Abbey Fishponds, 6th May 2017

By Andrew -
It was a slightly gloomy, grey and blustery start to our latest outing at Abbey Fishponds. We were here to work alongside the Earth Trust, with community reserves warden Lucy Tomkinson and of course, local warden Majorie White.  We joined with a number of volunteers from their group.

 As always at the Hadland Road entrance to the reserve, car parking is an issue, and some manoeuvring and re-arrangement of vehicles was required to enable Lucy to bring her truck and trailer in, which contained a number of tools and materials for the morning's tasks.

 Having assembled, we were then instructed on the various jobs that were to be done.  These included scything and clearing away overgrown vegetation from the path margins, replacing the wooden boards along the central route through the site, Himalayan Balsam picking, lopping of brambles and other overgrown vegetation, litter-picking and constructing a habitat for stag beetles.

 After digesting the itinerary, we divided up and got to it. Our tools and tea-kit were transported over the footbridge to the mound and we dispersed from there.

 Adrian had already got underway with the scything before we arrived, so that detail was already in an advanced stage, thus many of us Green Gymmers began to clear the cuttings into piles.  Meanwhile, a search for the dreaded Balsam commenced, taking us on a merry dance before finally finding an abundance in some of the Fishpond's further reaches.  Not before uncovering an intriguing-looking den amongst the willows.

 Fortunately, litter was not too much of a problem this time, thus allowing more of the group to get involved in the path maintenance tasks.  Good progress was made before the break and continued afterwards, up until the 12:30pm deadline.  A successful morning's graft!
-Andrew


Lucy instructs the assembled volunteers.

Michelle, Ursula and Dieuwke in search of Himalayan Balsam.

Towards the site perimeter.

Plenty of cleavers/goose-grass located!

Finally, an abundance of young Balsam is found.

A den uncovered in the woods.

Ursula contemplates shifting a pile of scythed debris.

Cuckoo flower.

Forget-me-nots.

Graham gives it a hammering.

Some of the newly-replaced path edging.

Victuals. 

Some hops climbing up on reeds.

Much greenery around the steam.

Lesley digs out the steps.

Herb Robert.

Some freshly-scythed path margins.

Almost home-time!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pinkhill Meadow Nature Reserve, Farmoor Reservoir, 16th March 2019

By Andrew -
Image
Another week, another new site for the Abingdon Green Gym! We met at the car park at Farmoor Reservoir, a healthy turn out of 17 of us, including French father Sebastien, and his eleven-year old son, Maelo, who was joining us for a school project. The session was led by James under the instruction of Hanna Jenkins, the warden of Pinkhill Meadow Nature Reserve, so called because it is right on the banks of the River Thames, just near Pinkhill Lock. It was another blustery day. Will this crazy wind ever let up? We followed Hanna in convoy round the edge of the reservoir, which was choppy to say the least, and parked up on the other side where it was thankfully a little calmer, the high banks of the reservoir providing some shelter. Equipped with our tools, gloves and goggles, we made our way onto the spot on the nature reserve where we were to do our work. Hanna told us that the reserve had been formed in 1991, but some aspects had been neglected over the last ten years. The aim
Read more

Kennington Memorial Field, 29th October 2016

By Andrew -
We have been working at Kennington Memorial Field for a number of years now, clearing scrub from the slopes so that the valley remains an area of grassland and wild flowers. This time Rachel from Oxford Preservation Trust was in charge and led us down to the lower end of the field, where we were to cut back the trees and bushes by several metres and burn the scrub on a bonfire. We were joined by some families with children of varying ages, the youngest only three, who had answered a local appeal for volunteers. We set to work and soon we had a bonfire going. Even the children who were too young to use loppers and saws joined in, carrying branches to the bonfire pile. Despite the drizzly weather they all worked cheerfully. At tea break time we enjoyed some delicious snacks that Rachel had brought and a tin of chocolates supplied by Michele. We found two old birds' nests in the course of the morning and cutting back the scrub revealed a log pile with a rabbit hole under
Read more

Ock Valley Walk, Town End, 22nd June 2013

By Andrew -
Image
Quite a small group gathered for this session and the weather didn't look promising. However, we were pleased to welcome a new member, Laura. We set off for the woodchip path,where we made our encampment. The nettles had grown high and dense since our previous visit, almost concealing the young trees, compising beech, oak, silver birch, cherry and rowan, which we had planted as whips almost two and a half years previously. One of our tasks was to clear the nettles and other vegetation immediately around them. As you can see from the photo of the young cherry, most of the trees are flourishing. Other tasks were to cut up and clear fallen branches into piles and the inevitable litter picking. There was a sharp shower shortly before 11 o'clock but it had stopped when we gathered for a welcome tea break. By the end of the morning we had finished clearing round the trees, tidied away the dead wood and picked up quite a respectable amount of litter, though I suspect t
Read more