Ants in your Pants

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing this with the WordPress Viewer, please click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better experience.

Six of us turned out today with the promise of a bacon roll. Steve, Matt, Reece, Dave, Martin, and Paul (we also had a cameo from another Dave who was interested to see what we get up to). We came armed with strimmers because all we can do at the moment is keep the path edge pushed back.

The thing that really is starting to become evident is that our strips, or margins, are simply not wide enough. The wildflower-rich grass is squeezed between scrub and the path edge. It’s not a problem, we can manage the scrub in the autumn and create deeper scallops.

I needed a little help, so I visited a railway path managed by Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.

The grassy bit is so much wider. This gives us a bit of a plan for later in the year.

We also need to be coppicing 10% of the trees every year on a rotational basis. We have far too many trees that look like beanpoles because they are all fighting for the same space.

It’s going to be a busy winter!!

We’re strimming to stop the vegetation encroaching onto the path.

It just makes it a far better walking or cycling experience, and means that people can enjoy the views, rather than having to watch where they are walking all the time. The woods are in the background of the third picture. Somewhere that I would truly love to get my hands on…

We broke for the aforementioned bacon rolls.

Scranelicious.

We also strimmed around the benches. Remember that each bench is supposed to be a little oasis in a sea of gently waving wildflowers.

We can kinda see that starting to shape up even now. And we have a load of rosebay willowherb pushing up, so the height will be there very soon.

The grass is as close to the ground as possible because the last thing that anyone needs is critters going up trouser legs and biting the fleshy skin on the back of their shins, or worse, getting ants in their pants.

It’s a good place to be if we keep wildlife and man in their lanes. It’s when these two come out of their lanes that things start to get messy.

Lastly, we litter-picked 1.6 miles of the trail.

A pretty empty bag, which is very pleasing.

A good morning with a lot of ground covered.

Dunchurch Bridleway

Just me and Ian on this last Friday and we went back to the start and carried on just knocking the path back.

We’re just making it about 1.5 metres wide and not bothering the nectar-rich wildflowers and wildlife on the rest of the path.

There’s plenty of space for man and nature to share together and not get in each other’s way.

We broke for coffee and biscuits and enjoyed the views.

Photo number three is the woods, again.

There is an AllTrails path that takes people along the greenway, then along the bridleway, and back through the woods, as a decent circular walk. Click the AllTrails link to see it.

Next week we are back down Berrybanks doing a bit more rainwater management.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Schoolboy Error!

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing via the WordPress reader, please click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better experience.

Six of us turned out today as a rag-tag group of wannabe lumberjacks. Reece, Ian, Matt, Steve, Martin, and Paul. Actually, that is a total fib – none of us wanted to be playing at lumberjack stuff after the first five minutes of a very frustrating and incredibly testing hour.

We made a fatal mistake when putting in the bench donated by Jacquie two weeks ago. We forgot to look up and make sure there was clear air above it.

So of course, the inevitable happened…

We had three choices: move the bench a couple of feet north, cut the whole tree down, or lop off some of the overhanging branches.

We chose what we thought would be the easiest option.

Oh my days!!! It took four of us a whole hour to finally bring the stubborn brute of a branch down. As you can see, there is very little way to get any downward pressure on the saw blade. And when the thing finally dropped, I narrowly missed getting splattered all over the path by it.

It’s using muscles in such an unnatural way that was killing us, and having to constantly look up as a shower of sawdust came down like confetti and got into literally every orifice, was murder on our necks.

But it’s done now and hopefully no more poo on the bench!!

We broke for a really very much needed coffee and a rather nice selection-box of chocolate biscuits.

Martin and Steve had been strimming southwards before the break, so I joined them afterwards, while Ian, Matt and Reece cut back a few low-hanging branches and dug out an annoying stump.

It feels almost criminal to be strimming the wildflowers on the edge of the path, but to leave it means man and nature are constantly colliding rather than living in harmony with each other. It does highlight the need for us to push the scrub further back so that the wildflower margin is much wider. A job for September.

I couldn’t help but admire the views from where we were working.

Just being there and connecting with nature, the whole fellowship thing within the group, the volunteering aspect, and the making a huge difference to the local infrastructure is pretty mindblowing. If someone told me that I would have been doing this 20 years ago, I would’ve laughed in their face.

