Smokin’…

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Arrrgh!!!! So much to share…

We cleared the brash left from yesterday and sorry to all the residents on the Coventry Road. We did have a really smoking fire and the high wind took it straight over the fields to your houses and the road. I was expecting another visit from the Fire Brigade, but thankfully it did not happen. We are finished at this bit for now so don’t worry about a repeat performance.

I have never seen the fire so hot - the wind really stoked it up!

At some point we need to make some steps down to the road. We have a really steep bank and it will be a challenge. I think we might have a go at this in the summer.

How to turn this into steps..... hmmm....

But anyway, this is the really exciting bit. I planted a load of Kidney Vetch seeds in the autumn and they seem to be coming up. Kidney Vetch is the sole food plant for the Small Blue butterfly caterpillar. If we can get the grassy area at the end of the greenway rich in this plant, we can then hopefully attract a Small Blue colony. Small Blue is an endangered species and a lot of work is being done further down the line to create habitat to allow them to thrive. I am so excited to be doing something to support this.

I really hope that this is Kidney Vetch seedlings.

We need to push back the bramble but keep the hight, so that the grass can spread  but be sheltered from the wind. If we can get this whole area rich in Kidney Vetch then it will be fantastic.

If we push the bramble back to maximise the grass, but keep it on the edges to create a wind barrier, hopefully this area will be suitable for the Small Blue butterfly.

At the other end of the greenway I am hoping to create a similar habitat for the Grizzled Skipper butterfly, which is another endangered species.

Next workday is starting at the underpass and working south. Aaron has done a lot of good work on this section already and basically we just need to ease the path out without taking down trees. There are a lot of badger setts so we need to be careful and we are quite close to houses, so if we just gently ease the path wider and then move on to the section north of the underpass, which is chopping trees on the south facing bank.

Thanks to the five of us who made it today. We really got a lot done and it is nice that we can walk away from the Potford’s Dam end knowing that it is looking good. I did a bit of tidying as I walked back today so we really can push on northbound.

Until next time!

Paul

 

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Fire Brigade came to visit Cawston Greenway…. again!

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Well we had it all today, howling gale, sheeting rain, bramble that was so obnoxious and rude, ripped gloves, pricked hands, a bonfire that wouldn’t start, and when it finally did, someone called the Fire Brigade!!!!

Fire Brigade.... again!!!

It’s just a bit annoying that someone who is in real need of the Fire Brigade could be compromised because they are having to deal with the call to us. We have a fire every weekend in the cutting season so it really should be obvious that it is us. If you see smoke and a fire, please just take a minute to see if there are a load of sensible people tending to it before dialling 999.

A couple of other niggles too, a resident has been moaning that we are driving all the wildlife out by cutting back the path. Obviously we are not trying to do this at all. By cutting back and letting the sunlight in, we will encourage nectar-rich wild flowers to grow, which will attract insects, which will attract mammals and birds.

Just remember what the greenway was like before we started. Broken glass and loads of other rubbish dumped down there, stinging nettles and brambles making the muddy narrow path impassable without getting badly stung or your clothes snagged, and generally a feeling of enclosed and unsafe wilderness. We need the path to be wide so that all the users of the greenway are not forced to walk on the same muddy strip and make it even muddier. We are also trying to make it interesting so that children and dogs can get up and down the banks and run around the trees, rather than just march in a narrow straight line.

If any resident wants to talk to me about what we are doing on the greenway, please come along to a workday and I will gladly explain what our aims and objectives are. Please remember that the users include walkers, runners, mountain bikers, dog walkers and horse riders. If the path is not wide enough to accommodate all these different users, it will become a badly churned up quagmire.

I also wonder if we have made any negative impact with the noise from the Relief Road. The road opened in September 2010 and was not really an established route through the winter of 2010. Since then it has got a lot busier and the leaves on the trees are obviously not there in the winter to soften and block the noise. I also note that the wind tends to blow west to east, which is right onto the estate, more often than not.

Right then, about today! A tough one, but we made it to the end!! I didn’t think we were going to do it but we did, and at one point we were tantalisingly close and I saw a ray of sunshine on the end almost saying to me “COME ON!!”

I looked up and saw a ray of sunshine on the end bit - it was like a welcome beacon.

We chopped back a lot of scrub today and tomorrow we really need to clear up and burn it off. We were too far away from the fire to drag it all the way down to it. The greenway fought back today and my hands are ripped to bits from the bramble, plus I smacked my head with a spiky Hawthorn branch and also poked myself in the eye with another branch.

A 'before' shot looking south down the path - all the scrub came out.

