Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Blog and photos by Sally On a very wintry Tuesday, 8 volunteers (5 from Abingdon Green Gym) turned out for a midweek session at Two Pines Fen on Frilford Heath Golf Course to cut the tall vegetation and rake it.  We can only work safely on this Fen when one of the courses is closed for maintenance and today was the day for the Red Course to be closed.  The morning had started with a flurry of snow and temperatures were forecast to rise to 2 degrees.  Thank goodness for thermals!  It was in marked contrast to the glorious sunshine of the previous Saturday, when Green Gym were working on the adjoining Boundary House Fen. 4 people arrived at the start of the session - we were all trained scythers, including Mike from the Barton Fields Green Team, David and Jim and we made our way to the Red 16th tee where we we able to set up our base camp under the Men's tee, ensuring that we had our scythes, the first aid kit and the all-important Green Gym biscuits.   Two P...

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Denis, Julio and Sally After our Christmas break, with no session scheduled for 27 December, 16 Green Gymmers turned out in force on a very crisp but glorious sunny winter's day on 3 January to continue with scything vegetation (mainly rush, sedge and reed) and raking it onto existing heaps on Boundary House Fen situated in Frilford Heath Golf Course.  We worked in Rod d'Ayala's (the consultant ecologist) absence as unfortunately he was unwell, but Sally had been given instructions on what we needed to do. With Barbara's help, the tools were unloaded and collected by the Green Gymmers near the entrance gate to the Greenkeeper's compounded and carried to our usual meeting place near the fen, but safely away from any golfers who had braved the winter chill.  There had been a heavy frost and it was icy in places on the path.  After the briefing, 8 scythers set up their scythes and made for the centre of the fen, crossing over the stream, to co...

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Julio and Sally We returned to Kennington Memorial Field on a bright crisp morning on Saturday, 20 December to continue with scrub clearance of this species-rich grassland site.  Our leader for this session was Kevin, who had been briefed by Hannah Brockwell of Oxford Preservation Trust, who own and manage the land with the help of a few cattle which graze the field between spring and summer each year.  We numbered 15 - a fantastic turnout for the Saturday before Christmas. After we parked in the car park at the end of Playfield Road, Kevin briefed the group (although we hadn't all gathered at this point!): The Memorial Field is dedicated to the six men of Kennington village who lost their lives in the Second World War.  It is now a Local Wildlife Site. The notice board in the Memorial Field We collected the tools and the all-important Green Gym biscuits and made our way to set up base camp near to where most of our work would be undertaken....

 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Eleanor, Kevin and Sally Once more we had a session on the Ock Path, this time at the Tesco end. Fourteen volunteers turned out, and the weather was unexpectedly fine. One main task was litter picking. As the path leads from Tesco to the houses, people think it's OK to throw down their rubbish. I had realised when I did the recce that there was a lot of litter, but I hadn't bargained for quite so much.  The other main task was to clear the footpath of leaves that had accumulated throughout the Autumn and become very soggy and slippery, so some picked up litter picking sticks and bags, and others, spades to scrape the path. Susan gets stuck in Joan litter picking Dieuwke and Barbara join in A break on the gym equipment, Ock meadow The shovellers clear the path Roger and Margaret start clearing the bridge Meanwhile, Adrian set to work clearing the grating in the river. It is there to collect debris and litter, but if it isn't cleared regularly it m...