Clearing Paths

The first scheduled work party in July was held on Sunday 12th. This was in the middle of the fourth heat wave this year with temperatures often above 30 deg C so rather than cancel it as we did back in June, we started the session early at 9.30am when it was cooler then finished around 11.15am. We decided to clear the valley path near post 10, where we get primroses and bluebells in the spring. The path has narrowed considerably because of overhanging vegetation - mainly bracken. Then if there was time we could clear the path from the top of the valley along to post 6.

This was the path looking uphill. You can see the narrowing caused by the overhanging bracken

This is looking back downhill from the far end end in the previous photo.

Six volunteers turned up and we set about scything down the bracken.

Peter is dealing with the upper part of the slope.

Aiden and Luke are clearing the lower section while Cathy is moving the cut bracken away.

It wasn't long before the bracken was gone and the path restored. 

We had cleared it in good time and were all OK to continue so we moved up to the top of the path to deal with the narrow path between the viewpoint and post 6 at the top of the steps.

This is the path looking from the viewpoint end, near post 8 ....

... and this is looking back from the post 6 end.

Andy is making good progress ...

... and joined by Peter, Luke, Aiden and Cathy soon had the path opened up.

The path is now clear and hot weather will hold back growth so it may stay open for some time.

Despite the hot weather the volunteers did a splendid job today and achieved a lot.

A Bridge Too Far?

The second work party for June should have been Wed of last week. That was in the middle of the heat wave so we postponed it and held it yesterday the 1st July.

During the last few weeks the vegetation in Filnore has grown a lot and is beginning to close off some of the paths so our task yesterday was to open up the paths either side of the bridge near post 5 in the far corner of the woodland.

This is the path that coming from the meadow at the top of the pylon field to the bridge. You can see how narrow the space is.

There were only three of us - Eric, Peter and me so we got on with the clearing work.

We made a start by scything the edges

Then cut down the remaining grass and brambles to make the path wider.

Leaving a path down the steps giving good access to the bridge.

Over the bridge then to deal with the path up to post 6. This path is also getting choked with vegetation and would soon become impassable if we leave it as it is.

We set up a little base to work from, then had a go at the edges like we did on the other side of the bridge.

We cut down a considerable amount of material ...

... but the resulting clear wide path made the effort worthwhile.

On the way to the bridge paths we walked up the pylon field and through the meadow. There were lots of butterflies flying around. This is a good time to see them as the 'resident' ones like the Marbled White, the Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and Ringlet are currently flying. We also saw some visiting ones like the Red Admiral and Painted Lady. Here are photos of some of them.

Marbled White (Melanargia galathea)

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)

We had a good day out in the fine weather and achieved what we set out to do with only three volunteers. We were all quite tired by the end but were happy with the work we did.

Scything the Welcome Area - Again!

This post covers the last three work parties. The first one was on Sunday 10th May when four volunteers scythed the welcome area. I was away on that day and no photos were taken but the results would have been very similar to the main theme of this post. The following work party was scheduled for Wednesday 27th May but we had to cancel it because we were in a heat wave and working in such high temperatures would have been dangerous. Then on Sunday 14th June working conditions were OK and we got back to work.

In the following two photos you can see that the welcome area grass scythed a month before has grown back and needs doing again ... 

... along with the path alongside the allotments boundary.

Aiden started clearing around the edge of the welcome area where there is a considerable amount of encroaching vegetation ...

... while Peter, Eric and me started on the grass.

Meanwhile Jim, Kathy and Andy got on with the path by the allotments. The aim here was to clear away enough grass to create a wide enough path for walkers and other users. Clearing all the grass is too big a task using manual tools - the S Glos mowers haven't come yet to do the major mowing tasks!

We had a mid morning break ...

... then got back to work. Peter loading yet another barrow with grass cuttings while Andy, Jim and Luke are cutting and raking up some more for him.

We left a small area of the welcome area uncut to provide some shelter and cover for our small furry visitors, and somewhere for the airborne ones to land and get some sun, and the path by the allotments is now much easier to walk along.

A good morning's work on a pleasant day.

Path Edges Continued

For the work party on Wednesday 22nd April there was only me and Eric initially so we decided to have look around the woodland and make a list of jobs to be done.

As we wandered around we had time to see what was growing and alongside the valley path, near post 10, we found these lovely bluebells still in bloom.

We carried on up this path to the section we had worked on last time ...

... and met up with Peter who had been delayed. There was still work to be done here repairing the path edges so we got on with that.

It was mainly cutting some poles to the required length and fixing them in place with two pegs. 

Then levelling the pegs so that they weren't a trip hazard. 

When we had finished the path edge was much stronger and hopefully will last a while.

Dams and Path Edges

We constructed three leaky dams a couple of years ago to help reduce the problem of flooding downstream in the valley path. The idea of a leaky dam is to slow down the water flow not to stop it completely and as you can see in the following photo the dams we built were doing a good job.

After a couple of winters though, they began to show signs of age and needed some refurbishment.

You can see here a build-up of small pieces of wood, branches and some silt. 

We had taken a lot of wood up to the dam area at the last work party and intended to use it to rebuild the dams, but a closer inspection showed that the build-up was mostly the result of the small pieces floating down the stream, and that the majority of the structural pieces were still in good condition.

We cleared away most of the debris from the upstream side of the middle dam and found we still had a viable structure.

The dam furthest upstream wasn't quite so easy to clear ...

... but Luke and I kept at it and soon uncovered the main structure.

It didn't take that long to clear and tidy up the dams so we had a lot of poles left over and time to use them. The path edges up above the stream needed some repair and replacement and that occupied us for the rest of the work party.

Peter and Cathy are installing some new poles and pegging them in place ...

... Eric  and Luke are dealing with a tricky repair to a curved section.

More help arrived and the job was soon complete ...

... and we have a nice new edge to the path.

Further down the valley path we have a lovely patch of primroses and bluebells. A welcome sight as we move into spring.

A different day to the one we were expecting but a successful morning's work.