzing around and feeding on the late flowering plants.

If you look closely you can see insects feeding on the nectar.

Next workday is Sunday 14th September starting at 3PM. We desperately need to do a litter-pick and we can see how the greenway looks in terms of cutting back. I have a feeling it might still be a little too early. Meet at the hedge by the Drummond Road development.

In general terms I felt that it looked pretty good today. Saw a few butterflies and a good variety of plants. The yellow plant on the right above is Birds-foot Trefoil I think, which is the larval food plant for the Common Blue butterfly, among others.

Great day today so thanks!

Paul