Andrew's wanderings

Over the past week I have been out walking as much as possible before I return to work in the coming days. I took in a couple of Green Gym work sites along the way - Farmoor Reservoir, where I checked on the status of the hedge that we cut back earlier in the year, and Barton Fields, where the wild flower meadow that we have helped sow and maintain over the years is in full bloom.

At the end of the week on Saturday, we then had our fortnightly Green Gym Zoom chat!

A few photo follow.
-Andrew

The hedge at Farmoor Reservoir that we cut back earlier in the year.

The view looking the other way.

A great crested grebe out on the reservoir.

At Barton Fields... a Pyramidal Orchid.

A Meadow Brown butterfly.

Another butterfly (large skipper?) on a red clover.

One of many froglets crossing the site!

A path through the wildflower meadow.

A Cornflower.

Corn Marigold.

Corncockle.

Betony.

Fireweed/Rosebay Willowherb.

A mystery eggshell.

A bee on Viper's Bugloss.

The Zoom chat!

A visit to Cothill

Earlier in the week I went for a walk around Cothill, which of course is where one of our work sites is. During our most recent Zoom chat, Adrian had mentioned that the orchid were out on the fen itself, therefore I was keen to go and take a look.

The fen is looking great at the moment and our efforts (along with those of the other volunteers and wardens!) in widening out the wetland area have proved successful. Even after the recent dry spell, it is looking as intended. The photos below illustrate the current state of play.
-Andrew

One of the many orchids (Common Spotted?).

...and another!

Yellow Rattle.

A view across the fen from the footpath.

A bird's nest from Kevin

This was found in the garden on the ground. I think its a finch's nest as I saw one very similar on Spring Watch. It had one empty egg and a broken one with a dead embryo, could have blown down or got at by a predator.

It's so delicately made and yet seems to hold together strongly. How do they do it with just their beak?!
-Kevin

Online tea break, 6th June 2020

We held our third online Zoom tea break on Saturday, our favoured way of connecting while the COVID-19 situation keeps us out of action. Sixteen members assembled to discuss what we had been up to and to when we might get underway again!

An update on our wildflower patch

Eleanor has been back to our wildflower patch in Southern Town Park and sent through a couple of photos to show how well it is doing. There are many more ox eye daisies now.

The TCV Green Zine coming soon!

The Conservation Volunteers are pleased to announce the relaunch of our monthly newsletter Greenzine. Whilst we might not be out volunteering in the way we usually are, The Conservation Volunteers have been working hard behind the scenes and we want to share that information with you. This week we will be relaunching our monthly Greenzine, an opportunity for us to share wonderful stories about our volunteers, fantastic new partnership opportunities, as well as some of our favourite bits of content from the past month, be it books, TV shows, radio shows, anything at all! You are receiving this email as you have previously signed up to the Greenzine mailing list and we hope that you look forward to receiving our Greenzine. We hope that you're enjoying the sunshine wherever you are and that you and your loved ones are safe and well. From the TCV team.

All groups images included in this edition of Greenzine were taken prior to COVID-19 social distancing measures being enforced.

Kevin in the kitchen

I decided to have a go in the kitchen with the encouragement of Carolyn (not that I need it).

The result is a steamed pudding. I'll leave you to guess what sort it is. Needless to say the ingredients pushes the calories per ounce meter up the chart, you would need you to do 50 trips up Jarn Mound to burn it off per portion!

It didn't take long to make with the help of a pressure cooker (I don't trust those things! ever since I saw one in my childhood memory with these welded metal clamps on, to keep what seemed like the pressure at 10 tons per square inch, with a jet of super heated steam shooting out of the valve and taking the paint off the wall).

Anyway, the end product was edible and lasted me (Carolyn resisted a second helping, more for me!) a few days but I don't think it would travel well to a GG Coffee Break. 
-Kevin