Rain didn’t stop the (working) party

 

The small grassy patch of common between Bradfield Road and the main boardwalk is a joy to behold each early spring, when it is smothered in snowdrops. That’s no accident; without annual attention it would be overgrown and the pretty flowers nowhere to be seen. Cutting and clearing that bit was today’s task, along with more boardwalk edge tidying and scrub being kept in its place. Your usual correspondent was unsurprisingly absent from today’s soggy working party, meaning that the usual level of gentle ribbing/blatant abuse of my fellow volunteers is missing from this blog posting. Even so, grizzled Grizzly driver John gave me licence to abuse him anyway, but as any Norwich City striker will tell you, it’s not easy scoring in an open goal.

Team leader and deputy blogger Julie takes up the story…

I think our regular correspondent obviously saw the correct forecast today - mine had said light cloud and a moderate breeze....hmm, not quite what we got!

The Grizzly team set to work a wet hour before anyone else to cut the mix of reed, grass and nettles on the target area.

We were not sure how many volunteers we would get in the rain, but 12 hardy souls braved the weather to take up pitchforks, loppers, saws, brushcutters and brushes to clear the cuttings on the Bradfield Road spur of the boardwalk, clear overhanging scrub and branches and to clear the boardwalk edges from the spur to the Car Park. 

'One man and his mower'.....Not long after the volunteers arrived, Grizzly was taken home to be cleaned up - its work done for today. 

Pitchforks were wielded to manually clear the cuttings from the area to clear the way for the snowdrops to make their dazzling appearance. Despite the rain it was a warm day and layers were soon coming off!

Scrub and overhanging branches were cleared along the edges - though I am not sure this photo really depicts this activity to its best - maybe a lesson in setting up action shots is in order...this looks more like our volunteer is verbally persuading the scrub to retreat - now there is an idea we could get used to!

The lower reed and grassy edges along the boardwalk were soon seen off by our brushcutters - now that is more like an action shot!

                 

At last half time arrived and we decamped under the oak tree for our usual coffee break - and some very nice choccie biscuits today! I had thought the oak tree would offer shelter initially, but it soon became clear that the water dripping from its branches was probably heavier than the rain in the open! Apologies to Margaret for filling her provisions bag with water! 

The second half of our session continued much along the lines of the first half, but the results of today's efforts are spectacular…

 The Bradfield Road side of the main common is cut and cleared, ready to welcome the snowdrops.

The Bradfield Road spur boardwalk is clear on both sides ready to welcome visitors to the site.

The entrance from the car park is equally clear and inviting.

As is the boardwalk in between the two points.

We hope you all enjoy visiting our lovely common!

Here is Team Leader Kevin's message of thanks:

Hello all

A big thankyou to the 12 hardy souls who turned out this morning to clear the area along the Bradfield Road spur and boardwalk. Despite the steady drizzle the group wielded their pitchforks, loppers, saws and brushcutters to great effect, not forgetting Grizzly and his driver who started early in order to get a head start on the group as there was no pre-cut this week. 

Hopefully we will see you all again in two weeks' time when we will be on School Common.

Thanks,

Kevin 

Dealing with growth

 

Let’s set aside for a blissful moment the Whitehall farce that is proceeding with all the foreboding of an approaching hurricane. Despite the “turmoil” around the thorny question of economic growth, it is very evident that on our beloved (and for now, at least, legally protected) Common, the biological type of growth has been carrying on in the way it tends to do – even considering the summer’s drought.

Areas A and B, the species-rich grassy sections on the Warren Road side of Fox’s Beck, are cut on alternate years. As any faithful readers with retentive memories will know, it was the turn of Area B to be cut this year; the job to be completed in the rather short period between the end of the bird nesting season and the end of September. The critically important cutting part of the task was indeed done on time, and the working party a fortnight ago did an amazing job in clearing away a vast amount of the resulting “arisings”. However, some had to be left for later, including a small amount on Area A, where invasive reeds and Michaelmas Daisies need controlling annually.

