Your usual correspondent having migrated south for the day to avoid the cold (but not the rain), today's blog posting comes to you courtesy of Team Leader Julie:
When I sat eating my breakfast in the morning watching the rain blowing diagonally across the garden I did wonder how pleasant it was going to be working on the common today….however, although chilly to start, the sun emerged and it turned out far better than the forecast predicted and we had a pleasant morning to do our work.
The weather forecast undoubtedly deterred some of our volunteers, but fourteen of us turned out ready to battle the elements…winter jackets and woolly hats donned for the occasion!
One of the aims today was to clear the Bradfield Road Spur area to enable the snowdrops in that area to flourish once again. To start, two volunteers turned out an hour early to cut the reed, grass and nettles.
Under John's watchful eye, Noel was receiving his first training session using Grizzly….and he turned out to be a smooth operator of the fearsome machine.
The area was soon cut and we were pitch forking the cuttings onto heaps hidden in the scrub.
Some people were winding the reed and grass around the forks like spaghetti, resulting in some artistic nest like structures on our dumping heaps.
We were very much on track for clearing this area before the first hour was up.
Meanwhile a separate party were dispatched to cut back the scrub along the boardwalk from the spur to the car park. We do this every year and we think we have been quite severe, but every spring the new growth is leaning over the boardwalk threatening to poke people in the face as they walk through. So the task today was to take it back further to try and manage next year's spring growth without it encroaching on the boardwalk. This entailed cutting back some fairly hefty branches and deadwood. You can just about make out our volunteer's hi-vis clothing in amongst the scrub!
The shout of “coffee” went up just as we finished clearing the area for the snowdrops, and we all gathered for much needed refreshments (thanks as always to Margaret for the provision of these).
The second half of the session saw everyone joining in the cutting, lopping and clearing the scrub along the boardwalk. Another broken board was also replaced and finally the boardwalk was swept of leaves and debris from the car park to the Bradfield Road spur.
The amount achieved today was nothing short of incredible!!
In a week that also saw us pass a reasonably vigorous Health and Safety inspection on behalf of Easton College (to enable us to host student placements) I think the Southrepps Commons Volunteers can all give themselves a huge pat on the back for what we manage to achieve in our little Conservation area.
I took some photos of some fungi on the older wood in the scrub area to the side of the boardwalk. We don't know what they were... maybe a humble oyster mushroom…or maybe not! Not my area of expertise but they looked worthy of photographing, and if anyone reading this knows, please pass it on!
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