The Hole in the Bank

You may remember that in the last work party blog (Some Odd Jobs); I said that - 

 'The last job of the day was to investigate some erosion of the stream bed near the tool store. We will fix it when the stream has dried up.' 

Well, by the time the work party was held on Wednesday this week the stream had stopped running so we began the repair.

This was the hole we needed to deal with. It was partly caused by erosion from the water swirling around in the pool below the pipe carrying the stream under the path but a lot of 'hole' was the result of our canine visitors using it to get into the water.

Our plan was to stack some logs at the front of the hole, like the one in the photo above, fix them place with stakes, then backfill the hole with stone and earth.

The first job was to collect the stones. There were a reasonable number of them by the hedge near the bottom of the pylon field and these were collected and brought to the hole.

The first stakes being driven into the ground by Pete and Joe.

With the stakes firmly in place thinner logs were laid behind them then Pete and Jim began filling the hole with the stones we collected.

More logs went on top of the stones and another stake put in.

We weaved some thinner poles around the stakes to hold everything together and filled the remainder of the hole with earth and grass. The larger stones collected were placed to support the stakes, and a big one put under the pipe outlet to reduce the force of the water hitting the stream bed. Hopefully that will reduce the erosion a bit as well.

Another good job done by these hard working volunteers.

Erika's Springtime Walk

Erika is one of the volunteers who help to maintain Filnore Woods. Walking in the woods last Sunday for our work party she took these photographs to show what she saw.

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Filnore Woods, 14th April 2024.

The volunteer day for the work party was welcomely warm, dry and calm. Here are some photos of Filnore Woods today. I love the hart's tongue fern unfurling, the cuckooflower, primroses next to the stream, an oak apple gall wasp has interesting growth, bluebells in the wooded areas and some cowslips in the grassland.

We had our coffee punctuated by a blackcap's loud call and being a warbler, its song consists of scratchy and clear flutey notes. Another loud call we heard was from a wren with its repetitious trilling call. A peacock butterfly fluttered by and someone saw a blue butterfly that was probably a holly blue at this time of year. All lovely signs of the season.

 

       

       

                       all photos by Erika Booth

Some Odd Jobs

At our work party last Sunday we did a number of the smaller tasks that have been on the jobs list for a while. We spread wood chip on parts of the muddier paths and used some to build up the section of path just before post 15. We raised the bed of this section a few years ago because it was getting so muddy and it was time to build it up again. Another job was to clear away some branches that were hanging over the path near the Jubilee Way. They were hanging down below head height right in the middle of the path.

While this was going on Erika and I re-seated a couple of our marker posts - 8 and 14.

Once we had completed these tasks we all got together and moved up to the new plantation to retrieve the bench that was taken from the welcome area at the main entrance some time ago and had been used for some 'group get-togethers' by persons unknown! It had been left up there over the winter because we needed to slide it down some steep slopes that were very muddy and I thought this would be too risky a job. 

When we got to the new plantation the bench had been moved again and it took a while to find it. They had put behind the vegetation to the left of the pond. It was quite a struggle to extricate it but we managed to get it out ...

... then made sure it was still 'safe' to use! 

We then took it back to the welcome area by sliding it down the hill on a tarpaulin sheet.

The last job of the day was to investigate some erosion of the stream bed near the tool store. We will fix it when the stream has dried up.

The New Fence is Extended

At yesterday's work party we returned to the Paddock to extend the new fence. We started it last time and wanted to continue building for two reasons. Firstly it gives visitors some protection from the drop down to the stream, and secondly it leads walkers through the area to the Vilner Lane access point.

Erika and Peter checked out the Vilner Lane end before the construction began.

The first stage in building the fence was to set some upright poles along the line of the fence. Eric is putting a point on the end of a pole to make driving it into the ground easier. You can see the line of poles on the left of this photo.

Long thin poles are then woven between the upright poles to form the body of the fence.

Then this end of the fence is complete and leads to Vilner Lane.

While this was going on, Chris and I replaced post 13 which had been moved from its correct place.

Looking back towards the stile the fence curves around and you can just see the stream at the bottom of the drop.

The extension was continued at the far end of the fence up to the bug house constructed from the old wood recovered from the stile repair. Joe, Eric and Peter put the finishing touches to the new fence. 

We had a very good, constructive morning and despite the early rain the sun shone on us too.

Clearing Trees and More Work in the Paddock

 At Sunday's work party we had several jobs to do. 

A small tree had fallen and partially blocked the Jubilee Way path.

We cut it into smaller pieces and will save the larger ones for one of our many other jobs.

Over by the bridge near post 5 a tangled old tree was hanging over the steps and blocking the path. An unknown visitor had cleared away the worst of it so that people could get through, but some bits were left. Eric cut them right back so the path should stay open for some time.

Over in the Paddock, we started work on a path that will give access to Vilner Lane from the stile. Currently in this area there is no through route. Eric, Peter and Chris coppiced some poles from a lone hazel at the far end, then passed them on to Andy ---

--- who used them to build a new fence/dead hedge. We plan to join this up with the fence constructed by the UWE students last month. (See previous post)

Erika's Frosty Visit

 

Erika is one of our volunteers who help to maintain Filnore Woods. She went back to the woods on Sunday, after walking in the snow the day before, to see what a walk in the frost would be like. The following photographs show what she found.

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Frosty Filnore Woods, 3rd March 2024.

I found a female hazel flower. They are separate from the male catkins, a little way up the twig and are a tiny red spiky octopus-looking thing. This awaits pollen produced on the catkin to blow its way. 

               

There are buds of blackthorn, new shoots of birch, frosty ferns (hart's tongue), moss, thorny thistles ....

                

                       

    

                

                    

...and my favourite photo of the day the bramble that has had a leaf miner living in it that made this circular pattern.

  
                                                                 

Whilst in the woods we saw a Bull Finch, a Gold Crest, a Song Thrush, some Long Tailed Tits and Gold Finches. This was in addition to our friends the Dunnock, Robins, Blackbirds, Blue Tits, a Magpie and Pigeons. 

all photos by Erika Booth

Erika's Snowy Visit

 Erika is one of our volunteers who help to maintain Filnore Woods. She went to the woods on Saturday for a walk in the snow and took the following photographs which show a completely different aspect of Filnore to the one we have been experiencing recently.

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Filnore Woods in the snow today, 2nd March 2024.

Someone had been there early, to build the snowman.

I didn't sit down for a cuppa today

I quite like the paths through the trees, the features and some close ups with the snow.

all photos by Erika Booth