However, it was worth the pain to get to the end. We now can either work our way back and tidy, after finishing tomorrow, or we can start on the area working towards the underpass and come back to this area later on to tidy it and cut scallops onto the remaining bramble.

The Ash coppice at the end.

Thanks to the six of us who made it today. I never quite know how Saturday workdays will pan out, but we did well. I will put some more dates on the calendar later today or tomorrow and try and mix them up a bit so that everyone has a chance to come along.

We are creating something that is quite special for Cawston!

Paul

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Come and Join In!!!!

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

So happy with the greenway. Had nearly 5,500 views on the blog since we started and seem to have quite a following.

Please, please, please, if you are watching our progress on the blog or facebook/twitter and would like to get involved, but maybe feel difficult about joining what seems to be an established group, we are nothing like that at all.

Come along and join us. We are so laid back and chilled. It really is just a bit of fun!!! 🙂

And it makes us all feel so good because we are doing a bit of conservation work in what was once a rubbish tip!!!

It would be really good to see some new people join us…..

Paul

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Another 65 meters done on Cawston Greenway

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

We pushed on and got another 65 meters down the path. It was a really hard slog with some horribly thick bramble and prickly Blackthorn trees, but we cracked on and made our target. The good news is that we now have just 140 meters to get to the end, and even better, just 60 meters of dense scrub before the path breaks out into the Ash coppice at the end, which just needs a quick tidy. Beyond the coppice is about 25 meters of open grassland that is fine for now.

Preview Changes

This is the Ash coppice at the end of the greenway.

Once we get to the end we need to work our way back and just rake the ground. This will tidy all the leaves and bits of twigs that we have left, and also disturb the seeds in the ground which will help them to germinate in the spring. We also need to cut some scallops into the edges to create sheltered spots for insects and butterflies to thrive. If these scallops are cut so that the south facing edge gets maximum sunshine we will have fantastic micro-habitats all along the path.

65 meters of new path (looking north). We need to cut scallops into the left hand edge.

Hopefully we will see a lot of nectar-rich flowers growing on the newly bare earth and this will attract insects, which will in turn attract birds and mammals.

Looking south where we started. This was narrow path before we cut it back.

Once we get this section done we can ease the scrub back on the path between the entrance and the underpass. We need to be really careful with this bit because it is close to houses, so no tree chopping, just lopping the branches on the edges of the path.

Good turn out today with eight of us making it. The next workday is Saturday 21st January and I guess it will be another tough one, but it will get a lot easier after this next 60 meters is done.

Thanks to everyone for today.

Until the next one!

Paul

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A Few Meters More……

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Nice start to the day today. I got there at about 9:45 and saw a couple of squirrels playing on the path. There were also loads of birds in full song and it felt good. The wider the path is, the more pleasant the greenway feels. Not quite so claustrophobic is probably quite a good way to describe it.

We pushed on with much reduced numbers today. John, Mike and myself to be fair and Mike was concentrating on tidying around the bird-box clearing, so effectively it was just John and me pushing on. However, we cleared another 30 or so meters.

Another tree released.

We had a bonfire but I think for the sake of quickness, we can just push scrub down the bank whilst we are on such high embankment. This will be used by all sorts of small mammals who will use it for shelter, and as it rots down it will become host to plenty of fungi.

Looking back at the point where we started.

Personally I think we need to try and copy the above as we move down the path. We are on high embankment until we get to the end and really we just need to remove the scrub on the top surface, and lop any branches encroaching from the edges, so that we have a V or U profile on the path with stand alone trees, as well as groups or clumps, like in the picture.

We are still on target for getting to the end by the end of the month. John suggested that when we get there, we work back and just tidy and rake. There are also a few areas where we have got under the blackthorn but left the top a bit heavy, so maybe this could be thinned, as we work back. As soon as we have done this, and worked our way back to the new underpass, then we can really get stuck into the run from there to The Bear. The ground is scrub free and in deep cutting for the whole run, so it will just be a case of creating clearings and working up and along the south-facing bank.

Someone has been working on the section between the entrance and the underpass. I don’t know who this is but they have  done a really good job of lopping the trees and widening the path. This will save us time in February so thank-you very much for your efforts!

Next workday (Sunday 15th Jan) I will bring the brush-cutter and really blast a good run. If everyone else works at raking the brash off, then I think we can probably get ahead of schedule.

Lastly, I have ordered some new rakes and a new pair of loppers. Doubtful if we will have these by next week, so it might be worth bringing a rake. I will bring one extra.

Until next time!

Paul

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0.04 of a mile = 65 meters on Cawston Greenway

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Right then, where to start!! This is the first time that we have set ourselves a goal on the greenway and happily we achieved it.

