Saturday 17 December 2016

Meal at the Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester on 15th December

Tonight Andy H, Andy S, Christine, Daniel, John, Karin, Megan, Sue and Tricia met for our annual Christmas Meal.  Where has 2016 gone?!  The venue this year was the Indian Tiffin Room - a 'street food' restaurant in Manchester near HOME (the art, theatre and film centre).  We had pre-ordered off the Christmas menu and everyone enjoyed their dishes.  Personally, my lentil flour crêpe with spicy potato masala filling and dips plus hot chicken curry and peshwari naan bread were delicious.

Everyone say "cheese"
We heard about everyone's Christmas plans, people's holidays in India, the recent High Wray Christmas weekend and - with a touch of envy - about one of our number's upcoming trip to Chile and Easter Island.

Thanks to Sue for organising the evening and for bringing the Chairman his new MNTV-logoed clothing!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our members.

Daniel

This imaginative wheels/lamp ceiling
hanging caught everyone's eye

Monday 12 December 2016

Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on 11th December 2016

Mince pies were provided for the last MNTV workday before Christmas.  We had fine weather and a good stretch of hedge to go at.  The twelve volunteers split into pairs (and a trio) and got quite a lot of hedge laid and brash burnt.  The sun nearly came out, the sheep in the field came over to investigate and the group ornithologist clocked up some fieldfares, nuthatches and a tree creeper, amongst others.  On a day like today hedgelaying is a pleasant mixture of problem solving and outdoor exercise.  We will be back again at Alderley in the New Year to carry on with the hedge.

Mick


Tuesday 6 December 2016

Finally getting to Cumbria - MNTV Christmas weekend at High Wray, 2nd-4th December 2016

This was our first proper Christmas weekend for two years: Storm Desmond wreaked havoc in 2015, the high winds causing the cancellation of our weekend, with the rain and consequent flooding taking the national headlines. This year Cumbria was in a much calmer state, and we enjoyed good weather throughout the weekend.
We were eleven strong in all, with nine arriving on Friday evening (most having met for a meal at the pub on the way) and two joining us at the worksite on Saturday morning. Having metaphorically shuffled our feet and looked askance when offered some hedge laying (a larger group isn’t ideal for the task, and several people usually end up getting cold – see ‘Alderley Edge Jan 3rd 2016’) our task would be pulling up an unwelcome encroachment of spruce next to a SSSI area of bogland above Windermere. This would be a much more energetic task and make sure we would all keep warm and supple all day.
Pip shows how it's done while Tim and Ranger Matt look on.
After Ranger Matt had shown us the technique for using a mattock and loppers to manoeuvre the spruce out of the ground (cunningly using a noticeably small specimen for his demonstration) we split into four groups to have a go ourselves. Some of the trees were between twenty and thirty feet tall, and tested our arms, backs, and other obscure muscles that only get woken up about once a year.
One for each of the twelve days of Christmas. All eleven of us now on the worksite, plus Ranger Matt.
Morning break saw us joined by Louise and Lyn (a small search party helped them to find their way across the bog to the worksite) and woodland ranger Richard, who had seen movement among the trees while out walking, and came to check that nothing untoward was going on. He was accompanied by both his dog and his son, who was magnificently attired in a tiny dragon suit. The dragon was particularly fond of chocolate brownies, which was handy, as we had plenty of them to go round.
Lisa demonstrates 'the death of Christmas' in tree form ...
... and hides among the debris. Note the fine badger bobble hat.
The heave-ho then continued, and a large pile of vanquished spruce began to accumulate, before we took lunch. Matt and Lisa headed off to start cooking Christmas dinner, taking two trees with them: a five foot spruce to use as the basecamp Christmas tree; and a one-footer to plant up at home. The rest of the gang continued to work throughout the afternoon, finishing up at 3pm to return to the basecamp. Two more spruces also made the journey back, to be taken home by Louise and Lyn.
Christmas dinner went like clockwork, and was served up at 6.30 bob on, with a strange absence of panic (I even had time to leave the oven for 20 minutes to get a shower), and there was just enough to go round with a small amount of leftovers. Dessert stole the show though, with the sticky toffee pudding (accompanied by a choice of toffee sauce, cream or fancy vanilla custard) going down particularly well. Louise warned us she might have to take hers to the dorm so we wouldn’t hear the rude noises she’d be making while eating it!
Back at the basecamp, enjoying the Christmas roast
After the traditional Secret Santa (no-one seemed upset by what they got, and some seemed positively delighted), Ally organised a couple of games which involved lots of names, lots of guesswork, the odd moment of confusion and lots of people on one sofa. For those present, a certain Irish musician will now forever be known as ‘Delivery’ Van Morrison and the Cluedo character Reverend Green will be associated with rap. After so much hard work and excitement in one day, it was no surprise that everyone was ready for bed by 10.30.
Sunday began with a steady trickle of people into the lounge/kitchen at regular intervals from 8am onwards. There was enough food for breakfast without adding a fry-up into the mix, so we decided the keep the bacon, sausages and eggs for lunch, and go for a walk by Windermere instead. Clear skies and a crisp frost made for a perfect winter morning in the Lake District, and we wandered along the shore to Wray Castle to enjoy great views of the Langdale Pikes, Fairfield and the low-lying countryside in between.
We set off on Sunday's walk with a spectacular backdrop of the Fairfield horseshoe.
The chill in the air made the lunchtime fry-up all the more welcome, and then before we knew it, it was time to clean up, divvy up the leftover food and head back down the M6. It was a very successful and enjoyable return to a beautiful part of the world. We’ll be back up here in August 2017, but in the meantime we have one more workday left this year – hopefully Mick & Pip won’t be left laying hedges on their own next week!

