Cawston Greenway

Interesting workday with us burning off loads of the fallen leaves. With hindsight I don’t know if this is good or bad. I remember reading about how the fallen leaves are great in the cycle of nature, but also how they put nutrients into the soil to encourage nettles and discourage wild flowers. So a bit stuck with that one..

We also picked litter from the entrance to the picnic clearing and got a whole bin liner full.

The greenway is wide and open now and lots of people are using it. This is great news for us.

The bigger a space we can make it be, the more people will use it.

To finish on a good note – I found our missing picnic bench…

I need muscle to get it back up the bank so will look forward to a good turn out on the next workday.

Next workday is – Thu 2nd May at 11am, pulling up nettles in the picnic clearing.

Paul

Quite a relaxed workday today with four of us turning out. Working in the picnic clearing, cutting back new growth from the stumps of trees that have been left. We need to drill deep holes into the tops of these stumps and drip in some weed-killer or we will be going round in circles doing the same job every year.

All the cut timber has been stored under the bridge so it can dry out and be used as kindling for fires. We also got a lot of the litter bagged up and removed.

We raked off a lot of fallen leaves to reveal loads of wild flowers starting to grow on the banks. The amount of people using the path has increased massively and this is because it is cut back so that it feels open and people feel safer.

We saw our first butterfly of the year, which was a yellow Brimstone. It has been a tough year for butterflies in 2012 so we need to encourage as many nectar rich wild flowers as possible, which means open clearings.

All-in-all I think we have salvaged a good cutting season on the greenway, despite not being massively active over the winter due to bad weather and my family and work commitments. However, things are getting a bit easier for me and if we work on keeping the path pushed as wide as possible over the summer, we will be in good shape to really let rip on the clearings an ballast path come September when the bird nesting season ends.

Next workday is Friday 19th April at 11am. Rake off the remaining leaves from the picnic clearing banks and have a massive bonfire!!

See you there.

Paul

For Easter Sunday we had quite a good turnout with five or six of us.

We cleared a load of the brash from the area that we have been working on over the last few months and made a lot of headway.

We are coming the end of the cutting season so we will switch to just keeping the path tidy very shortly. Last summer we were a bit cautious about cutting back the flowers close to the path but this summer I think we need to be bolder and just keep a clear nine foot wide path. If the wild flowers are going to grow, then they will grow on the outside bits of the path too. 

Next workday is Thursday 4th April at 3pm. Back in the clearing just giving it a final tidy and rake off the banks of the cutting.

Paul

Just me and young Paul today but we got a bit of the link between the picnic clearing and the bird-box clearing tidied. Boy-oh-boy was it cold out there and I worked hard to get a warming fire going.

But we did get a fire going and we managed to burn off a fair bit of brash. Still loads to do in this area and we have run out of time. The bird nesting season starts pretty much next week so we can no longer be clearing. However, I have planned a workday for this Sunday just to finish off this bit. If we can just burn off the piles of brash then at least we will have moved forwards.

Moving out to the wider picture, we really need to cut the path back as far back as possible. The next picture is of the ballast ridge v. the muddy path. I am sure you will agree that the ballast ridge is a better place to walk. If we can clear this off totally then we can see what happens with the mud. We will either get pond-life or drying out and grass growing.

I had a meeting today with the Probation Service and we will have some help via Community Payback to keep the path cut right back in the summer and clearing areas in the winter. This is most welcome muscle and will help enormously. 

Next workday is Sunday 31st March. 3pm just to try and finish off the area between the two clearings. 

Hope to see you there.

Paul

It’s been a while since I have organised a workday, or even been down to the greenway due to babies, nappies and feeds. But I went down today to have a bit of a nose about and could see how wet it still is. There is a bit of litter building up so that needs to be cleared pretty quickly. Someone has chopped back the branches to make the path wider in the section that is near the entrance. Whoever this is, please bear in mind that we need to be uncovering the raised ballast path to get us all out of the mud.

