Journal of a volunteer
February 2009
| Wed 11th |
After I had folded copies of the latest FoAM newsletter and put them in the rack outside the office I started sorting out the information caravan with Robin. It had been over-wintered in the barn at Carey Park and the journeys to and fro had scattered the displays of leaflets. It was a rainy day and we were glad to be undercover, although the light was very dim in the caravan. We found ourselves another indoor job, tying the artists' charcoal into bundles with raffia. We now have two large biscuit tins full of artist's charcoal ready for sale. I just wish I could draw and take advantage of it.
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| Thur 12th |
It was a cold frosty start, which made it difficult to get a fire going. We were rhody bashing close to the site of the brine spill and also the site of the old toll cottage on Marbury Lane. Diana and Ian, then Chris and I, tried hard with paper, cardboard, kindling and matches. Meanwhile the sawing and lopping continued creating huge piles waiting to be burned. We fanned and blew, but all to no avail. After lunch, when we started from scratch again, it burst into flames with no bother. Blame the weather. For a few brief moments during the afternoon we couldn't decide whether there were flakes of snow falling or wood ash. In fact it was both, but it didn't last long. |
| Wed 25th |
Liz and I folded more newsletters to go in the dispenser outside the cabin, which filled some of the time until we were organised to start work. Chris had collected a trailer full of about 800 trees and shrubs from the nursery and Alan G, Ranjit, Alan R Liz, Jim and I set about planting them. Gorse and holly came in pots, but the rest were bare rooted plants, including hawthorn, blackthorn, alder buckthorn, dog rose and hazel. Jim and I started with the gorse. Once we had torn through the turf, the soil below was rich, damp and fairly easy to work. Well it was for me, as Jim was doing the digging and I was planting. I swear the green woodpecker was laughing at us all morning with our bums in the air. Chris took over the digging role after lunch and I continued planting. The woodpecker had gone quiet. By the end of the afternoon we still seemed to have a trailer full of trees and shrubs, but we must have planted at least 250 that will create an area of scrub around the scrape.
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| Thur 26th |
It was back to the tree planting. Frances and I teamed up amongst a bunch of ten volunteers. We took it in turns at digging and planting. With this mob-handed effort there were only about 50 trees left in the trailer by the end of the morning. We were very weary as we trudged back to the cabin for lunch. All of us drove down to Carey Park with Pete and Chris for a spell of slash and burn. Pete had already been alongside Witton Brook with the reed-cutter earlier in the week. Chris manoeuvred it on the twisting up and down pathway along the bank to complete the task. Frances and I walked on behind with litter-pickers and sacks. Most of the rubbish was from the remnants of the old tip, but as we got nearer to the reed bed the rubbish had floated downstream when the brook had been higher and got trapped between the reeds. By the end of the afternoon we had four sacks of rubbish to take back. The main job was to gather the cut reeds into piles and burn them. Diana got the first of the fires going while Frances and I were still picking our way along the bank. The weather had been kind over recent days and weeks, allowing the water level to drop, so we were working on a relatively firm, dry surface with dry reeds. We soon had a line of fires. The biggest problem at that stage was avoiding the smoke as the wind changed direction frequently. Knowing that the gates to the tip would be closed promptly at four we started to collect all our tools together and make our way back soon after half past three. The return journey was more eventful. The width of the pathway had somehow narrowed during the course of the afternoon so that the reed-cutter rammed into a tree and sank into a hole, necessitating some chain saw work and manhandling to get it up the slight incline. As Pete removed the obstructing hawthorn, he was told that it was ten to four. We could just make it. A few yards further on and we were closer to the brook. It was wetter. The wheels sank into the mud and no amount of manhandling would shift it. The only solution was to dismantle the machine, lift the parts clear and then put it back together again. We finally left the site at twenty past four via the Ladybird Gates and out onto Leicester Street.
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Mary - Volunteer
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Scrubbing up
Flaming reeds
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