Category Archives: Volunteer Days

Volunteer Day – Sunday 4th March 2018

We had our third 2018 volunteer day today – the first opportunity after the snow. Main activities were working on the new trench at the bottom of the mound, to develop a more varied habitat in that part of the wood, planting some native yews and building and putting up some new nesting boxes. Here are some photos of that, just to prove that it is not only a bunch of old folk doing this. Also a little video to show that our bees have woken up.

Thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work and, as always, to Frank for tea, coffee and biscuits.

Volunteer Day – Sunday 4th February 2018

Our second volunteer session of the year was very well attended with committee members, regular volunteers and new volunteers. This morning’s event started earlier than usual as the group undertook, under the leadership of local expert naturalist Joe Beale, an early morning bird survey. Full results will soon be available on the website, but the list included gold finches, robins and a sparrow hawk made their names to the list.

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Volunteer Day – Saturday 6th January 2018

The first volunteer session of 2018 took place last Saturday morning. Despite the temperature of just 4 degrees, several committee members and volunteers arrived. Today’s theme was to assess potential projects for later in the year, taking advantage of the dry weather and trees that have lost leaves to consider new places for new trees to be situated, as well as thoughts on new areas that can be planted up.

Although winter has only just started, already in places there were signs of Spring flowering plants already starting to appear, including the bluebells and primroses we’ve previously planted. We also found a foxglove which looks like it has arrived without being planted, a good sign of the potential seed-bank in the “mini Glade” area.

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Volunteer Day – Saturday 4th November 2017

Normally we are blessed by having such good weather when we do our volunteer sessions and open days, but today looked definitely wet! But despite the greyness, a dozen volunteers and committee members turned up this morning.

The leaves are finally falling and turning yellows, browns with the odd red here and there. When you arrive in to The Glade, the large lime tree immediately as you enter looked magnificent, leaves falling to the ground but still with plenty of colour.

The below photos show leave covered footpaths, along with the autumnal atmosphere.

Fungi on rotting wood can be seen now, a good sign that the local ecosystem is at work, recycling nutrients that can be found.

The pond, despite a bit of pondweed on top continues to look healthy, there was the sound of something jumping in the water when the pond photo was taken. It’s a tribute to how well it was built in that it’s never needed to be topped up with water in the 18 months or so it’s been in place. And despite the cold and wet weather, there was a fair bit of bee activity around the hives too.

The usual weeding took place, with bramble behind the wildflower area in The Glade taking a pounding, but also bluebells and 10 Solomon’s Seal bulbs were added. The cold an wet weather didn’t slow down the progress here!

Volunteer Day – Saturday 2nd September 2017

Last Sunday saw another very well attended volunteer session with over a dozen committee members and volunteers tackling this month’s tasks.

It was disappointing to see that all the pears and apples had been taken by, we assume, local squirrels. Last month we saw around a dozen potential fruits which were looking good, but others got there first!

Pear tree, but without the pears!

Pear tree, but without the pears!

One of the main tasks was the weeding of The Mound area, which had become very overgrown with bindweed, plants working their ways around the small tree saplings. You can see in the photos the impact of 2 hours’ work on the area. Continue reading