I had a window of time on Monday, so I did a bit of a solo session. It looked like some baffoon had jumped all over our picnic bench in the birdfeeder clearing, so I re-stained it and also covered up the cement dust on the new “friendship triangle”.

It makes it so much more inviting when the benches are clean.

I noticed that some kind soul had put some fat balls in the feeder, and that prompted me to feed myself.

Decent coffee, a good book, bacon, egg, and solitude were all that I was after. Strangely, a conveyor belt of people seemed to come past. I must have looked a right sight sitting there like Stig of the Dump with my nose in my book as my food was gently cooking!!

The last bit of the day was a quick 2-mile litter-pick.

We really cannot complain about that. Someone had left a Domino’s pizza box at one of the friendship triangles up towards the northern end. I’m just happy that people were able to sit at our benches and enjoy food.

For me, sharing coffee and food, whilst chatting and stuff, I dunno, it just seems like something our ancestors would have done some 300,000 years ago. It just feels right.

Maybe I’m just a bit of a weirdo…

Dunchurch Bridleway

We cleared it to the end, so the connection of both the Cawston and Dunchurch communities are good.

A rubbish YouTube of the western end (the sunlight was not liked by my phone camera).

And that is about it for this week.

Next time we are at Dunchurch on Friday at the most easterly point, and then at Cawston next Wednesday pushing on at Potford Dam. Come along and say hello, share a coffee, bring biscuits and we will love you forever!!

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

How many benches must blokes build?

Posted on May 7, 2025 by Martin T

We had a team of five today – Paul, Marcus, Steve, Ian and Martin. This week, for a bit of variety, we put in three little benches instead of one big one.

They are located just south of the access by Carroll Close. Come and give them a try (but give the Postcrete time to set hard first). We were reminded that putting one bench in is relatively easy, but getting three in a neat and symmetrical pattern is a bit harder. After digging and re-digging six holes we think we got it about right. We put one in first and measured from that. One of the group even uttered the words “datum point” which sounded really technical.

The total cost to the group was precisely £0.00. That’s thanks to Clive and Vicki who both donated via the “buy-me-a-coffee” link, which paid for the Postcrete; Paul’s neighbour Andy who donated the wood; and his friend David who cut the posts to size with a very impressive mitre saw. Oh and the nearby stream which provided the water for the Postcrete.

We do like to put in benches in groups as it helps to make the Greenway somewhere for people to meet socially. We had a discussion about the name of this bench cluster. We have settled on “The Friendship Triangle” which sounds very nice and doesn’t have the negative associations of “The Love Triangle”!!

It was a beautiful spring morning. If you’ve not been down the Greenway lately, this is a great time to visit.

Xylem volunteer day

Big thanks to Raj and her team from Xylem for a really productive day volunteering on the Greenway. We hope they had as much fun and companionship as the regular team do.

Tasks performed included:

  • making insect dens (lots of them) from old branches lying up on the banks
  • cutting ivy off trees
  • litter picking
  • cutting back brambles etc

A big THANK YOU to you all!

Posted in Newsreel | 3 Comments

How Many Blokes Does it Take to Build a Bench?

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing through the WordPress Viewer, click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better viewing experience.

We had a super donation from a lovely lady called Jacquie this week in the form of a bench, and enough buy-me-a-coffee hits to pay for the postcrete to fix it into the ground, and then bacon for our “first workday of the month” scran for easily the rest of the year.

Thank you so much, Jacquie.

Eight of us wildlife heroes turned out on this super sunny morning. Marcus, Ian, Martin, Steve, Matt, Reece, Dave, and Paul, and after lugging all of our gear onto the path we split into two groups. The first group had to go and get the bench and the second group had to find a good location for it. Not sure if we had done much wildlife stuff at this point.

The bench had been taken apart and restained, so we had to rebuild it.

The old joke – “how many blokes does it take to build a bench” was pretty forthcoming…

I won’t mention how many attempts – what happens on the greenway stays on the greenway…

But we eventually got there, and the bench now sits in a pleasant little clearing with decent views down the path.

What a beautiful spot to sit and watch the butterflies as they dance in the shafts of sunlight, and listen to the constant chorus of birdsong.

Whilst the five of us wrestled with the bench and bags of postcrete, Steve, Marcus, and Ian carried on with the strimming to stop the vegetation doing a triffid-like invasion of the path.

