Ock Valley Walk, Town End, 24th September 2016

Saturday morning 24th September, Green Gym members arrive at the town end of the Ock Valley walk in Abingdon. A tree has been reported as fallen across a path and some of us are going to tackle it with hand saws in order to re-open the path. Kevin is leading, and we split into groups. As well as the tree, we will clear brush and encroaching growth from around the small trees we have planted over a period. Also there is litter-picking to be done. It is a beautiful autumn morning and a lot of the foliage is still very green and prolific. There is some Himalayan Balsam in flower, so we will see if we can discourage it!

The log is awkward to get at but Colin and Graham make a start. It’s going to be hard work. Things soon get warm enough for coats to come off.

Adrian deals with other parts of the fallen tree which get stacked nearby and could be handy habitats for wildlife.

Well, that’s the path open again! There’s still more cutting up of the fallen tree to do though.

Meanwhile, a major effort is in hand cutting and slashing encroaching growth around the small plantation of trees put in by Green Gym. Margaret is not playing golf – that’s a slasher!

More slashing by Dieuwke, Janet and Eleanor. That looks suspiciously like a piece of Himalayan Balsam.

Carolyn finds more....

Some breathing space cleared around a young tree which is now becoming well established within the surrounding wild plants.

-Barry