Sunday 8 December 2019

There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza


Way back three quarters of the way through the last century, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band had a hit with ‘Blinded by the Light’, and I was reminded of that when I arrived at the Common this morning. The day before had been horrid, but after a windy night the sky was clear blue, and the sun was bright and so low I couldn’t see a thing in front of me as I walked along the boardwalk. Here’s the view across the central section, Area G, which was cut in the early autumn.


A fallen Oak leaf at that spot lent itself to an arty shot:


I promise that I try to arrive by the advertised start time, but usually most of the company has assembled before me. This time they had unloaded the cart of most of its tools and Team Leader Margaret was displaying leadership by sweeping leaves from the boardwalk.


The purpose of our visit was to have another crack at clearing scrub from the area to the east of the fen on the Warren Road side of the Beck. This has been given the enticing name of Area X, and our regular reader will remember that two weeks before we had made great progress in meeting Natural England’s requirement that it should be opened up to allow more fen vegetation to thrive. We surveyed the challenge that lay ahead with grim determination.


Only last Sunday Sir David had been showing us that Alligators in the swamps of Florida can survive cold spells by slowing their heart rate right down, and keeping their nostrils above the ice. This led us to wonder if some lurked in these desolate and little explored Southrepps swamps. Great caution was observed, and every log poking above the surface treated with suspicion. We all jumped at the sound of a great splash and a yell, but it turned out to only be Brian as he took an early plunge. My, how we laughed with relief!


Such was our devotion to the task that the 11 volunteers were uncharacteristically quiet, with the only sounds being of loppers and saws being deployed to great effect.



Whilst some people wielded those tools with great aplomb, others dragged the resulting cut material to the edge of the site, where a small but highly efficient team created a pile for the decay agents of Nature to work their magic on.


Some of the stuff was pretty hefty, but these are Southrepps Volunteers, and nothing deters them.



As we removed more of the undergrowth and revealed more undiscovered country, we revealed first an old galvanized tin bath, and then a bucket. Noel helpfully demonstrated that the bath is no longer completely watertight. We wondered if it’s a candidate for The Repair Shop.


Naturally there was a break for refreshments, and this being the last session before Christmas, festive fare was on offer, in the splendid form of Rita’s mince pies.


One of the success criteria Natural England has set for this particular job is that standing water should be evident. As illustrated by this panorama view taken at the end of the session, we feel this is a target we have already hit, despite the risk of Alligator attacks.


When the time came for us to leave, each footstep was accompanied by a slurp and a squeltch, or was that just volunteers finishing off the pies? What is certain is that on that perilous walk out through the treacherous swamp, all present were concerned that the tin containing the few remaining pies was well protected, even if that was all that remained above the surface as its guardian sank into the ooze without trace. Luckily we also had a backup supply from Linda and Kevin, which we felt constrained to scoff when we made it back to the storage container.

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

What a lovely morning. Clear and bright and a good temperature for working. 11 bonkers people turned up to carry on with the scrub clearance. I thank every one of them as it was hard work with the mud sucking on your wellies making every step a challenge and in Brian’s case a challenge too far as he sank gracefully into the mud. The team was amply rewarded with festive mince pies supplied by Rita and Brian, and Linda and Kevin so we had to work harder to burn of the extra calories
You have all done a wonderful job. George is coming with his chainsaw in the New Year.
On the subject of George, he has reminded me that I have not arranged a trip to Cley for everyone. I am going to suggest a Thursday in the New Year. Once the date is confirmed I will give you all the details.
My I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and look forward to seeing you all on the 5th Jan, to start the reed bed.
Many, many thanks

Margaret