We can now see how the zones are starting to work. Path, short margin, wildflower-rich grassy margin, scrub, and trees, as we move towards the edge.

In my mind, the wildflower bit needs to be much wider, so we will be pushing the scrub further back in the autumn. But, oh my days, it’s such a nice place to be.

We enjoyed a caffeine boosting cuppa and flapjack quite late in the morning.

I keep saying it – it’s so good to bond, with coffee, shared food, and rolling up our sleeves and just getting on with the tasks.

I did a quick YouTube to try and show where we are at.

It makes me feel as proud as a peacock that we have created this. Honestly, it was an unofficial rubbish dump when we first started some 16 years ago.

And even the gift that keeps on giving has stopped being so generous.

Brilliant news!!

Next week, we are at Potford Dam, grubbing out brambles from our new scallops and we get to see what Marcus has up his sleeve… On Friday, we are on the Dunchurch path, keeping the connection working.

And next week being the first workday of the month can only mean one thing – BACON!!

Thanks for reading and thank you to all of our patrons and buy-me-a-coffee donations. It really does keep the show on the road.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

More Stumps and Creating a Flop Zone

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing through the WordPress Viewer, click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better viewing experience.

BECOME A PATRON:

We have costs that we simply cannot avoid. Insurance, running this blog, tools, timber for bench repairs, screws and wood-stain, wildflower seeds, etc, etc… I try so hard to recycle and reuse so much stuff, and I am forever begging local businesses for donations (which is pretty tough with me with being a bit of an introvert). If you like what we do, please consider becoming a patron. Just £3, £4, or £5 a month makes so much difference if enough people donate. Thank you. www.patreon.com/cawstongreenway

Six of us turned out on a very wet morning. It had been raining all night, and we were lucky to not get a good soaking today. Matt, Ian, Marcus, Steve, Reece, and Paul donned our wildlife superhero capes and set about with the tasks for the day.

Ian started by knocking back the overbridge entry point.

The view from the bridge shows how puddled up it has become.

Reece, Marcus, Ian, and Steve then set about creating the 12-inch buffer between the path edge and the wildflower-rich grassy areas.

This is to stop the path edge vegetation from flopping onto the path and forcing everyone to walk in single-file, which is not exactly conducive to having a conversation.

We did about 400 metres today, which is pretty good going in the wet, and because we are on top of it, it’s all new growth, so there is not the fight back that we get with aged coarse grasses.

Me and Matt opted for the ache-inducing stump removal.

Ian’s son, David, made a new handle for a spare Zubat blade with his 3D printer. This is amazing. The possibilities are endless!!

The saw is extremely sharp, but it was still really hard work.

We had to leave the stumps quite high, but if we drill a load of holes in the tops, nature will help them to rot down.

A welcome cuppa and flapjack was desperately needed to rebuild our energy.

This, of course, presented an excellent opportunity for me to try out my new joke…

Why did the chicken go to the gym?

To work on its pecks…

The groans were scaring the wildlife…

The short grass and the longer margins next to it are starting to take shape.

It’s quite hard to show in a photo, but hopefully we get it so that each bench feels like a little oasis in a sea of gently swaying wildflowers.

I’m going to do a wildflower survey soon. Just to try and see what we have at this point in the year.

Our water management seems to have coped with the rain and is actually doing what it is supposed to do.

We have one last bit to get sorted.

We know how to fix it, so not a worry.

I also did our weekly litter-pick.

Not bad considering it’s the Easter school holiday.

Dunchurch Bridleway

We pushed back the path that leads to the Solstice Coffee Shop, and also westward along the bridleway. Over 400 metres covered by Ian, David, and Paul.

A group of people from the The Ramblers came past and were really happy with what we were doing.

“The cat’s pyjamas” is how one of them described it!

The next one is at Potford Dam, where we have a bench to put in.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

We Were Stumped Today

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing through the WordPress Viewer, click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better viewing experience.

BECOME A PATRON:

We have costs that we simply cannot avoid. Insurance, running this blog, tools, timber for bench repairs, screws and wood-stain, wildflower seeds, etc, etc… I try so hard to recycle and reuse so much stuff, and I am forever begging local businesses for donations (which is pretty tough with me with being a bit of an introvert). If you like what we do please consider becoming a patron. Just £3, £4, or £5 a month makes so much difference if enough people donate. Thank you. www.patreon.com/cawstongreenway

Eight wildlife heroes turned out this week. George, Steve, Dave, Ian, David, Martin, Reece, and Paul. We had a task on our hands that has been on the “To Do List” for about five or more years. We cut back a load of hawthorn trees ages ago and fully intended to come back and “tidy up” the stumps.

