Plenty that’s new, and a welcome return

 Still warm, and not a little humid, but that didn’t deter the 15 volunteers who turned up this morning to continue dealing with the verdant growth on areas A and B. We were delighted to welcome back after a fair old while one volunteer, and to welcome for the first time another. Also present were many well-grown frogs, looking put out about the removal of their hiding places.

John and Margaret were there in their new capacity as doting grandparents; congratulations on the birth of Charlotte, who we hope to see pulling drag sheets very soon!

Our new Team Leader Michelle was there too, doubling up as our new Grillo operator.

Here she is receiving instruction:

Inevitably, the start time being 10.00 your correspondent arrived promptly. Too many fellow volunteers must have defective timepieces, for most of the 15 were already on site and hard at work. Even they could not have got far if it had not been for the two hours of pre-cutting done by Kevin and John a couple of days earlier, and even then Noel and Margaret needed to clear part of last week’s heap in order to get to the tree so the winch could be tied to it!

It’s interesting to see how many different ways a group of people can be looking at the same time. It was early on in the session, so we can be forgiven for not acting too well in concert.

There was a good collection of hats on show, and many of us had decided that wellies were not required this time, the recent weather having been pretty dry. We were mainly concentrating on continuing to cut Area B, but were also under instruction to deal with the reeds making unwelcome inroads in Area A: here’s Kevin doing just that.

One of the benefits of prolonged dry spells is that the vegetation is much lighter to handle. A lot of the material on Area B was close to where it was to be dumped, so unusually for these times, many sheets were lightly loaded and dragged the short distance by hand.

Tipping out at the dump site remains a challenge, both for the person in the firing line, and those opposite, trying in their humorous light-hearted way to bury their colleague. The vegetation not being soggy, Team Leader Julie took it all in good part…

… and indeed started to settle in for a bit of a kip.

The half-time break was as welcome as ever, and a couple of us fell to musing on whether or not we were modern-day equivalents of Shakespeare’s ‘rude mechanicals’ (erudite or what, eh?). There was also a burst of rampant alliteration after a casual remark about hats making one’s head hot. The best we could come up with on the spot was ‘hot headed hay heavers’ before we were whipped back to work.

One of the dark arts that it’s important to get right is that of folding the sheets at the end of the session. They need to fit neatly on the trolley for the ride back to the storage container, so there’s no excuse for sloppiness; only the right sort of people can achieve this level of expertise. It was encouraging to see a training session under way.

Once that was done, it was time to go. There’s still plenty left to clear over the next couple of sessions, but here’s how the area looks now.

 

Here’s Team Leader Julie’s message of thanks

Hello all

This is a thank you to the 15 volunteers who turned out today to clear the cut material on the Fen areas adjacent to Warren Road.  Thanks also to John and Kevin for doing the pre-cut for us on Friday.

It was so lovely to welcome back a volunteer who has been absent for a while and to welcome a new volunteer. It was also good to see Michelle getting her teeth into the Team Leader roll - including having a go with Grillo, cutting an area for us.  Very brave!

The weather was lovely, the cut material dry and everyone was in good spirits - making for a lovely sociable, yet productive work party.

We will be back in the same area in two weeks’ time, moving further down towards the beck. We realise that quite a few of you are away, but look forward to seeing those of you who can make it.

Regards, Julie (for the TLs)