Continuation of the pond clearance at Dunham Massey on 27th July 2014

Ten MNTVers turned up today to continue the work that our Group and the Merseyside NT volunteers had been involved in a fortnight ago.

Today we were with Wendy, an intern Ranger at Dunham, and Steve who is a long-term volunteer there.

We split ourselves so we were working in 2 ponds: Island Pond with Steve to clear the Iris and any Lillies that got in the way! and in Old Mans Pond with Wendy trying to pull out some of the Crassula and put it on black liner on the bank.

To avoid cross-contamination of any pond weed as there are different types in the 2 ponds, once we were in our groups and working in a particular pond, we couldn't then work in the other pond wearing the same waders.

The wader wearers!

The weather turned out to be glorious, although it tried to lightly rain on us when we first arrived, so at break and lunchtimes we re-grouped and shared cake and chat on the grassy bank by Old Mans Pond.

Working in Old Mans Pond

Wendy and Steve were really pleased with the amount of Iris and Crassula that were removed from the ponds, but there's still plenty more to go at!!!

Island Pond showing the clump of Iris we were removing

Another, more distant view, of Island Pond         

MNTV social: cycle ride with SCCC Wednesday 23rd July 2014

It was a beautiful sunny evening, ideal weather for cycling in the countryside:-) The plan was for us to once again join Stockport Community Cycling Club (SCCC) on one of their regular Wednesday evening summer cycle rides. We had successfully done this for the 2 years previously, exploring Gatley & Cheadle in 2012 and the Heatons in 2013.

This time we were meeting at the Lapwing Centre in Brinnington and from there cycling on the pedestrian bridge over the M60 and almost instantly being in beautiful countryside for the next 10miles, exploring the old railway line at Godley near Hyde alongside canals and rivers mainly using disused railway lines and tracks, barely using public roads at all.

It was a lovely ride, although most of it was on the flat, there were a few challenging hills and we even had to dismount and carry our bikes over a narrow foot bridge at one point. Nonetheless, a lovely evening to be out and about.

But where were the MNTVers?.......the fearless, energetic members of our Group?
They were no-where to be seen! I tried, I looked right and I looked left, but none were there!! Fortunately I wasn't alone as about 30 from the SCCC group were there, most doing the 10 mile ride, while a few 'newbies' tried a shorter 6 mile route with a couple of the more experienced cyclists.

What can I say? you missed a treat. Maybe you'll be tempted to join us if we do another cycle ride next summer?

I looked right.......

....I looked left, but where were MNTVers?!

Himalayan balsam removal at Styal on 20th July 2014

We had a turnout of 6 and were working in the Southern Woods some were removing Himalayan balsam by using slashers to cut them off at ground level, while 2 mended the nearby chestnut paling fence. At the end of the day a large area had been cleared of balsam and the fence had been properly fixed. See photo's.

 

Text and photo's provided by Adrian.

Pond work at Dunham Massey on 13 July 2014

Today we had a joint workday at Dunham Massey with Merseyside NTV.  There were nine of us and six of them.  As hoped, Anne Yates MBE, who last year completed 25 years' service with MNTV, was in the car park when we arrived and so we all congratulated her on her award, heard about her big day at Buckingham Palace last month when she received the award from Prince Charles, looked at her photos and saw the beautiful medal itself.

Once Anne left we walked over to Island Pond where we spent the day working with ranger John Mann (back on light duties after his operation) clearing irises from the margins of the pond near the inlet.  All afternoon we worked to the sound of brass band music drifting over from the summer fete at the back of the house.

(Left to right) Lisa, Adrian, Matt and Neil 

The tried-and-tested technique for iris clearance is for those in the pond to cut the iris bed up with spades, fill bread baskets with the cuttings and then people on the bank drag the baskets up planks out of the pond.  From time to time Tim O amused us all with cries of 'crocodile' or 'snake' to keep those in the water on their toes!  We didn't see the terrapins that John said we might but Karin did find a frog (or was it a toad?) and we saw ducklings, a heron, moorhens and lots of small fry.

We finished at 15:30 and some of us then went for bara brith in the Visitors' Centre cafe.

Rhodi Bashing at Hare Hill on Sunday 6th July 2014

Six volunteers meet up with the ranger Julia in the car park at Hare Hill this week. The first task was the removal and burning of rhododendron abutting the fence surrounding the pistol pond area ready for the replacement of the mesh netting at the fences base used to stop rabbits getting in. Don’t worry there’s plenty of grass in the fields for them to munch on without them getting at the good stuff in the garden. 

 

The second task was the removal of old wrought iron. Originally part of the old fence it had been left in the soil when the new fence was put in place and consisted of a rusted razor sharp spike on top of horse shoe arrangement buried in the earth with the spike sticking a few inches out of the ground. To emphasise the obvious danger of these spikes to the unwary walker one of the volunteers accidently stepped on one which easily penetrated the sole of her footwear narrowly missing her foot and ruining her wellies to boot. Unfortunately Tim the leader this week had a serious case of man flu but still managed to turn out and do a good days work, indeed Julia was heard to say that in her opinion he deserved a medal. 

 

Karin provided smashing rice crispy and dark chocolate squares as Tim was far too ill to bake.  The weather was fine all day until the heavens opened about 2.30pm when we decided to call it a day.

In total we cleared and burnt about 20 meters of rhododendron and dug up about 15 of the treacherous spikes.

 

Thank to Julia for organising a fun work day and staying with us all day.