So it was on another gorgeous autumn morning that 22 volunteers convened at the civilised time of 10.00 am. Not only is that the biggest turnout of the current cutting season, it is also the best of the whole year so far. The sky was a fabulous blue, there was only the lightest of breezes, and in the sunshine the temperature was pleasantly warm; warm enough indeed to prompt the early discarding of coats and jumpers.

Spare a thought however for the winch crew, sequestered in the deep shade cast by the Alders growing alongside Fox’s Beck. When they emerged into the sunshine at the half-time break, they were quite surprised at the difference in temperature.

What was somewhat different about this particular day’s task was the distance between the material to be shifted, and the place it had to be dumped. This was taken from the dump site.

Indeed, the long black bit of string which I am told (quite forcibly) is a rope, was only just long enough. The contingency was an extra length of string rope which it was to be my job to connect to the end of the main rope and onwards to the drag sheet itself. I was quite looking forward to that, which tells you something. Anyway, my little ambition was thwarted, but no matter, bigger plans than that have come to nothing recently.

The distance involved meant, mathematics being what they are, that each pull took considerably longer than our usual, shorter pulls. We have clever people in charge, and the order was issued to pile the sheets high. We would have sold them cheap, but times are hard, and nobody wanted to buy. We were aided in this audacious plan by having nice dry material to shift. Thank goodness for the winch; hauling those sheets by hand all that way, as we used to do, would have meant at least one more session required. Here’s one of the last sheets of the day on its way to the heap.

Of course, it’s not all about the winchers; nor even the tireless guides of the sheets being pulled, among which I am proud to be numbered. No, the stuff has to be pitched onto the sheets, and that’s down by the wielders of forks, known as forkers.

The giddier members of this group are known as silly forkers.

Once the forkers have forked and the guides have guided, the stuff has to be tipped out, creating ever-growing heaps. Thankfully, this too is done using the power of the winch, as it used to be the hardest part of the process pre-winch. Although they rot down over a few months, the heaps can be quite high; clambering over them requires a head for heights, and it’s easy to lose sight of your fellow sufferers workers.

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blather that an hour into the session we broke for a break. Unusually, your correspondent found himself some distance from the oasis, which explains this distant view of the assembled multitude. It being such a nice morning, there were several groups of walkers making their way along the boardwalk, and it’s a testament to their British reserve that none assumed that this was merely a kindly refreshment stop laid on for thirsty walkers.

With 22 volunteers, we had the luxury of being able to divide our forces. Some went off to do some scrub control…

… others tidied up the edges of the boardwalk…

... and some struck out into the depths to remove some of the Himalayan Balsam plants that had survived the earlier cull. That’s them, carrying the white sacks bulging with the offending plants.

Team Leader Kevin broke out the Tree Popper; an incredibly useful tool for uprooting Alder saplings to prevent them from colonising the area.

At the end of the session, Area B looked like this…

… and the bit of Area A that was dealt with looked like this.

All that was left was to trudge off-site, taking the tools back to the store, whilst whistling a merry tune (unlike the rest of this post, that bit’s made up).

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

Hello all.

Weren't we blessed with a beautiful autumn morning? Thank you to the 22 volunteers who helped to finish area B. In fact we managed to do some scrub bashing, Himalayan pulling and edge tidying. You can all be very proud of what you have achieved. The task for the next working party has yet to be finalised, so look out for Julie's e-mail.

We send out love and best wishes to Les and Margaret.

Margaret for the team leaders

 On a wildlife note, we spotted flying overhead with hungry looks in their eyes a Heron, a Buzzard and a Kestrel. A friendly Robin kept us company at the dumping point too.

Mice, men and the best laid plans

 

Never mind the mist; never mind the mellow fruitfulness: autumn excites birders because it’s migration time. I happened to be up and outside on 21^st September at an hour unsuited to my constitution, when overhead flew not one but two skeins of Pink-footed geese, yapping like a pack of demented puppies (and let’s face it, what puppy is not demented?). I then saw about 175 flying over the Common on the 25^th as well as four Redwings. These are the delightful winter-visiting thrushes whose sibilant flight calls can often be heard on calm clear nights as they arrive from the cold north in their droves.

