Monday 24 May 2010

Biddulph Grange Garden 23 May 2010


Seven of us went to Biddulph Grange Garden near Congleton for a joint workday with Wolverhampton NTV. The twelve of us spent the day weeding a patch of ground beside Lime Avenue. We left the foxgloves, hollies and yew saplings in place but hoed, pulled and dug out everything else and left the weeds in neat piles dotted around the area.

It was the hottest day of the year so far and we were glad to be working in the shade of the limes. The garden was thronging all day long with people enjoying the beautiful weather and vivid spring colours. Hopefully lots of them rated their visit "Very Enjoyable" and helped Helen Wilshaw meet her "customer satisfaction" target.

The more active members of the group now have name badges. Remind Daniel to give you yours when you next see him.

Monday 17 May 2010

Erddig

Thirteen volunteers travelled to Erddig near Wrexham for the weekend.

We arrived on Friday night at the Yale Hostel and were welcomed by Charlie who had salad, jacket potatoes and two pots of Chili (vegetarian, and not) - on the table ready for us. After an evening chatting at catching up we drifted of to bed in one of the three dorms, and resurfaced on Saturday morning at a various times but all quite early.

Photo - painting at the endWe had breakfast - cereal / porridge and bacon butties, and prepared lunches. We were ready in time for the warden who arrived at 9:00. Most of the group collected bikes and dropped their kit off in the land rover, some people listened to the description of where the work site was - but most people just followed the person at the front - who turned out to have been one of the ones who was not listening! After a short detour we cycled back to a field where we met up with the walkers and the land rover.

The task was to build a post and rail fence ready of a carriage driving event later this summer. We started the fence in the middle and worked in tow teams towards the ends - as the ends do not need to connect directly to other fences this method worked well here - allowing all of the group to get involved. The fence we built is one of a pair that define an area for the audience between two "arenas".

Photo of photographer, photographing painting volunteersWe started painting the fence on Saturday afternoon once we had reached one end.

At the end of Saturday we were pleased with out efforts and so was Bryn the warden. We returned to base, got cleaned up, and cooked supper - chicken casserole followed by Rhubarb Crumble, then walked to the pub.

The walk was far better than the pub - and it had been a long day so we drifted of a little earlier, and again resurfaced in the morning with different people reappearing at different times ranging from 5 am to 8:30. Still we were ready for work at 9, and walked to the field, we finished the fence (approx 120 yards), and got it all painted .


We ate our sandwiches in the garden of the hostel, cleaned up after ourselves, and then went for a tour of the house before returning home. The weather on both days was bright with sunny spells, cool with quite a strong breeze, the promised rain did not materialise which made the conditions ideal for getting a lot of work done.

More pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/MntvMemSec/ErddigWeekend201002# and http://picasaweb.google.com/MntvMemSec/KarinSErddigPhotos#

Monday 10 May 2010

Dunham Massey

near the start of the days workEleven volunteers turned out and spent the day making good progress with the edging of charcoal drive.

The beauty of this job is that you can safely work close enough together to talk, and you can see the difference you are making.

Arthur met the footman
We had an interesting break at lunch time - a tour of the house which was populated for the day by some of the "staff and family". Arthur was keen to be photographed with the footman - we obtained permission and did not use a flash.

Over the course of the day we did a considerable length of both sides, though it is difficult to judge from the photographs.photo contrasting before and afterThe distance to the trailer in this last picture is about 1/3 of the total that we trimmed