They have bugged me ever since.

Cutting back (pollarding) Hawthorn trees not a good idea because they will produce a lot of spindly growth that is difficult to manage and really unhealthy for the tree. Branches become interlocked and start rubbing against each other, leading to infection and disease.

I have always thought that if someone was unfortunate to come off their bike, they could end up doing a faceplant right on top of the things.

And aesthetically, it doesn’t look great.

We have also started pushing the edge of the path back by about 12 inches. We need a buffer between the path and the wildflower-rich grassy zone.

It stops the path from becoming narrow and also allows the vegetation to flop at the end of the summer and not come onto the path. Nothing worse than nettles brushing against your shins.

At half-time, we broke for coffee.

We had a bit of a French flavour to our break this week. Lovely biscuits and a lovely view up, down and to the side.

We have had kids playing and making dens.

This really warms my heart. We want the trail to be open to everyone, and this is so good to see.

We also litter-picked.

The gift that keeps on giving. Would be nice to earn some womble wages now and again, but never found so much as a 20p piece…

We need to use this time of the year to work out where our next glades will be. Ideally, we want about 15 metres of open space with the scrub cut right back and the majority of the trees on the edge laid into a hedge. We need young trees that are easy to manage. There is no point trying to chop back a 50-year-old oak tree when we have young hawthorn and elder everywhere.

If we have a mature tree, we can build the glade around it by cutting back to the south of it. That way, the tree will complement the glade without blocking out a load of sunlight.

We can mark the areas using what3words so we know where to come back in the autumn.

I’m really happy with how we are looking. The amount of footfall was good today, with people walking and cycling past, so it is getting used.

Sadly, some idiotic squirrel decided to break our bench on the Dunchurch Bridleway bit, so a quick repair was required.

I didn’t want to leave it until our Friday workday because it’s the school holidays and I didn’t want to risk bits going walkabout whilst we wait until we are there.

Super day today, it really does feel like somewhere special.

On Friday, we are strimming back the path to Solstice Coffee Shop, and next week we are at the Cawston Bridleway bridge removing a couple of stumps and strimming the path edge northwards to where we got to today.

Thank you to all of our patrons and people buying us a coffee. It really does help.

Until next time!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

We Rebuilt Our Picnic Bench

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you’re viewing through the WordPress Viewer, click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better viewing experience.

BECOME A PATRON:

We have costs that we simply cannot avoid. Insurance, running this blog, tools, timber for bench repairs, screws and wood-stain, wildflower seeds, etc, etc… I try so hard to recycle and reuse so much stuff, and I am forever begging local businesses for donations (which is pretty tough with me with being a bit of an introvert). If you like what we do please consider becoming a patron. Just £3, £4, or £5 a month makes so much difference if enough people donate. Thank you. www.patreon.com/cawstongreenway

Seven of what I would like to call wildlife superheroes turned out today, but we were far from doing wildlife stuff. Marcus, Ian, Reece, Martin, Steve, Matt, and Paul set about fixing our picnic bench.

The more we take these apart, the more we realise what an absolute rubbish buy they were. They are definitely designed for very occasional garden use. But hey-ho… We will not be beaten.

It ain’t perfect, but we ran out of time and just wanted to get it all screwed together so no more bits would go missing. It needs a tiny bit of TLC but it is fully functional again.

We first put these in, in September 2023 so effectively we have had 18 months use out of them. The other one is now on the Dunchurch Bridleway after we totally rebuilt the frame and turned it into a 4-seater. This one is probably 50% rebuilt frame, so it is slowly becoming more suitable for our purposes.

A pretty good morning putting our collective minds together to work out how to fix it.

Martin, Ian and Marcus headed northwards to clear a fallen tree.

We have had an incredibly generous gift from JR TREE CARE in the form of saws.

These bad boys cut wood like a hot knife through butter. Thank you so much for these, Jamie. They will make a huge difference.

We broke for coffee and flapjack at half-time.

