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

            

          

           

                

           

                   

              

          

Step Repairs in the Paddock

The steps from the stile into the paddock have been shut off for a while since we found that they had become unsafe. The wood used to construct them had begun to rot away making them slippery, especially after it had rained. We began the repair last week, when the UWE students were with us, to get a head start before the work party we had on Wednesday this week. 

We had removed the old wood that formed the treads, the side pieces and the risers, and found some new pieces as possible replacements. 

                               

The old stuff was just left in an untidy heap!

At the work party more wood was recovered from the cuckoo pen where we had previously been coppicing and used to form new risers and side pieces, then Erika and Mike began to fit it all together like a giant 3D jigsaw.    

                                    

Everyone had a go at sorting out the new steps and despite the light rain all morning we made some new and safer steps. Woodchip was liberally sprinkled to level them up and finish them off, then Erika 'officially' opened them.

While this was going on, Dendy reclaimed all the old wood from the steps, plus some other bits and pieces that were lying around, and turned them into a splendid home for some of our local wildlife and invertebrates. 

WOW Students Visit

 Last week nine students from the University of the West of England volunteered to work in Filnore Woods as part of their WOW week. They are all 1st Year Occupational Therapy students and at this time of year they have a week called Widening Occupations Week - WOW, during which they do volunteering work in the wider community as part of their course. 

We have been coppicing in the Paddock area over the past few months and found that there is a steep drop down to the stream which flows past. When this area was worked on some time ago a fence was built on the bank alongside the stream. Over time it has deteriorated and needed replacing so that was the task the students worked on.

On Monday six of the students arrived and our first job was to clear the brambles and other bits of vegetation away from the stream bank. You can see some of the poles from the old fence on the left.

Clearing this area was hard work but with everyone pitching in it wasn't long before the stream bank was accessible and we could soon start to construct the fence.

We began by making a line of stakes 2 to 3 feet apart then weaved thinner lengths of hazel poles between them at ground level. This helps to hold the stakes in place when more layers are weaved higher up the fence.

We carried on weaving using the thinner poles produced when we coppiced the paddock last autumn. When the fence was nearly up to the top of the stakes the odd 'sticky out' bits were tidied up and this section of fence was complete.

The other three students arrived the next day and began to extend the fence beyond the hazel tree you can see at the far end. We needed more stakes and some thinner poles so Hannah and Eilish coppiced them from a small hazel near the one that was to become the starting point of their fence.

Once they had enough stakes and thin poles they were joined by Supresha and began to build....

 

...and before long the fence extension was complete.

We were very pleased with all the hard work put in by both sets of students and hope to see them again some time in the future. They are a shining example of young people helping others in local communities.