Friday 28 February 2014

MNTV Social: Chilli Banana, Wilmslow 28/2/14

Recession, what recession?!

The Chilli Banana in Wilmslow was absolutely packed last night as 7 MNTVers met for the February social.

We had a lovely circular table upstairs which enabled us to chat to everyone across the table, and there was plenty to talk about and almost no time to draw breath.

That said, when the food arrived (we all decided to have the £25 banquet) it was really lovely and we enjoyed trying dishes that we hadn't eaten before.

There were 5 different starters and 4 main courses (my favourite was the 'heavenly beef') plus steamed rice and an accompaniment of  fried 'morning glory'. All this (and there was plenty for all of us) was topped off with a drink of Jasmine tea or coffee.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening, and great to catch up with fellow-MNTVers that we hadn't seen for a while:-)
Thanks to Andy for taking the photo.

Sunday 23 February 2014

Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on 23 February 2014

Six of us (four regulars and two newcomers) spent today laying a hedge in a field behind Daniel Hill Wood.  The hedge was close to ones that we laid in January and last November and we continued laying from where last week's mid-week workparty reached.

We divided ourselves up and throughout the day Matt and Mark laid the hedge, Daniel and Jane pruned the hedge so that it was ready to lay, Gordon started and stoked the fire and Adrian worked on the fire and moved prunings to it from the hedge.  We worked unsupervised (ranger Dave Standen transported our tools to/from the worksite), took a coffee and cake break at 11 and had lunch at 1.

Our hedgelaying is from the double-trunk tree leftwards
The weather was decent all day (mild temperature, a strong southwesterly wind but none of the forecast rain) and as we walked to the worksite we had excellent views to the Cage at Lyme Park and Kinder Scout beyond.
From left: Jane, Gordon, Mark, Matt, Daniel, Adrian
This was our last hedgelaying until the autumn because the bird nesting season will soon be upon us.

Sunday 16 February 2014

Lyme Park, Disley on Sunday 16th Feb, 2014

What a fantastic day to return to Lyme Park to do one of our favourite tasks - a traditional 'rhody-bash' and fire. It was also a fantastic turnout with up to 16 of our Group there at any one time:-)

Although we had a slow start, the slope we started working on was far too slippery to be safe for us to work there, so we transferred to the higher, flatter ground near to Paddock Cottage and started there.

It was a cool, dry day with fantastic views right over to Wales and, as there was an abundance of excellent tinder to start our fire, it wasn't long before it was up to full strength and almost keeping up with what we were cutting.


Everyone seemed happy, relaxed and really pleased to be back working at Lyme Park after an absence of nearly 4 years. Craig, the Ranger who oversaw the work we were doing, was pleased with the amount of rhody we cut back during the day.

We had a few 'newbies' with us, people who were out with us for the first time who had either responded to our recent advert in the Manchester Evening News for new volunteers or who had managed to find our contact details on the National Trust website. Fingers crossed that they enjoyed themselves and will come back on a future work day.

Overall we had a fantastic day and look forward to returning to Lyme Park again soon.
Thanks to Adrian for the photo's and to Sue and Karin for the fantastic cakes.

Sunday 9 February 2014

Hedge work in the high peak 9 Feb 2014

Eight volunteers braved the weather and spent the day between Hayfield and South Head farm preparing a hedge to be laid. The hedge laying itself will be done using chain saws by the staff at a later date and should be pretty quick as a result of the preparation that we have done. Once we had done that we spent some time trimming and thinning small trees in the area of woodland adjacent to the hedge.

Sunday 2 February 2014

Ash on the old brickworks at Styal 2 Feb 2014

Thanks to Adrian for the text and photos.
Four volunteers turned out to Styal and spent the day on an area of land known as the "Old brick works" - though most of the bricks we saw looked modern!
The work was cutting down ash trees (thinning) on the site of the old brick works and feeding them into a chipper.  As quite a lot of trees had already been felled when we got there we concentrated on moving the felled trees to the chipper and tidying the site.
At the end of the day when we took the tools back to the store we saw a cottage which is being built on the village green as a set for the channel 4 drama series The Mill. Despite its substantial appearance, the cottage is built of fake bricks stuck over chipboard, and will be removed after filming, however, the rood appeared to be real slate.