Next workday is Tuesday 26rh March at 11am.  We can burn off the brash piles just past the picnic clearing, I will bring the litter picker so we can have a bit of a tidy too.

Paul

Well what a lovely morning we had. Basically we carried on clearing the bit between the clearings, if that makes sense. We need to clear out all the bits of the greenway that are in cutting and just push the path wider in the bits where we are on embankment.

We had a woeful attempt at starting a fire and thankfully Mike came along and answered our prayers. He once again showed us how to get a fire going and before long we had a raging fire and burnt off a whole load of the brash that we had chopped down.

Mike earned the nick-name Bear Grylls and I think we all enjoyed the banter.

I think about eight of us made it today which is good. We have until March to clear as much as we can before the bird nesting season starts. I will try and get down there tomorrow and burn off the rest of the brash so we can have a clear start on the next workday. Probably be at about 3 o’clock. It will be fun if it snows!!!

The next weekend workday will probably be in two weeks time. Next Sunday I have organised a litter pick in Cawston which starts at 2:30 at Budgens. Feel free to come along and help if you want.

Thanks everyone for today. We really are making a difference.

Paul

Happy New Year everyone!!

It’s been a struggle to get out this year. Mainly due to my extended family, my new job and the hideous weather that has made the greenway a quagmire and really quite unpleasant to walk down. However, we need to keep moving forwards and keep pushing back the path.

To remind us of our goal, we need to widen the path so that the ridge of ballast is clear. This will become the new path and allow the old one to recover somewhat.

I am in talks with the Probation Service to see if we can get some help via Community Payback on a set day in the week. This might just involve a group of people spending a day cutting down trees and clearing scrub, and then we can go along at the weekend and burn off the brash and tidy up. Early days but this might help us catch up.

Next workday is Sunday 13th January at 11am – back at the bit between the two clearings trying to make it one big clearing.

Clearing the path.

Look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Paul

Tuesday’s workday was pretty wet and wild, nothing like the previous one where we had sunshine. Mike and myself discovered that the matches had got damp and would not light, so Mike worked hard with the embers of the fire from Sunday and eventually got a small fire going. This allowed us to burn off all the brash and scrub that we pulled off the bank.

Cleared bank.

We are going to leave the trees at the top of the bank so they act as a sound barrier, but everything on the bank needs to come out so that wild flowers can establish themselves.

Brash ready for the next workday bonfire.

There comes a point towards the end of a workday when we have to stop adding to the bonfire, or we never get to go home because we cannot just walk away leaving an unattended fire. Whilst the fire is burning down we spent the time pulling scrub off the bank ready for the next workday. The type of scrub is such poor quality and stopping anything else growing. Next workday will have to be a bit about trying to catch up with the burning off of the piles of scrub, and also push on with the clearance so that the two cleared areas becomes one huge open space.

On the last blog I suggested that the next workday will be on Sunday late afternoon, but this clashes with the last Formula One race of the season, and it also gets dark quite early so I don’t think it is really practical to start and then not be able to finish on time.

So the next workday will be on Tuesday 27th November at 10:30 back in the clearing.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Paul

Lovely workday and loads done.

We cleared the new path of trees and really started to connect the two clearings. We are going to remove all the scrub either side of the bridge and really make it the feature that it deserves to be.

Clearing the path.

We Just need to keep clearing this section so that the whole bit that is in the cutting can get some sunlight and dry out a bit.

Stumps!!

We left a lot of tree stumps and the plan is to chainsaw these to ground level and then drill a hole into the top and drip some Roundup Tree Stump and Root Killer in to kill the roots.

Next workday is on Tuesday 20th November at 10:30  in the same place pushing back more of the scrub. Hopefully we can rekindle the bonfire and really get going with it. After that we are back on it on Sunday 25th November at 2:45pm

Thanks to all who made it on Sunday – about six or so – many hands make light work!!

Paul