A depleted work party met the first Tuesday of June and were disappointed to find that after weeks of warm dry weather, they were welcomed with drizzle and a cool wind.
For this month’s working party they were joined by Steve Goodwin, with the intention that he would help set up a transect route to monitor butterflies in the area. Unfortunately, the weather put an end to those plans and Steve has promised to return at a future time when the weather is more conducive for that task..
The team still had several other tasks planned and, once it was obvious that the butterfly transect was out of the question, they got on with preparing a hole to plant an apple tree in the area recently wild seeded in front of the café and to ‘tidy up’ the live hedge around the car park.
This first task proved to be slightly problematic, initially due to the solid ground and then, having succeeded in digging deeply enough, in striking a solid lump of concrete, probably left by the builders when the café was built. A second successful attempt was then made and the tree finally planted, complete with two supporting stakes.
Whilst the tree was being planted two other members of the team, advised by Steve, had been busy cutting the live hedge at the base and trying to repair it where it had been damaged by persons unknown, who had obviously found it easier to break down the hedge to take a short cut to the fields than walk the short distance around it! A future task will be to lay additional dead branches into the top half of the hedge in order to weave in the new growth.
Finally, as the morning drew on, the team made their way to the bottom of the fields where the dead hedge, completed only a couple of months ago, had been partially dismantled to build a den of sorts. It was at this point that the cold and rain finally defeated them, and the remaining members made their way to the Holly Blue who yet again provided them with welcome hot coffees and cake.
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