Enjoyable conversations and lots of stuff in the pipeline. Marcus being absent from the photo is a bit of a clue…

Here is a nice message that Martin received a couple of weeks ago.

Hi Martin, hope you have been doing great this week. Joshua and I just went out for a walk near our home where you work. I saw a few cute benches there, I guess they are what you were working on the other day?

Pathway was much tidier and cleaner too. 🙂 thank you.

It’s always nice to get a bit of feedback.

Dunchurch Bridleway

I thought I was on my own this week, so I made a pack-up for just me, which consisted of, one Cumberland sausage, one egg, and one rasher of bacon.

I also brought a book that I am currently reading. It was my intention to really get some use out of the facilities that we provide, as an end user.

Dave appeared on his bike and I was cursing that I had not brought more food. I did offer to go halves on what I had, but Dave was OK, I hope…

Riddled with guilt and burdened with a deep sense of shame, I chomped through my delicious breakfast, before we carried on staining the benches and strimming the path up to the last set.

To make up for my extravagant breakfast folly for one, I felt a bit of self-flagellation was needed.

So I litter-picked the whole path, and felt the guilt instantly lift from my shoulders.

The trail is looking pretty good.

The first three hundred metres is a working bridleway that the farmer uses for access to his fields, hence the deep ruts, after that it becomes a tad narrow in places, but we have a plan in September to push it out a bit more and create glades around some of the mature trees. We like the width to be such that people can walk two abreast so they can have conversations and stuff.

Another fantastic week of us blokes bonding and eating decent food (well, me eating decent food)…

Next one is just north of the Cawston Underpass.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

More Trouble With The Waterworks

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you are viewing through the WordPress Viewer, click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better viewing experience.

Seven wildlife superheroes turned out today: Matt, Steve, Reece, Martin, Marcus, Ian, and Paul. However, it was more of an engineering session than anything else.

We have rainwater suddenly puddling up at our main entrance and it is hugely annoying for everyone. So we set about trying to push the water onward.

We are actually becoming quite good at this. Maybe time for a career change. Cawston Drains or something equally catchy…

We also had a few tree branches that were providing a super spot for a crow or magpie to sit outside of a couple of our bird nesting boxes and pick off the young fledglings as they popped out.

I seemed to be behind the curve slightly, because no sooner had I suggested it and raised my phone to take a before picture, the offending branches were gone!!

We broke for coffee and bacon rolls, what with it being the first workday of the month.

It was blooming tasty and a decent chance for us all to chat, laugh and just kinda connect, which, at the end of the day, is what we are all about.

We stained our last bench, so that job is done for six months.

The reason that this one is last is because it is stained with Dainish Oil. If you don’t know what it smells like – find out. It is divine.

Sadly bench talk leads us to a casualty…

A naughty squirrel decided to give our Berrybanks picnic bench a damn good kicking. Such is life…

Possibly a clue as to why…?

I have already started to make replacement bits for it.

This style of bench was a terrible buy, but I convinced myself that the 5-star rating meant that they looked stronger than they actually were. I’m going to get my money’s worth out of them, just you see.

Whilst I am wittering on about benches, we constantly strim around the benches so people don’t have creepy crawlies going up their trouser legs and taking bites out of their shins, thighs, or worse…

We also want the picnic benches to be a bit of an island oasis in the sea of long grass and wildflowers… You will see what I mean in a couple of months.

This is a photo from June 2019 that kinda shows what is in my mind’s eye. Thanks to Marcus and Aaron for the modelling shot.

Ideally, the grass needs to be a lot shorter around the base of the bench, but hopefully, you get the idea.

Here’s a quick video of the last four benches on the southern end.

It’s all looking very good and it really is a great place to be.

For me, it’s an absolute paradise, and in about a month, it will become so full of wildflowers and butterflies that you will not be able to stay away.

Lastly, we litter-picked…

The gift that keeps on giving!

The next one is on the Dunchurch bit this Friday. I think I’m on my own so I will just stain the benches and possibly cook myself some breakfast. It’s the nearest I will ever get to wild camping.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Getting Ready For Easter

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you are viewing through the WordPress Viewer click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better experience.

Six of us turned out today. Martin, Steve, Dave, Matt, Marcus, and Paul. We split into pairs and cracked on with jobs that were starting to become slightly overdue.