Wednesday 30 November 2016

Rhody weeding on Middle Moor, Hayfield - 27th November 2016

Three of us spent a cold clear day rhody weeding (pulling out rhody regrowth by hand) on Middle Moor near Hayfield.  We worked with rangers Mark and Vicky and by 2pm had cleared all the areas that Mark had earmarked for us.  From the first one we had great views of Chinley Churn, the Cage at Lyme Park and Lantern Pike, and from the second had views up to Kinder.

Weeds in front of us, Lantern Pike behind us

A lonely tree and a distant snowy Kinder

Sunday 20 November 2016

Rhody bash at Lyme Park on Sunday 20th November 2016

Nine of us worked in Lantern Wood today to cut and burn as much rhododendron ponticum as we could.


The weather was ok but not great, it was cold and dull and rained on us occasionally which was a shame. We had 2 'newbies', both of which worked really hard on their first workday with us:-)


We had a fantastic start when we discovered that Clare, one of the Lyme Rangers, had already set the fire and got it going for us - this was a real treat for us as we could get going straight away burning the cut rhody that had been left by the previous group.
 
We also had Dan, a youth Ranger who is also doing his Gold DofE, with us for the morning. Chris the lead Ranger, was helping some of the time and then Neil, another Ranger came and joined us for the last hour and stayed behind after we left to cordon off the fire so members of the public were aware of it's presence.
There's still plenty of rhody to cut and burn in Lantern Wood and we look forward to being back there again soon:-)
Photo's by Adrian

Saturday 19 November 2016

Rhodybashing at Bank House Farm on 13th November 2016

Six of us met at Bank House Farm on Sunday for a session of rhododendron bashing in the northern woods near to the oxbow.  This made access to the site a great deal easier because we had only to walk down a track and across a field to get there rather than the usual trek from the car park.

We had a splendid bonfire and cleared quite a lot from near the footpath to Giants Castle and as we were working near the path we also cleared quite a lot of litter.



As it was Remembrance Sunday we observed the minute's silence at 11 o'clock.

Adrian

Sunday 6 November 2016

Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on Sunday 6th November 2016

Eleven of us met in the NT car park by the Wizard Inn and after meeting Chris, the Area Manager. We walked across the fields to Hill Top Farm while Chris took our tools in the Land Rover and, when we arrived, Chris showed what we were to be doing.
This hedge had not been laid before and, although some work had been done prior to our visit to tidy it up by removing some of the side branches and 'breaking in' at different points so that a number of us could hedgelay along the length, it was still a very tricky hedge to work with.
Matt, one of our most experienced hedgelayers said it was the most difficult he'd come across, but he rose to the challenge and showed others how best to do it, refreshing some peoples skills and explaining to a new volunteer that came, how best to tackle it.
Others of us set a fire and started burning the branches that had already been cut then, once this had been done, burnt what was being cut on the day.
Others of us tried to remove the old rabbit guards that were put in originally when the hedge was planted, to keep the rabbits from nibbling the bark. Unfortunately some parts of the hedge had grown into and around the rabbit guards, making it very difficult to remove some of them.
It was a bitterly cold day and we even had rain, but we kept positive and got a tremendous amount done. We've only just started on this particular hedge so are expecting to be working on it quite a bit in the forthcoming months.
Photo's by Adrian.

