Manor Farm, Marcham - Saturday 6th July 2024

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 Blog by Eleanor, photos by Sally and Eleanor

It was a wet, miserable day as eleven of us assembled in the Manor Farmyard for our Himalayan Balsam pulling session. There had been heavy rain the previous day, so there were huge puddles everywhere and it was remarkable that as many as eleven of us had braved the weather.

There was a lot of Himalayan Balsam on either side of the lane as we made our way along to our encampment, where a footpath goes off on the right. We realised that we would need to spend all our time removing the balsam along the lane.

Himalayan Balsam growing by the side of the lane


Much of it had grown very tall, as you can see.

Michele with Himalayan Balsam




Working in the rain




Rosie



The heaps grow




Sally with roots











Barbara with scythe









In the photos above you see more wet workers. Occasionally it looked as if the weather was brightening up, only to disappoint us with more rain. For our tea break, we huddled in a corner by the bridge, out of the wind. We then moved the heaps off the roadway to the verge and carried on for a while,but agreed to finish at noon.
We will be back again in two weeks' time, when we hope for better weather,

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