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.

          

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

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.

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

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:-)