Martin and Dave seeded the scallops that we created on the most southerly bit with a bee-and-butterfly friendly wildflower mix.

There was also a large bag of seeds that I had collected at the end of last summer, so hopefully we will have a riot of colour and loads of nectar for all the insects.

In the margins elsewhere there is stuff starting to push up.

We need to be really careful not to strim too deep into the scallops when we are trying to keep the path a decent width. It would be such a shame to lose this growth before everything flowers and drops seeds for next year. As long as people can walk two abreast, I am happy.

Steve and Marcus split a load of snowdrops from our secret supply and filled in a load of the gaps on our snowdrop bank.

This will give us the snowdrop carpet eventually.

Matt and Paul opted for the staining of the last four picnic benches.

The worst job because we end up going home looking like Spotted Dick – hold that cake thought for a moment.

One of the benches overlooks our brook…

Here I am, back on the theme of running water…

I’m a Pisces – what do you expect…

We broke for coffee and a delish date-and-walnut cake baked by Matt’s wife (I told you to hold that thought!!).

The cake was to die for, as were the views up, down, and across the countryside.

I found a few pockets of time over the last week so I caught up with bench re-staining for the stragglers up the other end.

Someone had a little fire, which is fine.

We gave up on fires a long time ago. So sick of going home smelling like a smoked kipper.

Hmmm, that actually looks rather tasty…

We also did a litter pick.

It really is the gift that keeps on giving!!

Dunchurch Bridleway

Just me and Ian turned out this week, but because the grass is nice and short, it’s an easy job and a decent 250 metres got strimmed.

Hopefully, you can see how we are trying to leave a wildflower and grassy margin between the tightly strimmed path and the more established shrubby stuff behind it. In September we will cut deeper into the scrub and allow the wildflower margins to be a lot wider. We want to develop the trail so that it’s a series of glades with mature trees in the centre of each clearing.

It’s gonna be fun trying to pull this off!!

We broke for coffee and muggins here forgot the biscuits…

The only upside was for my waistline.

We are about ready for the Easter Holidays and everything is about to burst into life. It’s looking pretty good.

Next week we are at the Jaguar Land-Rover bench sorting out another bit that floods.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Spring Well and Truly Delivered

Posted on March 19, 2025 by Paul - Cawston Greenway

If you are viewing through the WordPress Viewer click on cawstongreenway.co.uk for a far better experience.

It’s the first day of spring today. Personally, I don’t go by the 1st March date because nothing really seems to happen until about now. Five wildlife heroes donned their capes and made it out today, and three yesterday. Steve, Reece, Martin, Dave, and Paul, today, and Ian, Steve, and Paul, yesterday.

The first of our blossoms came out to greet us. A Cherry-plum, which has rather nice fruit later in the year, so I am told.

Yesterday we did a little bit of work on the last wet bit of Berrybanks.

Water is leaching from somewhere and just puddling up across the entry path.

I tried to build up the level but it just turned into a mudbath.

We found some abandoned pipe and used it to carry the water under the path.

It seems to be working!! We threw a load of brash onto the wet mud to help it all dry out and give the ground a bit of strength. It really is just a trickle, but annoying.

We enjoyed a cuppa and then tidied up the main pond.

We saw freshwater shrimp in the bottom pool, which was a nice treat.

A very rewarding morning.

Today we continued with re-staining the benches.

A very welcome sausage and fried onion roll was had at break-time, along with a good slurp of hot coffee.

Sausages starting to brown up nicely on our camping stove. I forgot to take a photo of them fully cooked because I was way too busy stuffing my face.

We have four benches left to do on this southern end, which will be next week’s job.

We can see how scabby they have become because we missed the stain at the end of last summer.

This brings us nicely onto the To Do List 2024/25

The only thing we didn’t do was re-stain the benches ready for winter. So the To-Do List works and I have started jotting a few things down for 2025/26. Feel free to take a look and let me know your thoughts or indeed, anything that needs to be added.

We also litter-picked the southern end of the path. 4.6 km covered.

That’s 6,000 steps and a lot of bending and reaching…

We saw our first butterfly of the 2025 season as we walked back to the entrance.

A Brimstone. We also had a visit from a big furry red-tailed bumblebee. I have a feeling this year will be a good one for wildlife!

Next one is Friday on the Dunchurch trail.

Until then!

Paul

Posted in Newsreel | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments