After the previous arduous work party, we volunteers could have been forgiven for returning to the scene of the grime with trepidation. Good – because 12 of us did! Team Leader Margaret was excited to see that the sexes were evenly spread, with six men and six women. Strange what excites some people.
Recently I have hinted that by turning up on time I am
usually preceded by several colleagues. This time I was a good ten minutes
early, and ringing out across the Common was the aforementioned Team Leader’s
voice, incredulous at the sight. Nice.
I had of course been preceded by the pre-cut crew by several
days. Here they are taking a breather and surveying the consequence of their
labours.
Such was the amazement at my early arrival that the moment of signing in had to be recorded for posterity.
Particularly at first, it was necessary to not overload the sheets, as we were shifting sodden vegetation left lying there for the past fortnight.
Winching is always done at the edge of the area under attack. It’s an essential job; here’s Dave looking pensive about what lies ahead.
And here he is giving a yellow bucket a stern look.
Once the winching is done the tipping out is next, leading to the creation of heaps of material. It can bring joy.
It is frequently undignified and the normal niceties of polite conversation don’t really apply. (Take for example, Team Leader Julie’s exhortation to “Channel your inner dung beetle” when we were struggling to turn over a particularly heavy bundle of reeds, wrapped in their tarpaulin. Motivational speaking at its best!) That, plus frostbite-induced hysteria, brought out a gale of laughter when wincher Dave spotted someone helping out with the turning out of a sheet. “Good morning, Sheila” was his formal greeting, and it’s surprising there was no hand shaking to accompany it. My, how we laughed!
There was a great deal of hard work done, and it’s rare to have three fully loaded sheets already waiting for winching, with the pitchforkers waiting for the fourth one to be returned to them.
There was no ice present today, but the ground and vegetation were soaking wet. Cold hands and feet were the norm, and it took quite a while to warm up those frozen fingers.
We had no Noel with us today, so we missed his humour and even his singing. As another Noel, Coward, famously said “Terribly flat, Norfolk.” Not here, not now. We were busy creating new hills; here’s Andrew at the summit of one.
Your own correspondent himself threw caution to the winds, or light breeze in this case, and surveyed the site from on high. It gave quite a different perspective.
Everything that goes up needs to come down, and the sooner the better.
It seemed a long time coming, but the half-time break finally arrived.
It was great to be joined for refreshment by the injured Team Leader Kevin, sensibly in his best coat, and also by the Legend of the Commons John Houlgate.
All too soon it was time to return to work, but hands and feet had gone cold again, so it wasn’t all bad. It was a case of ‘fork, drag, tip, repeat’ until many more piles of cut reeds had been removed. There is some already cut material left for next time, so we’re hoping it doesn’t get too wet and heavy in the meantime.
As each sheet is used for the last time each session, the folding team springs into action. It’s a well-rehearsed process, culminating in the ritual rolling stage.
Ever the Shakespearian scholar, John felt the urge to misquote from Macbeth: “Out, damned knot!”
Here’s how we left the site this time.
Here is Team Leader Julie’s message of thanks:
Hello all
This is a huge thank you to the 12 who turned out today
on the Area D reed bed to clear more reed.
We were luckier with the weather this week, as it was dry (as in not
raining) and not windy. It was still
cold but we all soon warmed up.
Unfortunately, it still was not dry underfoot - but
amazingly no one took a dunking in the mud this week, so a round of applause
for everyone's balance! However, we
still looked like the "dirty dozen" when we left the site! Hope you have all cleaned up well and got
warm and are having a well earned relax the afternoon!
We are making slow but steady progress on this tricky
area. We will be back there in two weeks and will welcome all who wish to join
us.
Take care,
Julie (for the TLs)
And finally, a few statistics about last year’s efforts:
35 individuals volunteered in the year, with all of them
attending working parties, and several doing other work as well.
Number of individual volunteers working in last 12 months:
35
Total volunteer hours logged in the year: 639.89
Number of working party sessions in the year: 18
Number of individual volunteers on working parties in year:
35
Average attendance per SSSI working party: 13.44
Number of individual attendances at work parties: 242
The breakdown of work is:
SSSI working party hours: 466
Pit hours: 61
School Common hours: 46.75
Boardwalk repairs (hours): 3
(Number of boards replaced) 6
Himalayan Balsam control hours: 34
Not bad eh?
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