Hinksey Heights - Saturday, 2 November 2024

By -

Blog by Sally, photos by Eleanor, Roger and Sally

12 Green Gymmers turned out on a fine but a little bleak day on 2 November at Hinksey Heights led by Kevin, so we had to leave the gorgeous views of the Dreaming Spires of Oxford normally afforded to users of the Nature Trail to our imagination.  We met in the Golf Course car park and made our way to the start of the Nature Trail, where we had been asked by the landowner, John Brimble, to clear encroaching vegetation (mainly nettles, blackthorn and bramble) away from the Nature Trail path.

Our expert scyther, Jim, stopped just after the gate to the path to clear the right hand side, opposite the wild flower patch whilst others made their way through a wooded area.  We set up camp in a wide area of the path and using the tree popper to pull up young blackthorn, scythes, saws and loppers we made lots of headway (literally!)  Jim soon joined the main group and proceed to clear vegetation away from the fence along with Barbara and Sally who had also brought their scythes.  We amassed a number of stray golf balls, which we took to the Clubhouse for them to sell on for practice.

Break time was very welcome and we shared cake to celebrate Rosie's birthday, before getting back to it.  It was soon time to down tools but lots of passers-by seemed very pleased with the progress we had made and we look forward to returning here to continue the good work at some time in the future. 


At the start of the area to be cleared - Kevin and Carolyn in action

Dieuwke pulling up nettles

Kevin and Carolyn on the war path

A lotta lotta loppers

Jim scything


Autumn is the time for fungi - a good find by Roger

Carolyn and Kevin hard at it

Another blackthorn "popped" by Roger

Break time!

Barbara busy scything

Rosie on the attack

Eleanor lopping bramble

James, Barbara and Dieuwke happy in their work

Ursula and Eleanor clearing away

Progress made!

The beginning section of the Nature Trail after Jim's scything





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

Frilford Heath SSSI, 1st September 2012

By Andrew -
Image
A pleasant and crucially, rain-free Saturday morning was spent once again at Frilford Heath, our last session of the year at this particular site.  As usual for this location, Himalayan Balsam pulling was the order of the day. Approaching the site, it became clear to the seven volunteers that despite all the hard work put in during the year, the battle against the Balsam is far from won!  Large swathes of the plant still exist, to the detriment of the native species.  However, real signs of progress are also very apparent.   We concentrated our efforts at the far-end of the site, the same area that we have largely focused on during other, recent sessions.  With only a small group this time, only a limited area could be covered, but much effort was put in to ensure that the plant was cleared as far as possible at least in this particular spot.   The task was complicated by the fact that at this time of year, the Balsam has developed seeds.  These had to be collected for destroying
Read more