Prize day to start a decade

The first working party of the new year, nay decade, attracted an excellent turnout of 21 volunteers, all keen to work off the excessive consumption of minced pies, turkey and all the trimmings that they had inflicted on themselves over the festive period. Weather-wise it was unremarkable: grey, with the merest hint of light drizzle but crucially no wind to speak of, nor frost. The last time we cut this section was four years ago, and old hands remembered how deeply frozen it was then.

We were working on the section known as Area F, which is the reedbed nearest the car park. The previous day’s pre-cut session had already created a cleared area, so your correspondent was unsure of the need to be there at all. As it turned out, there was plenty left to do.

The day was, as usual, not without incident: not least your correspondent repeatedly stepping into one of the many little streams running across the site en route to The Beck, demonstrating a depressing inability to learn where these hidden traps lay. Firstly, the trolley full of tools fell off the boardwalk… one way to unload it I guess!

Then, then Grizzly sank in the mud and got very stuck...

Luckily the wheelbarrow with the winch got through!!

Once those small tribulations were overcome, the crack team of pitchforkers got forking…

And the crack winch team kept an anxious lookout for sheets to drag…

Luckily, there were soon as many as could be handled…

Tea break came early, when the winch jammed, with the rope getting wound round the drum and proving difficult to free, even with the three finest minds available brought to bear…

So many volunteers had come that there was a glimmer of concern that the supplies might not be sufficient, but all was well and the happy throng was satisfied. See how happy and satisfied they look!

This was the ideal opportunity for certificates of competence to be handed out to recently trained brush cutter operators – just like school prize day, but without the tedious speeches!

Once you are a fully certified brush cutter operator, you can dress up in this very snazzy gear…

That was Brian, hard at work cutting brush. As a result of his efforts, it’s particularly nice for the time being to be able to see Fox’s Beck from the boardwalk.

Volunteers who had joined us in the last four years had not seen this section un-cut and looking like this.

It won’t stay that way for long; the reeds will soon re-grow with their lovely range of shades of green, but for the record, this is how it looks today.

Here is Team Leader Kevin’s message of thanks:

A big thank you goes to all the volunteers (21 in total) who turned out this morning to tackle the reeds in area F which is the area between the Lower Street car park and the container. Despite a slight glitch with the winch the team worked with their usual enthusiasm and vigour and cut and moved way more than we anticipated. Well done everyone.

For those who could not make this morning may we take the opportunity to wish you all best wishes for the New Year and hope to see you at the next working party on 19th January.

Kevin