Sunday 30 October 2016

Fencing work at Bank House Farm on the Styal estate on Sunday 30th Oct 2016

The work was a continuation of  work we have been doing on Bank House Farm removing old fencing which was no longer needed since the trust has decided to reduce the size of a number of fields and to allow the surrounding woodland to encroach slightly.
This time the 6 MNTV volunteers who were there today were removing a fence from round some seasonal ponds and from the top of the woods sloping down to the river Bollin most of the fence was quiet easy to remove except for a number of straining posts which had been made by cutting an old telegraph pole into sections.


These had to be lifted out by the tractor as they were still in good condition unrotted despite being there for many years and a larger diameter and greater weight than the usual sort of strainers.

The spade which was broken on a recent workday has also been mended with a new handle and made its maiden outing on the day and I am pleased to say performed very well.
Text and photo's by Adrian.

Sunday 23 October 2016

Rhody bash at Lyme Park on Sunday 23rd October 2016

Nine volunteers went to tackle the rhododendron in Lantern Wood today. We went past the grazing Highland cattle to reach the wood, where the sunshine slanted through the trees. After an introductory talk by the Ranger the group made short work of quite a lot of younger rhody trees.
So zealous were the volunteers, that the afternoon was devoted just to processing the cut wood and burning it.
A fallen tree provided an excellent lunch spot and bonfire toffee and chocolate spice cake kept the group going.
Text by Mick. Photo's by Adrian.

Sunday 16 October 2016

Tidying up at South Head, Hayfield on Sunday 16th October 2016

A poor weather forecast plus Adrian's work commitments meant just four volunteers today, of whom only three arrived.

Of all our worksites, Hayfield is the most exposed to the elements, so we were very glad when Shane told us (after demonstrating the extraordinary flexibility in his new shoulder) that we'd be working under cover.

We did some general tidying of the tool shed at South Head Farm, followed by lunch, followed by some general tidying of the barn, by which time it was a lovely afternoon.

It was great to catch up with Shane and Mark, and to have a visible impact on the tool shed (especially the windows). The only downsides were the low turnout and the fact that the 'assistant leader' put the chocolate brownies in the wrong bag!
Lisa does a fine 'George Formby'

Sunday 9 October 2016

Digging up trees and clearing brambles at Dunham Massey: Sunday 9th Oct 2016

We had a fabulous day today. The sun shone for most of it and it was glorious being outside and helping Ethan, the Dunham Ranger, with today's task.
Nine of us met Ethan in the car park at Dunham. He transported our tools and rucksacks in his trailer to save us carrying them and we walked to meet him at the 'dig-in' plantation towards the end of Charcoal Drive.
When Ethan unlocked the gate to the plantation and we wandered in, we saw how overgrown it was and how big some of the trees were! This area is meant to be a nursery area for trees whereby they are 'dug-in' for a short time before being transplanted elsewhere on the estate. Unfortunately this hadn't been done for some time and the whole area was overgrown with brambles and weeds. The tree's had been in there too long and were close together so needed either cutting down, if they were too large to move, or digging up and put in damp black bin bags to help the roots stay moist, while they were re-located to be re-planted the following day.
We were so lucky with the weather, it was dry all day and sunny for most of it too. When the clouds came over it went a little chilly but for our morning break and lunch, we were able to sit in the sun, relaxing - you couldn't beat it:-)
We spotted various wildlife while we were there - a mouse darted in front of us, we saw various frogs and made sure they were safe and well away from the slashers we were using to cut down the weeds. Hazel and Loretta also found various beetles and grasshoppers, which they loved putting on their hands and taking photo's of.
All in all a great day and, although we didn't clear the whole area by any means, we at least felt that we'd made a great impact!

Sunday 2 October 2016

MNTV rhodi-bashing at Lyme Park on Sunday 2nd Oct 2016

Beautiful sunshine again at Lyme, with a view over the Cheshire plain to the Welsh hills.
 
We were cutting and burning Rhododendron again, just below Paddock Cottage. This clump is nearly finished for cutting, but the rangers will have to keep the regrowth down for a couple of years yet. 
Getting to the site we went down Queen's drive, where Rhody has already been cleared and we could see that many of the new trees that MNTV have planted were doing well.
We were joined during the day by a couple of frogs and a mouse and the lunchtime entertainment included a conker fight which never reached a conclusion before work started up again.

