Spring in the air

Spring in the air? Most of us are knocking on a bit (indeed, there’s a fair sprinkling of septuagenarians in our doughty group), so any suggestion of springing is rather out of the question. As for the season however, the unfashionably early spring weather is certainly leading a lot of plants and birds to wake up. The snowdrops are looking great, and justifying the earlier work to keep this section on the edge of Bradfield Road clear in readiness for their display.

I have recently listened to a lovely podcast on BBC Sounds, about a visit to the reed cutters on Cley Marshes. The Bishop family have been cutting reeds there every winter for several generations, with very little change to the tools and methods used. As well as hearing about the current line-up, there was also a short section focussing on the management of the NWT reserve; which of course shares our warden George with us. The item is called Reed cutting at Cley, and it’s in the Open Country podcast. Since we share a passion for cutting reeds, it’s well worth a listen.

Speaking of weather, there had been a good dry spell, including the couple of days after the pre-cut of reeds ready for our attention today. Unkindly, it rained the evening before our work session, meaning that the piles of cut reed we were presented with were soggy again – just like last time. In fact, it was surprising just how much boggier the whole area had become in the last fortnight.

As soon as the drag sheets are laid out the happy throng of volunteers (20 again this time) set to with a will and a pitchfork; here they go.

But before the loaded sheets can be moved, the vital winch crew must get the blessed machine in place and running; that’s what these three are up to.

Regular (or even irregular) readers of these posts will be only too aware of the tendency of those at the winching end of the operation to burst into song, usually led by the redoubtable Noel. Today was exceptional, in that a quartet of rich male voices formed, including your own, your very own, correspondent. For reasons already unclear, our concert began with Waterloo Sunset, originally by the Kinks: a little later a rousing rendition of L-O-L-A Lola rounded off the performance. A stray remark of how summery the temperature felt led us nicely into the hits of The Small Faces and Mungo Jerry. We then, for no apparent reason, meandered into a bit of Oliver! The Musical, with the risk, thankfully averted, of a longer diversion into Songs from the Shows. The rest of the work party, safely out of earshot, don’t know what they missed!

Summer it might not yet be, but it was definitely milder than last time, and within 15 minutes the layers were coming off. Thank you Nature for providing a coat stand, albeit one reminiscent to at least one of us as a gamekeeper’s gibbet, looking as it did like a lot of strung-up crows. These of course were intended to warn “vermin” about their fate if the keeper saw them: in this case it could perhaps serve as a warning to unwary folk inclined to join us in our muddy cavorting.

Team Leader Julie was busy raking up as much as possible of the wet material left behind last time.

A useful incidental task in this area is to keep the watercourses heading towards the Beck clear.

 The half-time break arrived to general relief.

It was a relief tempered somewhat by the loss of the majority of the biscuits in the muddy morass. In Sheila’s absence, we blamed it on the Catering B team! But it didn’t entirely inhibit those for whom Custard Creams are so desirable; they’re alright if they don’t get too soggy

Then the fear was that a pile of uneaten biscuits beside the boardwalk would not be considered inedible by passing dogs, with the risk of enraging their owners, so it was decided to submerge them. (I don’t think it will present much of a challenge to Basil and his ilk though.)

The old yellow drag sheets were brought out of hibernation for some of the older, wet and heavy material to be piled onto, so that they could then be laboriously dragged to the main sheets for winching the considerable distance to the dumping site.

At first I thought some giant amphibious moles had been at work, but their molehills turned out to be piles of almost immovable vegetation.

Almost immovable, but not quite. Not for the first time, thank goodness for that winch!

While all this forking and winching was going on, Brian was busy with the brush cutter clearing dead stuff away near the car park.

He was later joined by others to help keep the Beck clear.

By the end of the session there were still three fully loaded sheets to winch away. This will be done by a small team next Saturday, all being well.

Otherwise, Area F is cleared and our reed clearance duties completed for this season.

What a view from the car park now!! 

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Hello all you wonderful people.

Another amazing morning's work. We have now completed the cutting programme for this season. Thanks to the conditions underfoot it was another morning of hard graft and we are extremely grateful for your efforts. We hope it gives you pleasure as you stroll along the boardwalk. We still have three sheets to pull, those of you who said that they would be willing to help with this task, we shall meet at the container at 10.00 next Saturday. JH suggests it takes 10-15 minutes per pull; so it should only take an hour. If it is pouring with rain we will cancel.

We will contact George Baldock our warden and see if there are any other tasks he wants doing, and let you know in good time if we will be holding a working party in two weeks’ time.

Many thanks again.

Margaret (for the team leaders)