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Showing posts from December, 2015

Cothill Fen and Christmas Meal, 12th December 2015

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For the final session of the calendar year, we were back at Cothill Fen, with our annual Christmas meal held in the nearby pub, the Merry Miller, afterwards. There were a lot of similarities with this Saturday and last - once again we were supervised by Judy Webb from Natural England, reed raking was the main task, and the weather was damp but mild.  However, while there were only five of us on the previous occasion, we numbered a dozen this time. Having transported tools and tea kit down the track, as usual, we found the fen soggy and the terrain uneven with all the many tussocks tricky to navigate. The reeds had been cut and required raking across approximately half the site, and stacking in existing piles around the perimeter. While the majority of our workforce were busy raking and pitchforking, Robert and Colin were given the job of cutting back some of the smaller trees and branches on the edge of the fen. In contrast to last week, when our depleted contingent had no hop

Frilford Heath Golf Club, 5th December 2015

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An unusually small turn-out this week! We assembled in the car park of Frilford Heath Golf Club and were immediately a man down as session leader, James, was feeling rather under the weather and could not participate.  Sally took the reins instead and in any case, Judy Webb from Natural England was present to boost our numbers from five to six! Onwards with a short drive around the corner to the groundkeeper's buildings, where we unloaded the tools and began our trek across the golf course to Boundary House Fen where our work was to be carried out.  A short pause while we waited for some golfers to clear the fairway and we arrived and got underway. The reeds had recently been cut over the entire fen area and our job was to take them up and carry and stack them in piles around the perimeter.  There were also a few isolated areas of tree regrowth to cut cut back and some fallen branches to deal with. Being somewhat understaffed, we did the best job that we could, but it was s