NWT’s plan to finish cutting and clearing Area B beside Warren Road on 30^th of the month unfortunately didn’t come off. Ah well, best laid plans etc. Instead, our own doughty Grizzly drivers did the cutting by the end of September deadline, meaning that we could then clear the ‘arisings’ if not at our leisure, at least a bit later.

And so it was that 18 of us turned out at the far more civilised time of 10.00 a.m. to give it a good go. The weather was surprisingly warm; in fact it was a gorgeous morning to be out of doors. It begged the question: was this autumn, or an Indian Summer? It was quite warm enough for us thanks very much, as illustrated by the pile of discarded clothing. I had heard of strip clubs, but didn’t know until now what they were like...

Talking of clothing - as we fashion-conscious types so often do - Andrew turned up this morning and someone exclaimed “oh you have trousers on!”  You can take that as you may!!!

The task before us was actually quite a large one, not helped by the refusal of the tyre of the wheelbarrow used to transport the heavy winch and its even heavier rope to retain any air. A grim-faced Team Leader thundered off to get a barrow from her own garden, complete with air in the tyre. This had a knock-on effect, as the usual plan is to have the winch in place ready to haul filled drag sheets from the outset; today, that was not the case.

Being pragmatic souls, the first thing to do was to get some of the copious arisings moved by hand to the side of the area. Hauling by hand is what we used to do in the bad old pre-winch days, but the grass seems to have got heavier in the intervening years, or perhaps the volunteers have got older. Anyway, far less can be moved sensibly this way, but the distance being shorter, many more trips were possible.

Thank goodness for the Internet! Because these reports are available across the world, and possibly beyond, there’s a lot of attention-seeking tomfoolery that goes on, in the form of falling over at the point of tipping over of the drag sheets. Today it was Ken’s turn for glory; good to see he was alright.

      

As the sun climbed as high in the sky as it can manage at this equinoctial time of the year, the scene was one of quiet industry. Pitchforkers pitchforked, dragsheet attendants attended to their sheets as assiduously as could ever be wished for, and once the wheelbarrow had done its stuff, the winchers winched.

Speaking of the winchers, their skill is to deal with a finely tuned system. A key element of this is the little leather strap that keeps the winch anchored to a bit of old board. I am led to understand that this is to prevent the thing from bouncing about like a child on a sugar rush as it hauls in its heavy load – but that seems a bit too technical for me. The strap in question is, or was, a bit of an old man’s belt (I mean of course that the belt was old in belt years; not necessarily that its previous owner was particularly advanced in human years). Rather like the lack of air incident at the start of the session, work was held up again when the crucial bit of leather finally gave up the ghost and snapped. No gentleman there present was prepared to sacrifice his own belt, placing a high premium on keeping their trousers in their correct alignment: we’re not so much of a strip club as all that! The winchers, ever resourceful, came up with a solution which involved one performing a laying on of hands ceremony, whilst the other sat in a bucket. Oddly enough, it seemed to work.

Winching requires not only a winch, a bit of old board, a disintegrating leather strap, and a bucket, but also a long bit of string. Here we see an assessment being made of how long that piece of string is.

It’s not all hard work of course; there’s always time for play. Here we see three youngsters trying to work out why their kite won’t fly.

Faithful readers will by now be wondering if we had a break from all that hard graft. Indeed we did, and here’s the photo to prove it.

We’re often visited by a group of Alpacas out for a walk across the boardwalk. The people organising these outings might get the impression that the Southrepps Commons Volunteers are on a perpetual tea-break, but that’s just because they come at the same time as we take our brief respite from toil.

A brief note on the wildlife: two buzzards soared overhead, casting cold eyes on our efforts. Perhaps they could see what we eventually spotted; a tiny frog, and a shy lizard.

Eventually our two hours were up, and we made our weary ways home. We had hoped that all the cut vegetation would be cleared in this one session, but there's about another hour’s worth of work left, which will have to wait for another time. Here’s how Area B looks now. 

Here is the Team Leaders’ message of thanks:

Hello all

We hope that you are thoroughly enjoying the sunshine today. What a bonus!

