Six Men Went to Mow

At the work party last Sunday (12th May) we began the scything season.

The area along the hedge between Filnore and the allotments has grown quite considerably and the bracken in it is starting to grow. To prevent this spreading too much - we have quite a lot of it at Filnore, we began to cut it down. As well as clearing the bracken this will also let more light get to the smaller trees and stuff forming the hedge.

Out came our six scythes and we set to work cutting down the grass and bracken. 

When we were cutting close to the hedge great care was taken not to cut down the bluebells growing there. You can just see a patch to the left of Eric.

As the work progressed we produced a lot of brash - cut material; that was raked up, put in the barrow then unloaded into the pits further along the path. The pits were made over 10 years ago by some mountain bikers who wanted a more challenging ride!

Here Eric is repairing part of the hedge between us and the allotments where it had been broken down by someone wanting to get through. Don't know why they needed to do that - the main entrance is only a few yards away!

A little while later the ground had been cleared and tidied up and the work was done for the day ...

... until we need to re-visit in the autumn.