Basically at the point where we finished on the last workday, to the point that is where the greenway crosses the Coventry Road (the end) is 0.20 miles. I decided that if we clear 0.04 miles of path on each of the next five workdays, then we will get to the end before the end of the month. 0.04 of a mile sounds like no distance at all but convert it into meters and suddenly it is 65 scrubby, hawthorny, blackthorny, brambly meters and it isn’t quite the easy ride that it looks, in my mind’s-eye.

We are working round larger trees. Look how the higher trees on the edge have forced this tree to grow at an angle.

But we made it and managed to release a lovely Ash clearing whilst we were at it. We didn’t chop and trees down but did a lot of lopping of branches on the inside edge of the path.

65 meters of cleared path. If you look at the last blog you will see the photo of this before we cut it back.

There are loads of Ash trees and also some really good specimen trees, as we push on down, and I really think that we need to clear the scrub around them and kind of release these trees to allow them to thrive. At the moment they are just being crowded out by the higher trees on the edges overhanging the path.

Ash clearing that previously we would of cut down. We are now a bit more imaginative...

Mike continued with his hedge-laying and Matt found out why we are flooding up by The Bear. Plenty to do and time is ticking by. I wonder if we can do another 65 meters tomorrow?

Good turn out today with nine of us making it. Thanks to all who mucked in. I am really impressed with where we are at.

Until tomorrow!

Paul

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Post Christmas blow-out on Cawston Greenway

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

A few of us made it today and had a good old Christmas-calorie-burning session. The Blackthorn trees that we released didn’t quite work out in the same way that the Hawthorn trees did, but we can see how they develop over the summer.

This was a totally tangled mess of scrub when we started.

We might have to coppice them right back and then let them start again., but I guess if we see how they do, and maybe try and trim them into some sort of shape.

The landscape changes as we move down the path and the rest of it is on embankment, so we need to think about what we are doing. I walked down the path today and I think we need to be mindful of the trees. There are quite a few feature trees which we need to work around, and also quite a few areas of Ash trees that will look really good if we remove the scrub around them. The land that is between the greenway and the housing estate rises so there is no issues with noise or spoiling anyone’s view. What we need to do is create a path that is about three metres wide, however, within this three metres, we can have stand-alone and groups of trees.

Looking down the path at the point where we are at.

I think we need to crack on down the path now and just push to get to the end. If we just follow the contours of the path and push the scrub back, we can hopefully do this by the end of January. This then gives us two more months to push upwards and get to the new underpass. I don’t know if this is a bit ambitious but it would be really good if we can achieve this.

Today’s workday saw us get bogged down with the last of the really scrubby Blackthorn areas before pushing on. Rather than cutting trees down we just lopped branches on the path side and I reckon this is all we need to do moving forwards, as well as clear the scrub around the trees.

Looking back to where we got to. Notice how we left the bank of scrub on the left to create a windbreak.

I will put January’s workdays on the ‘workday dates’ bit up top on the brown bar and try and pack in as much as I can. I can see us getting to the end and it would be good to get there by the end of January. I am really happy with where we are at and feel that we are making a huge difference this year. I look forward to seeing what happens over the summer and already there are loads of shoots coming up in the areas that we have cleared in the last few months.

Thanks to everyone who has mucked in this year. It’s been an adventure!

Paul

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Snowy start to a great Christmas workday in Cawston

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

I have to say that I am rather pleased with today’s workday. As I trudged from my home at 9:50am it was snowing and cold and I thought that I was going to be on my own today. However, I met Jason as I walked down to where we were working and before long Mike and John rocked up, and we had a really good session.

As we worked at clearing the scrub it became obvious that there are two options that we are wrestling with. The first being smashing down the path as quickly as possible, and rush to get to the end or, pull back and work more slowly but try and make the best of the bit we were working on. We kind of flipped from the first to the second today and ended up releasing a tree from a load of scrub and making a feature of it.

This tree was totally tangled with scrub when we started.

Mike got on with his hedge-laying and it is starting to look really good. This is good for a number of reasons. The hedge is a living thing and it will be exciting to see it grow and play host to many different types of wildlife. I went back later to check the fire embers were under control and also just try and take in where we are at and where we are going. I got a lovely photo of Mike’s hedge against the winter sky.

Silhouette of Mike's hedge against the winter sky.

It’s amazing how the greenway changes along the path. There are some superb trees that are begging to be released from the scrub and low value trees that have tangled themselves in their branches. If we work at knocking back the areas where everything has become a tangled mess, we will give the trees that are high value a fighting chance to flourish. It is also worth capitalising on the grassy areas and trying to get these areas expanded.

This area was totally covered in scrub when we started.

