Grizzly executes a pirouette (we had one of those days!)

 As we covered in the previous posting of this blog, the Great (annoyingly not deemed worthy of a name) Storm created a lot of damage on The Commons. Walking around during last week, I found that School Common seemed to have suffered the most. The ground is covered in the debris of leaves, twigs and branches ripped from its trees: mostly Sycamores as far as I could see. But Oaks had also suffered badly here and in the surrounbding area. This substantial tree is the biggest casualty I have come across on our little patch: such a shame to see a big specimen laid low, but it's all part of the cycle of life and it will contribute its essence to the local environment for years to come.

The last blog posting described the working party that had been postponed from the previous, stormy day. We had cut and cleared half of the central area G, with help from NWT warden George and some colleagues, and they returned two days later to complete the task, just in time to meet the deadline set by Natural England.

I had absented myself from the team for this week's session at Pit Common, so our worthy alternative correspondent Julie takes up the story:

The aim today was to cut back the growth and scrub around the Pit. The day started with grey skies and rain...and Grizzly obviously decided that it did not wish to perform under these conditions, performing a perfect, but unscheduled, pirouette on the road on the way to the Pit. The decision was taken to return it to the container before it decided to do anything more spectacular. Perhaps it likes going off with George to be repaired!  

We decided to take the mower along with two brushcutters to tackle the site. However, our equipment problems were not over yet! One of the brushcutters was proving difficult to start and the mower lost power to drive the wheels, causing much scratching of heads! 

It seems George will have to take the mower for repair as well!

It was put to use.... though it took some pushing through the long grass manually. 

The rain stopped and we soon had both brushcutters going so we were in full swing.  

We had a team cutting back scrub up the pathway from the Pit.

Another team was raking grass onto a sheet and hand pulling it to a dump site.

Before we knew it, we had done an hour and it was time to down tools and have a well earned break. 

At least it gave Mr Toad the chance to evaluate the situation! 

The second half of our session saw the return of the rain and a vandal in our midst! 

I have to say it was your correspondent! I spotted a chunk of wood that had rotted off the leg of the bench and then realised that the whole leg was totally rotten. I think anyone sitting on it may have landed with a bump! So the bench was removed. It will be replaced, but maybe not until next spring. Definitely 'one of those days!'. 

However, despite the weather and technical issues the volunteers worked extremely hard and did a fantastic job of clearing the area. 

The path up to the field is clear and welcoming for walkers to pass through without fear of hitting their heads.

The area around the Pit looks well groomed.

Time to pack up and call it a day.   

Here is the message of thanks from the Team Leaders:

Dear Volunteers

Many thanks to all the volunteers who turned out in the rainy conditions to tackle the grass area around the Pit. Despite Grizzly not wanting to join us this morning we persevered using brush cutters and lawnmower and we were able to achieve what we wanted, which was a very tidy looking area.

Many thanks

Kevin, John, Margaret and Julie