Text by Mick.  Photo's by Adrian.

Sunday 25 September 2016

Tree guard painting at Hare Hill on Sunday 25th Sept 2016


Six volunteers had a bit of a lie in this week before meeting John the ranger at 10.15 in the car park at Hare Hill. The job was tree guard painting, a task familiar to many of us, as this is an ongoing project and the fourth time this year the group has participated.
The tree guards are of a wooden construction and look a lot smarter after a good scrubbing with a wire brush and the application of the green preservative. Unfortunately after painting the first guard the heavens opened and after the deluge had to be redone, the rain having washed away all our good work. In total we painted ten guards a bit of a record for such a small group.
The weather was reasonable for the rest of the day with just the occasional light shower, so it was a happy if slightly paint speckled group that called it a day at three thirty. However one of us had a slight accident with the paint and left looking like a bedraggled green smurf.

John the ranger has been in touch since to say thanks for a job well done and promises us more painting in the future, so maybe I’ll see you there. 
Text by Tim. Photo's by Adrian.


          

Saturday 24 September 2016

Quiz at Victoria Baths on Thursday 22 September 2016

For September's social six of us went to a fundraising quiz at Victoria Baths in Longsight.  We do one or two workdays each year at the Baths and this was the second time we had visited for a social (the first time being to see Romeo and Juliet in September 2014).

Teams were limited to four and so Sue and Neil supported Team MNTV (Daniel, Megan, Kate and Uta) from the bar.  The quizmaster was Anne Hegerty from ITV's The Chase, the 1000th episode of which she said is airing very soon.

Kate, Megan, Anne Hegerty, Daniel and Sue

The quiz was hard and we didn't do particularly well (we were nearer last of the 12 teams than first) but were chuffed to know an answer that Anne confessed she didn't know (that 'uncle' is a slang word for pawnbroker).  By happy chance we did very well in the raffle that followed the quiz and each of us took home a prize!

Before leaving Neil took us on a short tour of the Males Second Class pool and the Turkish Baths where we saw the beautiful Angel of Purity stained glass window and the Aeratone (the country's first jacuzzi).

Thanks to Neil for bringing the quiz to our attention and to Sue for organising our participation.

Daniel

Sunday 18 September 2016

Fencing removal at Styal on Sunday 18th Sept 2016

Ten of us were removing fencing around the fields on High Bank Farm, which is a new purchase to the National Trust on the Styal estate.
The Trust is expanding the woodland edge around the fields and a new fence had been installed further into the fields in the morning.
We finished removing a fence near the river which we started a few weeks ago, and in the afternoon we went into a field on the other side of the path and removed a length of fence there.
It was a great workday and a lovely day to be outside working hard:-)
Text and photo's by Adrian.

Sunday 11 September 2016

Tree and brash clearance at Lyme Park on 11th September 2016

We accomplished two jobs at Lyme today: in the morning we removed a fallen sweet chestnut in Crow Wood and in the afternoon cleared Corsican pine logs and brash from a plantation near the main carpark.

The Crow Wood job was necessitated by last week's winds toppling a 50-year old sweet chestnut.  It demolished another tree on the way down and since then the rangers had chainsawed the trunks and branches into small pieces.  By forming a fireman's chain we moved the debris up a small slope onto the tractor trailer that Jamie drove to the bonfire pile.  Three trailer loads were needed to clear away the whole lot.  During the log removal Tim disturbed and caught a toad!

Sweet chestnut cuttings in Crow Wood
After lunch we moved to the 'second plantation on the left of the main drive' - passing MNTV's 30th birthday oak and plaque - and spent a couple of hours moving Corsican pine logs and brash out of the plantation.

Fallen logs made a comfortable perch for lunch
The pines have recently been heavily thinned out and we were clearing out the cuttings.  A few trunk stumps have been left in place for the stags to rub their antlers on.  The maturer trees that the rangers want to become established further have all been protected by wooden tree guards to prevent damage by deer.  During the afternoon Tim disturbed and caught another toad!

Corsican pines in the second plantation
The weather was beautiful all day and everybody enjoyed themselves.  We are next at Lyme on 2nd October.