The 18 volunteers who turned up at 10am this morning were certainly enjoying the sunshine on the Common, though it was warm work. We cleared a huge amount of cut material, leaving about an hour's work for next time unless George (NWT) comes and finishes it for us. A huge thank you to all of you for a job very well done.

We will meet again in two weeks’ time (16th October) - We will send an email nearer the date to confirm the meeting place and start time.

In the meantime, have a lovely few weeks.

Regards, Julie and the TLs

 

Back in the fold

 Your usual correspondent’s supply of weekend visitors having dried up and all other excuses having faded like the early morning autumn mist, I was drawn back to The Common for another working party – along with 15 other volunteers, many of whom probably didn’t recognise me. One who did was our welcome newest recruit, but she’s a neighbour and therefore had scant excuse.

The scene of the action was our old friend Area B. As half of the species-rich grassy fen on the Warren Road side of Fox’s Beck, it has to be cut every alternate year. Two weeks ago an excellent start was made on it, and our lot was to carry on whilst keeping calm. Being full of British pluck, this we did, more or less successfully. There was too much left to cut and clear in the two hours available to us, so what we didn’t deal with will have to be finished by our NWT warden George and some volunteers from Cley and Southrepps on the 30^th – the deadline imposed by Natural England for this area.   

In fairly stark contrast to our earlier sessions, when over-heating was the risk, today we tended to arrive wrapped up against a stiff breeze. However, it was still far from cold, and early on Team Leader Margaret announced that she was “hot”; we didn’t know how to take that.

Areas A and B are very different in character from the other parts of the site. Rather than growing nice tall reeds, which particularly when dry are light and easy to handle, here the vegetation is a mass of grasses and many other species to delight the botanists, but induce muscle aches in Sunday volunteers. Already cut to greet us on arrival was a sizeable amount:

Grizzly was being given a good work-out by Grizzly driver Dave, but was thankfully up to the task; a relief after some recent hiccups.

Winchman Dave (a different Dave) was directing operations at the dump site, and like giant grassy molehills, several artfully arranged piles grew under his expert direction.

As has been abundantly evident in the aftermath of the late Queen’s death, tradition is important to us Brits. And we volunteers have our cherished traditions too, as any faithful readers of this blog will be all too aware. Amongst them, the most cherished is the half-time break, and today it came not a moment too soon, as the sky darkened and some serious precipitation was threatened.

In the event, it came to very little, but the wise decision was taken to dispense tea, coffee, and chocolate biscuits under cover at the dump site. (Incidentally, did you notice the reckless way I used an Oxford comma immediately after ‘coffee’? Strike me dead with a thesaurus!)

It is also traditional for someone to fall over, usually at the dump site when tipping the cut material out. For that tradition to be best exercised, it should involve your correspondent, and true to form, I “had a fall”. Having reached the right age to have a fall rather than merely fall over, I like to think I accomplished it with some panache. Panache or not, the usual and inevitable sympathy hilarity was the result. No photographic evidence exists of this event, but that’s not the case with the other serial faller John, who once again managed to be covered by a passing drag sheet. He claimed he was inspecting the underside of the sheet, but we know better. He even managed it a second time: such a graceful roll over - deserving 9 out of 10 easily for style. His dear wife was unconcerned, merely commenting that he “always likes rolling in the hay”. Ahem. This time Team Leader Julie was present with her phone, so here’s the evidence:

New recruit Jenny set to with a will, pitchforking as to the manner born, but also pitching in on what she called “boys’ work”: we boys couldn’t possibly compete.

Almost exactly on the allotted two-hour mark we had completed clearing away all that had been cut. All that was left was to also tidy the tools away; an important part of which (a tradition even), is the correct folding of the drag sheets. Here is the folding crew displaying their skills:

At the end of it all, Area B currently looks like this…

… and here’s what is waiting for George at the end of the month: 

Here is Team Leader Julie’s message of thanks:

Dear all

A huge thank you goes out to the 16 volunteers that cruised through today's work party on the Warren Road side of the Common. As usual we cleared a vast amount of material from the Fen area. We have managed to clear all the way up to the little bench around halfway up the boardwalk to Warren Road.

