Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Blog by Eleanor. Photos by Sally and Eleanor. Eleven Green Gymmers met up in the Greenkeepers' compound for our session at Boundary House Fen. The weather was quite chilly, but the early rain was giving way to sunshine. We distributed the tools between us and set off for the walk to the fen, which is on the edge of the golf course. Rod d'Ayala was waiting there to give us our instructions. He pointed out the areas where he wanted the scythers to cut reeds. The rest of us had to rake up reeds that had already been cut and move them to make a barrier wall on the edge of the fen and a short outer barrier in an arc. The purpose of these was to hold back the water so that it would only seep slowly on to the fen. We set to work with rakes, pitchforks and drag sheets. The fen was very wet and we had to be careful where we were treading. The sunshine soon made everyone very warm. At last it was time for our break and we moved to higher ground under the trees. We all signed a card for o...

    This blog was written by Eleanor. The  photos were taken by Kevin.                                                                                                                                                 We always enjoy coming back to Sunningwell to work on the pond, stream and meadow. Ten of us met in the Village Hall car park, where Bob Evans explained the tasks that needed to be done. We were also joined by two other local residents. There was work to do clearing in and around the village pond, but not too much clearing, as there needed to be shelter for water voles. We needed to rake the wild flower...

The weather had turned a bit chillier than recent days but there was a clear blue sky as we assembled at Boars Hill in the layby next to Elizabeth Dayrush Memorial Garden, which is owned and managed by Oxford Preservation Trust.  Blog and photos by Kevin We had a good turnout of volunteers (16 in total) including Susan, a new recruit, and Peter from the OPT volunteers. I had met Rod d'Ayala, the consultant ecologist for OPT, earlier in the week to get a clear picture of what was needed to be done, which mostly centred around the pond. The main job was to clear the summer growth of reeds and brambles that had started to encroach on the pond and would, if left, take the water as well, although after the recent heavy rains the level look fairly healthy!  Also there was a need to cut back the willow from spreading out too much and keeping just the upright branches.  There were some other trees that also need cutting back - the holly on the path to the entrance and an oak with...

  There was the promise of sunshine and warm, dry weather as we met in the car park at Dry Sandford Pit Nature Reserve. This former quarry is a remarkable site and is now a nature reserve managed by BBOWT.   There are cliff faces containing fossils dating from when this area was a warm, shallow sea and there is also a fen containing plants such as marsh helleborine. Adrian, our leader for this session, briefed us on our tasks. The main one was to clear reeds and grass from part of the fen and to cut down the sprouting willows. The other task was to clear vegetation from in front of the cliff face so visitors could get a clear view. We set to work, scything, raking and carrying the piles of vegetation to the heaps as well as cutting down the willows, which were sprouting everywhere. We had to be careful where we trod as the ground was very soggy in places, which is, after all, what you would expect on a fen. The people clearing in front of the cliff face didn’t have t...

This Saturday, we were working on the Radley Lakes complex, continuing the work of scything and raking up vegetation, begun on Thursday by Radley Lakes volunteers. We met in the Radley Lakes car park, though some people had cycled from the Abingdon direction. It was the sort of day when you were not sure whether it was Summer or Autumn, or whether you were going to be too warm or too cold. We walked down the path past Thrupp Lake. Kevin, our leader, had driven with the tools to where the paths divided and from there we set off along the old railway track to the place where we were to work. A couple of Radley Lakes volunteers were already scything and Barbara joined them with her scythe. There was plenty to rake up and carry to the heaps at the edge of the wooded area. We were working beside a shallow lake, and it was clear that this was a former gravel pit which had been filled with fly ash from Didcot Power Station, as there were bits of black ash close to the surface. It wasn't a...