Daniel

Sunday 4 September 2016

Tree guard painting at Hare Hill, Sunday 4th Sept 2016

Nine enthusiastic MNTVer's turned up at Hare Hill today ready for painting more tree guards.
John Mann, the lead Ranger at Hare Hill, met us in the car park and explained that we would be continuing the painting of tree guards, this time in North Park. The Rag Wort had already been pulled so it we just needed to wire brush and then paint as many tree guards as we could.
We really got stuck in and, after lemon drizzle for coffee break followed by more tree guard painting and a well deserved lunch break, by the end of the day 12 tree guards had been wire brushed but we only had enough of the water-based Cuprinol to paint 10 of them - shame!
Tim modelling a wheelbarrow 'chair!'
John also entertained us telling us of how he was trying to make an orange wheel out of equipment he had on site because the Tour of Britain was going past Hare Hill on the Tuesday afternoon; we left him pondering what best to do.
A lovely day was had by all:-)





Monday 29 August 2016

Wharfedale Weekend - burning laurel in the Yorkshire Dales: 26-28th August 2016 (Bank Holiday weekend)


A fire, a storm and a Lentil Stew - 6 travel to Wonderful Wharfedale
Participants: Sue B, Tim O, Louise L, Neil B, John W and Ally H. Rangers were Peter and Roisin.
Staying at the Town Head Barn in Buckden.
It started on Friday night with a meal in the Buck Inn, 4 of us sat down to a very tasty meal and just after we had ordered John appeared so we added his order to ours and set about swapping stories. At a just before 8 pm Neil, Sue and Ally headed back to base as Louise was due to arrive at that time. Tim and John W stayed at the Buck Inn and tried the Cider and Beer.
Saturday dawned bright but cloudy and the task was lopping and burning laurel in Redmire Wood.
Redmire Wood was a short walk along the river from the basecamp and was created for Buckden House which was the residence of Sir John Charles Ramsden and his wife during 1831-1879.  The wood was cared for by the Stansfield Family until 1938.  The woods were used as a pleasure park and so had lots of interesting trees from all over the world.  There are carriage tracks going up the side of the hill for people of yester year to enjoy views of the valley.  It was this we were trying to get back.  It will never be as it was as there are some very large trees, some of which are quite rare.
The laurel had been left for quite some years and was out of control and so we were getting rid of it.  We did this by lopping and sawing our way through the big and small bushes and burning it. We spent the morning chopping, sawing, dragging and burning the laurel. 
We ate our lunch by the fire on a flat area of ground and swapped stories, during the afternoon we carried on lopping, sawing and burning. We put the larger branches in piles to form wildlife habitats or insect hotels. The thinner longer branches were piled up and cut up  with loppers and then put on the fire.
At about 2.30pm we decided to stop cutting so we could burn all the laurel that we had lopped and cut. Some of us headed back to the base camp shortly afterwards Neil and John stayed to tend the fire until it had burnt down enough to be left and wouldn’t set the rest of the forest on fire. Once we were all back at the basecamp we decided a trip the pub was deserved so the 6 of us headed for a swift pint. Ally, Sue and Neil headed back to base early to make the dinner and were joined just as dinner was ready. We dined that evening on Lentil Stew and Pasta with Salad, desert was Meringue with Strawberries and Cream.
Ally "chillin' "

That night there was a thunder storm which woke some people up but others didn’t hear and didn’t believe had happened.
Sunday dawned cloudy with moisture in the air it didn’t stay like this long though.  We breakfasted on cereal and toast with bacon and eggs available too. Our Ranger today was Roisin, she met us at 9.20 at the barn with two other Volunteers Simon and John.  We spent the morning carrying on with the work we had started the day before, but because there had been rain during the night and the ground was slippery we split onto two levels. John W and Neil got the fire going and we started lopping, sawing and dragging. The fire didn’t really get going with all the prodding and poking so we had a coffee break during which Roisin produced some of her cakes she had entered into the competition at Malham Show where she had been the day before with a stall for the National Trust. Unfortunately she didn’t win any prizes for her cakes we of course gave her first prize, during our break the Fire finally got going so we carried on burning. At about 12.30 Roisin took Sue, Louise, Ally, Simon and John to see five very tall Giant Redwood trees and den area.
We finished working at 1pm ate our lunch and then headed back at the basecamp. Cleared up and Tim, Louise and Sue headed for home.  That left Neil, John W and I as we were staying Sunday night we ended our weekend with a trip to the pub for our evening meal.
Many thanks to all who came and the Rangers for not cancelling the weekend due to small numbers. I look forward to seeing more of you next year.
Text by Ally.