We started working on an area where there were a couple of Blackthorn trees totally engulfed in scrub and probably on the next workday we need to go back to this area and release these lovely trees. If we can create a Blackthorn clearing then this will compliment the Hawthorn clearing that we made a few weeks ago.

Blackthorn is a deciduous large shrub or small tree growing to 5 m tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches. The leaves are oval, 2–4.5 cm long and 1.2–2 cm broad, with a serrated margin. The flowers are 1.5 cm diameter, with five creamy-white petals; they are produced shortly before the leaves in early spring, and are hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated. The fruit, called a “sloe”, is a drupe 10–12 millimetres (0.39–0.47 in) in diameter, black with a purple-blue waxy bloom, ripening in autumn, and harvested — traditionally, at least in the UK, in October or November after the first frosts. Sloes are thin-fleshed, with a very strongly astringent flavour when fresh.

As an aside, Sustrans have started work on the line out of Rugby though Newbold, which connects with what we are working on somewhere north of our path. Take a look and see how they do it with JCB’s compared to our efforts!

http://rugbyviaductcycleway.wordpress.com/

Lastly there is a natural window in the clearing that we made today and it overlooks the Compensation Area that the Western Relief Road contractors gave us. This is an area of grassland that will be host to many insects and butterflies. Access to this area is via the new footbridge that forms part of Cawston Bridleway and is well worth a visit.

View towards Lawford Heath with a part of the Compensation Area to the right of the photo.

That’s about it for now. Many thanks to all who have helped on the greenway this year. We have learned a lot since last year and I guess that we were just playing at it first time round. This year it seems that we have made huge strides forward and I really feel that we are creating something that is quite special for Cawston.

I hope everyone has a happy and merry Christmas and I welcome back everyone who has helped make the greenway what it is on the next workday, which is on the 28th December, I think!

Merry Christmas!

Paul

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Hedge-Laying on Cawston Greenway

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Busy afternoon on the greenway with six or so of us making it and we did a bit more hedge-laying in the bird-box clearing (the one with the bench and bird-boxes that young Paul put up last year). Mike was pretty much doing the hedge-laying and it’s starting to look pretty good now.

The rest of us got on with clearing the path downwards from this clearing, which was a slight deviation from the plan, due to Mike having concerns that we maybe had cut back a bit too savagely on the last workday. This is where the path is quite narrow so we made it very open with views across each side.

It is good to see that in the areas that we have widened previously, there are loads of shoots coming up. Don’t have a clue what the shoots are but I guess we will find out soon enough.

The next workday is next Sunday and I think we need to press on downwards from where we left off today. I would also like to put the rest of the bird-boxes up in the clearing. We also have a lot of insect houses that need to go up, so plenty to do. As soon as we get to the end, we can then push back the scrub in selected areas and see what starts to grow. In the bit that we cleared today, the ground was totally dead underneath the scrub.

Thanks to all who made it today. We got lucky with the weather, just 🙂

Until next time!

Paul

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Hawthorn Clearing

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

Great workday yesterday and good to see that about six or seven of us made it. We started pushing back the path northbound from where we last left off and discovered a group of struggling young Hawthorn trees, that were fighting with the scrub around them, and the higher trees on the edges that were overhanging and tangling with the Hawthorn growth.

Hawthorn clearing.

We cleared the path either side of these trees and it will be nice to see them develop. They will have white flowers in the late spring that are pollinated by midges, and later in the year bear numerous haws. The haw is a small, oval dark red fruit about 1 cm long, berry-like, but structurally a pome containing a single seed. Haws are important for wildlife in winter, particularly thrushes and waxwings; these birds eat the haws and disperse the seeds in their droppings.

Haw fruit on our Hawthorn trees.

We started to make a dead-hedge on one side of the clearing and this will be a fantastic habitat for lots of wildlife as it becomes established. The clearing is at a section where the path changes from being in cutting to being pretty flat, before becoming high on embankment. This gives us an opportunity to lay hedges of the edges and allow people to enjoy the views across open countryside on each side.

Good progress was made and the naturally open and flat section that we worked on, felt different again to the sections worked on previously that have been in cutting, and can sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic. Especially before we started to widen the path.

As we push on it will be interesting to see what else we discover and I think we all need to be as creative and open-minded as possible. This workday was a mish-mash of ideas thrown into the melting pot on the hoof. The outcome was truly fantastic and we have created yet another varied piece to our rich and diverse greenway.

I have put a couple more workdays on the list at https://cawstongreenway.wordpress.com/workday-dates/

Lastly, thanks to Fin and Aaron for bringing marshmallows. We roasted them over the fire at the end of the day and they were yummy.

Until the next one!

Paul

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