Royal Exchange Theatre trip, 15 April 2009

Theatre visits are a particular favourite among the group and we often take advantage of the half-price preview nights at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. This time we saw the Bernard Shaw play 'Widower's Houses'. It was a very amusing play that kept us needing to know what would happen next. It also had a topical theme - trying to make money from property. We were all waiting for the market to crash and the characters to lose out from their greed, but the play ended before that had chance to happen. It was another very enjoyable evening.

Lyme Park 19 April 2009

I stayed at home this week, so thanks to Daniel for the text and photo

Eight of us enjoyed a varied workday at Lyme Park in fabulous spring sunshine. The chairman made his first worksite appearance of 2009! We split into two groups of four in the morning: one group attached chicken wire to tree guards near Lantern Wood and the other group edged the lawn outside the stableyard. After lunch we worked as one group near the shop bowsawing up a black poplar and oak tree that had blown down in the winter gales. The trees had fallen on top of a drystone wall and we were beginning the process of cutting them up so that they can be chainsawed, cleared away and the wall repaired. Lyme has 20 miles of drystone wall and there is a team of mid-week volunteers dedicated to patching them up!

The warm sunny weather brought out the crowds and the wardens had to leave us after lunch to manage the carparking. The main carpark below the hall can take about 550 cars and on bumper days like today more than 1200 cars come through the gates

Pie night 8 April 2009

Tonight we enjoyed a variety of homemade pies at the Coach and Four in Wilmslow. The pies (and portions) exceeded all expectation and a fun night was enjoyed by all.

Dunham Massey 5 April 09

A number of new volunteers and a few of the usual suspects turned out to Dunham Massey on sunday. We divided into two groups and 5 volunteers spent the morning finishing the last 10 feet or so of hedge (see 1 March 2009 - Hedge Laying at Dunham Massey). Technically it is to far into spring to be doing this (as the sap was rising and there will soon be nesting birds), however as there were no birds yet in that last section and it looked a bit silly stuck up at the end it was decided to finish the job.

These five then travelled back to join the rest of the volunteers among the oaks we platned within a large fenced enclosure in the deer park a few years ago (preblog). Where the other job was removing birch scrub that were in danger of overshadowing the slow growing oaks.

Brambles were a bit of a pain - though Bramble the warden's dog was lovable.

Biddulph Grange 29 March 09

We were warmly welcomed by the head gardener at Biddulph, and after a precautionary boot disinfection (to avoid the spread of fungal diseases) set to work clearing Rhodadendron and planting sapplings of - yew, holly and a small desciduous tree - who's name I've forgotten.

We didn't get all the planting done in time so a percentage of the plants were "healed in" to keep them alive till the regular staff / volunteers could finish the job. We briefly met the gardener's family, disinfected the tools and our boots before returning to Manchester