As the Fen has to be cleared by 30th September the remainder of Area B will have to be cleared by NWT as our next scheduled work party falls after this date. Unfortunately Natural England's strict dates for cutting Fen mean we are unable to achieve cutting and clearing both the central area and all of either Area A or B on the Warren Road side anymore so we have to call in NWT to finish what we cannot clear. 

George, our NWT warden will bring a 'team' of volunteers over from Cley on FRIDAY 30th SEPTEMBER to finish the area we have started up to Warren Road.  Unfortunately for George that is generally only 2-3 people, so if anyone feels they can spare an hour or two on this date to help George you would be most welcome. He will be there most of the day until it's cleared. Margaret will be there from 10am and Julie will be going down around 11.45 for a few hours. We will send a reminder nearer the date just in case any of you can make it for an hour or so.

Otherwise, we will look forward to seeing you at our next scheduled work party in two weeks time.

Regards, Julie (for the Team Leaders)

This being about a nature reserve, a bit of nature now and again seems appropriate. This is the high-viz wearing caterpillar of a Pale Tussock Moth spotted on a gatepost close to the Common recently.

Glowing ladies in the heat

 Your usual correspondent being absent from another working party, this time due to an excess of visitors, blogging duties fell to Team Leader Margaret. This was somewhat thwarted by the intervention of her Labrador puppy, who seemed to think it would be fun to eat forbidden fruit. The resulting emergency vet appointment made Margaret 10 minutes late on parade, but never fear, the team was admirably led by Kevin anyway. (You’ll be glad to know that the dog has recovered well, even if their bank balance has had a nasty turn.)

Margaret’s absence caused a ripple of panic through the 13 other volunteers, for as faithful readers will know, refreshments at the break are treasured, and not only was Margaret missing, but so were those vital beverages. Joy was unbounded when they turned up:

The break affords the volunteers a chance for a period of quiet reflection, the better to appreciate the beauty of nature in which they find themselves (ahem)

Margaret reports that otherwise everything worked like clockwork, although I am not sure that cutting through a bees’ nest counts as clockwork (makes a change from falling on a wasps’ nest I suppose). Happily, the bees ignored the volunteers and concentrated on repairs instead. Unhappily, attempts at obtaining photographic evidence failed.

Photographic evidence of the other workers was however forthcoming, and is here displayed for your approval. Suffice it to say that the conditions were hot, humid and very sweaty. The ladies (who as we know don’t sweat but merely glow) pulled a lightly loaded sheet at the end, just to help out. Good show ladies! Here they are, on the pull as they say…

The section receiving attention this time was the prosaically named Area B – divided from the more excitingly known Area A by the boardwalk running between the Beck and Warren Road. These two sections are cut on alternate years, and in the intervening period take full advantage of the chance to generate as much heavy vegetation as they can. Here are some shots of the mighty struggle:

Here is Team Leader Margaret’s message of thanks:

This is very much a personal thank you.

As usual thank you to the 14 souls who turned up on another hot humid morning and did a sterling job and now the boardwalk is passable as well as the fen cleared. Today though my fellow leaders had to cope with a last minute call to say I would be late due to a vet emergency. No problem was the reply. You lovely volunteers were still happy to work despite the promise of refreshments vanishing into the ether.

When I did arrive late complete with refreshments the concern for the dog was heartwarming.

The said miscreant is recovering well and milking it for all he is worth!

So thank you all. I am proud to be part of such a super group.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and hopefully see you in two weeks.

Margaret

The area which received attention before this was the central one (Area G for afficionados). The plan to cut it slightly earlier than first considered so that the Grass of Parnassus could flower after the event appears to have been a resounding success; there are now many of these delightful and rare flowers on show:

The famous Trimingham Bee-Eaters made a surprise visit to the Commons late one afternoon recently, with nine present around The Pit. Your correspondent, tardy as ever, popped along there the next day to see if they were there again. They weren’t, but since I had my camera with me and Bee-eaters like posing on power lines, I took this shot of some swallows, also no doubt thinking of dropping in on Africa soon. If you close your eyes you can almost imagine they are Bee-Eaters don’t you think?