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Ock Path, Town end - Saturday 6th December 2025

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Blog by Eleanor, photos by Eleanor, Sally and David This was to be a short session for Green Gymmers, as it was the day of our Christmas lunch. We met by the bridge over the weir at the back of St Helen's Court, where the Ock joins the Thames, and made our way to the usual site of our encampment by the northern branch of the Ock. One task were to rake the soggy leaves off the woodchip path, which curves away from the main path towards the northern branch, then curves round to rejoin the main path. We will renew the woodchip in the Spring. There was a fallen tree to be sawn up, which James at once offered to do, some bramble to be cleared, plus a lot of litter picking. There is always litter along this path but especially at the Drayton Road end and under the bridge leading from Ock Street, so the litter picking crew set off in that direction. Susan raking the path The rakes' progress Litter picking A big haul of rubbish and recycling The recent damp weather meant there was some...
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Saturday 29th November - Dry Sandford Pit

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 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Julio and Sally It was definitely Wet Sandford Pit when we met in the car park in the pouring rain. Our leader, Kevin was wondering whether to call the session off, but surprisingly and admirably, fourteen people turned up, so we voted to go ahead. A soggy arrival The tasks were to clear the brambles and other vegetation from the base of the sandy cliffs and, if time, to do some coppicing in the fen. We weren't sure about the latter task as we thought the fen might be too wet. Fortunately, the cattle had been taken off the site, so that was one less thing to watch out for. Soggy briefing "Before" photo We picked up our loppers, rakes, pitchforks and scythes and set to work. most of the brambles were long and trailing, taking root again several feet from where they started. We set to work   The team at work We soon realised we had made the right decision as the rain eased off and finally stopped. By tea break time we decided to carry on until 12...
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Elizabeth Daryush Memorial Garden, Boars Hill - Saturday, 22nd November 2025

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Blog by Sally. Photos by Michele and Sally On Saturday, 22nd November, nine Green Gymmers braved a wet November morning to join consultant ecologist, Rod d'Ayala, at the lovely Elizabeth Daryush Memorial Garden at Boars Hill, which is one of Oxford Preservation Trust's sites boasting some rather rare (for Oxfordshire, particularly) acid grassland.  We needed a variety of tools for all the tasks we'd been asked to do - saws and loppers for removing encroaching scrub, rubber gloves and black bin liners for removing Crassula helmsii  from the pond, scythes for cutting vegetation and bramble that the tractor could not reach when the grassland was cut, rakes and pitchforks for removing the cut material and the tree popper for removing young trees to prevent the grassland from becoming a wood.  The tools were carried to our usual "base camp" next to the bench under a sweet chestnut tree by the pond, where Rod gave instructions to the group. After Rod's briefing it...
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  Sunningwell Village Green and Pond   -   Saturday 15th November 2025 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Sally, Helen, Michele and Eleanor We always enjoy going back to Sunningwell, and today fifteen of us assembled in the Village Hall car park for our briefing by Bob Evans, resident in charge of the project. The day was cloudy and slightly damp feeling, but fortunately the torrential downpours of the previous day had passed. There were three main tasks: to clear the stream at the bottom of the field and create an area of open water, to clear weed from the village pond and barrow it across the road to the ditch alongside the Village Green, and to continue hedge laying at the top of the Green. Briefing from Bob Sally and Simon set off to do the hedge laying, as they know how to do it. Andy from the village was there in chest waders to clear the pond, and Philip gallantly volunteered to don Green Gym's thigh waders and help him. James, Dieuwke and I went with pitchforks ...
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