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Showing posts from May, 2021

Ock Valley Walk, Town End, 29th May 2021

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Yesterday we met at the town end of the Ock Valley Walk. This site tends to be one of our more popular work locations since it is in Abingdon itself and just a short walk from the town centre. So it proved to be once again - a total of twenty four volunteers turned out for Andrew's first official session as leader.  Among our total were three new members - Philip, who has recently moved to Abingdon and was previously a member of Horsham Green Gym, along with two of Andrew's drystone walling work colleagues - Simon and Nathan.   Tasks for the morning included re-laying the woodchip path, clearing nettles from around the bases of the young trees that we have planted here, plus the customary litter pick. Following the usual instruction (and a quick visit from a council official to supply us with a new parking permit for the nearby carpark!), we split into groups and got busy. Four members had brought along wheelbarrows for transporting the woodchip and piles of chip had been...

Summer 2021 Programme

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Here it is! The Abingdon Green Gym programme for Summer 2021. See image blow or click on the following link for a pdf version  https://groups.tcv.org.uk/abingdongreengym/files/2021/05/GGSummer21.pdf  

Church Farm Wood, Sunningwell, 22nd May 2021

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Today we held our first session  at Church Farm Wood in Sunningwell. T he wood used to be a farmyard, but was cleared some twenty odd years ago, and what was not taken away, was buried underneath the wood along with cattle carcasses that had had disease. Steve who has worked on the site since then knew the full history of it - he was there to show us around. A thousand or more different types of trees have been planted which have developed well, although some of the ash are starting to show signs of dieback and will have to be removed. Our task was to strip the tree guards off, then separate and stack the plastic guards, plastic ties and posts. Some of the guards had become entwined and embedded in the branches and soil causing quite a struggle to pull them free. There was no specialist equipment that could help, just a knife or secateurs and brute strength were required. The Green Gym volunteers went about the job magnificently  and had soon stripped nearly all the trees b...

Abraham Wood, 15th May 2021

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We met on Boars Hill for another session with the Oxford Preservation Trust (OPT) today. Leader Kevin who had all the tools, parked in the layby along Berkeley Road close to the entrance to the old golf course and Abraham Wood, where we would be working. Meanwhile, most of the other members made use of the  temporary free weekend parking at the  Peking University HSBC Business School just around the corner. We were again joined by Lindsay from OPT along with local resident and wildflower enthusiast, Camilla Lambrick. The plan was to split into three teams of six. Once we had transported our tools across the road and down the hill, we set up shop in the wood, which to our delight was carpeted with bluebells. Peak bluebell season no less - a little later than last year, perhaps due to the erratic weather we have been experiencing lately. Kevin outlined the three tasks of the day which was firstly to continue with the removal of the rogue bamboo growth at the top of the wood, sec...

Abbey Fishponds, 8th May 2021

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Today we visited Abbey Fishponds for the first time in over a year. We were met by new Earth Trust warden, Tim - who supervised our session now that Lucy has left for pastures new. Tim, along with Green Gym leader Adrian, outlined the jobs to be done. Foremost was the digging of new ponds in the wetland areas, but there was also an area of grass to the North of the reserve to be scythed and raked and some repairs to be carried out on the woodchip path. A large group was in attendance - ideal since the area is large with plenty of space to spread out. We were pleased to welcome another new member, Eleanor, amongst our number. We subsequently split into sub-teams of six or fewer and took up our respective positions. The pond diggers were led by Tim to the reedbed area. We were instructed on the locations in which to dig, approximate dimensions required and provided with further information on how to construct the banks at the pond boundaries. The ponds will be fairly temporary in nature ...