More Mowing

At the work party on the 12th May we began the scything season by clearing the area along the hedge between Filnore and the allotments and had hoped to continue by clearing the the two hedges either side of the entrance at the next work party. Unfortunately this was cancelled because of rain so we had another go last Sunday (9th June).

As you can see, the outsides of both hedges are pretty well full of vegetation that's stopping light getting to them.

The other side is just as bad so we had to get rid of the weeds and open up the hedge again.

Derek, Peter, Eric and Will got stuck into clearing that side and soon made good progress. 

On the other side, Jim and Mike were making good progress too.

While Erika cut a solitary path behind the hedge near the allotments and found :- 

We don't know whose home this was but we think it may have been a wren. If anyone does know please tell us. By the way, this isn't where the nest was built. It fell out of the hedge and was placed it that position for the photo.

                 

Erika then carried on and soon had the weeds cleared and opened up the hedge to the light.

On the other side of the entrance Jim, Eric and Mike had opened up that hedge and produced a lot of arisings.

Which Will and Peter are putting in the pits along the ride beside the allotments.

Whilst we are waiting for the S Glos mowing team to come and cut the paths and Welcome area, Andy had made a path through the grass from the entrance to the bench so our visitors can have a rest without getting their feet wet!

Erika's Flowery Walk in June

 Erika, one of our work party volunteers, was walking in the woods recently and took some lovely photos of the flowers she found there. Here is her description of them :- 

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June in Filnore Wood

The meadow areas have Red Clover. Apparently once a bee has taken the nectar it only takes 15 minutes for the flower to refill its stores, one of the quickest flowers to refill so very beneficial to pollinators.

 

The Buttercups are peaking at the moment. I like this one with the bug.

Dock and Cowslips are forming.

 

Wild Roses have a large open flower whereas the Elderflower has a collection of little tiny individual ones that form large clumps. Both have a lovely perfume.

I like the close proximity of the Oxeye daisy and the Teasel stalk, just to confuse, in this photo from the top meadow area.

And lastly this close up of some Sorrel, full of pollen and waving high above the rest of the plants to catch the wind.

All photos by Erika Booth

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. 

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.