Scorchio!

Warning for arachnophobes! Spider image below.

Having bemoaned the lack of insect life this summer, it is pleasing to now see plenty of dragonflies whizzing over the Common, but butterflies are still not numerous. As is normal for the time of year most birds are skulking away while they moult in preparation for migration or staying put here.

I associate fungi with rather later in the year, but I did spot this spectacular Dryad’s saddle bracket fungus at start of the Jubilee boardwalk recently.

The weather presenters are always very keen to tell us when we’ve entered a new meteorological season; in this case it’s autumn. Not much sign yet of mists or even mellow fruitfulness (although I tried a couple of blackberries yesterday – still too sharp). What there was instead today was a lot of heat and humidity, although fortunately not the thunderstorms promised for some parts of the country.

So it was that 12 volunteers arrived this morning for another work party; dressed less for the weather than to guard against the vegetation or any wildlife that might think us tasty. The result was, of course, a dozen very hot volunteers; even the ladies appeared to be doing more than merely glowing. Unusually, and exciting much comment, your correspondent arrived a full 10 minutes early, but was still outshone by about 11 eager beavers. (Memo to self: get there 10 minutes late next time, or will never get that time back.)

On my arrival, there they were, picking up the material that had been cut earlier in the week, with new Team Leader Michelle on Grillo cutting some more.

Drag sheets were already neatly laid out, waiting to be filled and then dragged by hand the short distance to be dumped under the trees. The previously cut material had at least the merit of being dry and consequently light.

The trick was, where possible, to work in the shade.

One of the drawbacks to arriving as much as 10 minutes before the advertised start is that it takes 10 minutes longer to reach the break, so for this correspondent at least, it was extra welcome when it arrived. This week’s biscuits were ginger nuts – lovely!

Once that was over we moved on to clearing the material cut today. A naughty response to the question “where is this going?” was that we should add it to someone else’s sheet when they weren’t looking: but they always were looking, so we couldn’t. This stuff being much greener and heavier, the winch was deployed.

Laborious tipping out by hand was still required; despite our best efforts no Team Leaders were buried.

Michelle is still learning the ropes as Team Leader; today it was the approved way to fold up drag sheets, under Julie’s watchful eye.

In mowing close to the edge of the notorious Area X (not formerly known as Twitter), a major infestation of the wretched Himalayan Balsam was discovered. Some was removed, but there was too much there to be properly dealt with at that time.

A significant spider was spotted on one of the sheets, and with the help of the excellent ‘Obsidentify’ app it was declared to be a four spot orb weaver. Apparently this is the heaviest of British spiders, and it certainly did seem to have a hefty abdomen, possibly stuffed full of the small grasshoppers that is its meal of choice, as apparently it builds its web close to the ground to catch jumping insects.

If any exist, regular readers of this drivel informative blog might wonder how the singing is going. To be honest, it has died down a bit lately, but when we had tipped out our final load of the morning, the ever-dependable Noel did lead us in the chorus of the Kinks’ iconic Lola. Quite like old times!

At the end of the session Area B now looks like this.

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Dear All

A huge thank you to the 12 volunteers who came today on a very hot and humid day. You did an absolutely sterling job with your usual good humour even if you did have to work harder than expected. Fortunately the first lot of cuttings were beautifully dry and light.

 We look forward to seeing you all in two weeks on the central area,

 Thanks again.

Margaret for the team leaders.