Cothill Fen - 4th November 2023

By -
 Blog by Eleanor   -   Photos by Sally, Kevin and Eleanor                                                                                                                                                                                                        Despite the blog's title, the work this session was not to be on the fen itself but in the woods behind it. It was raining as we set off on the footpath to the fen and the path was the wetter and muddier the we have ever seen it. When we arrived in the wood, Steph from Natural England explained that the main work was to get rid of brambles. There was also a secondary task of cleaning moss and debris off the board walk.
We set to work, some with scythes and the rest with loppers and mattocks. As the ground was so wet, we found it was fairly easy to pull many of the brambles up by the roots. If not, we used mattocks to dig as many of the roots out as possible. We then transported them to a heap near the edge of the wood.
As we worked, the rain eased off and the sky brightened somewhat. We were glad of our tea break and then it was back to work. By the end of the morning a good area had been cleared of brambles and it was time to gather up our tools and head back to the car park.
We look forward to the Spring, when the bluebells in this wood are a wonderful sight.


The wood




Adrian scything





Bramble clearing





Carrying a load





Another load





The sun is coming out




Tea break




Back to work





Fungus on trees





Ladybirds trying to hibernate




Work finished

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