Winter draws on

 

It feels important to say that the Commons are looking in particularly good order now, at the start of the winter, ready to grow again and thus provide entertainment for us volunteers next year and beyond. It’s not unreasonable to pat ourselves on the back from time to time, and I think that the obvious state of the place’s health is testament to our often extraordinary efforts. This being the last working party of the year, a few statistics are perhaps in order:

Number of working sessions: 17

Number of individuals volunteering during the year: 39

Average attendance at working parties: 14.29

A lot of work also goes on outside the main working parties: in total we have collectively put in a magnificent 698.75 hours during 2021 on behalf of NWT!

To mark the start of meteorological winter, for the final working party of the year 15 hardy volunteers returned to the central part of the Common, to cut back more scrub and to clear recently cut reeds away. The Wednesday before had seen four keen types doing the ‘pre-cut’, meaning that the Sunday party had something to get their metaphorical teeth into on arrival. (I am not suggesting that their teeth aren’t real, but in this case they are indeed metaphorical, as using real teeth on these tasks would be unwise.) It won’t have gone un-noticed that although we have been spared the worst excesses of Storm Arwen, there has been a certain amount of wet weather of late. This manifested itself most recently a couple of hours before the session, and then some more fell a few hours after. Mercifully, we were spared a soaking.

All the previous precipitation had created ground of a particularly squelchy nature: wellies were the advised attire, but aqualungs or full diving gear might have been equally appropriate. Fortunately, the areas we were working in were not as boggy as some other parts of our beloved site, so in the event SCUBA gear might have been a bit excessive, not to say an encumbrance in amongst the bushes.

On arrival, your correspondent was presented with this image of a neat parade of pitchforks and our famous little green cart, all tyres fully pumped. Where the people were was anybody’s guess.

Those pitchforks were waiting to be deployed on the patch cut on Wednesday:

Before starting work, we must all sign in so that the team leaders can know who has sunk into the bog at the end of the day, and to satisfy NWT’s Health & Safety requirements. It’s difficult to identify this character, but it has been suggested that this hardy volunteer spotted signing in found the task quite difficult - one too many last night maybe?

The proximity of this patch to the dumping site meant that using the winch was unnecessary, so it was all moved by hand. The aforementioned rain had made the four-year-old vegetation very wet and heavy. Although it was an arduous job, as you would expect our wonderful volunteers made short work of it.

In addition to clearing that patch of reed, more was to be done on cutting back the scrub lining the boardwalk. Team Leader Kevin set to work with the ‘tree popper’ to uproot some of the more accessible plants…

… whilst others set about the scrub with saws and loppers. They came, they saw, and they conquered.

Along with the branches cut to allow Grizzly to cut the area, many more were added to this pile as more scrub was cut back to reclaim the area for reed bed…

… and the lopped branches were soon stacked well back from the reed bed.

The half time break came at roughly half time, and the merry throng gathered round for hot drinks and Bourbon biscuits. Here is that throng, looking as merry as they could manage.

After our break we had a visit from our friends the Alpacas. Do they come to judge our efforts?

At the end of the session, the cleared reed area looks like this.

This being apparently close to Christmas, it has been suggested that the scrub clearance has created a suitable grotto for Santa, so keep your eyes peeled for an old guy in a red dressing gown hiding out here:

However, all the little elves have cleared off, for an Ibuprofen and a good rub down.

Here is the Team Leaders’ message of thanks:

An enormous thank you to the 15 hardy souls who turned out today. The area was not large but it was a very hard morning's work as the material to move was extremely wet and heavy and the ground a quagmire. Lots of encroaching scrub was attacked which included some very spiky blackthorn.

The next scheduled working party was for the 19th of December but we have decided that that is too close to Christmas so in those immortal words that's all folks! well at least for 2021.

May we wish you and your families a very Happy and safe Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year.

Thank you.

The Team Leaders