Ivy clearance at Quarry Bank Mill on Sunday 15th December 2024

We had a good turnout for our last workday of the year as ten of us joined ranger Stuart for a bit of hedge maintenance.

We were working in Apprentice Lane, which runs from the apprentice house to the Methodist church in Styal village.  The hedges had not been cut back for many years and therefore had ivy growing right through them.  In fact in places the ivy was the only thing keeping the hawthorn hedge standing!

So we set to trying to untangle the ivy by cutting/pulling it out.  Time passed so quickly because you actually felt you were achieving something that it was time to pack up before we knew it!

We had a lot of people passing by as we were working, some asking what we were doing and some very kindly thanking us which makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks to Stuart for a great workday and thank you to my colleagues for their good company and hard work.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christine 

Christmas in Cymru ... not quite the weekend we were expecting ... 7th/8th December 2024

It's becoming a tradition ... the first full weekend in December is our Christmas meet - once again in Snowdonia because the bunkhouse is free!

Six of us travelled across to Hendre Isaf on Friday evening, all glad to arrive before Storm Darragh hit.  We all received the Government red alert message as we drove - saying the red alert began at 3am on Saturday and giving advice about how to prepare for loss of power/electricity and generally keep safe.

Sure enough, the gales blew all night and it was no surprise that Saturday's workday was cancelled because of the danger of working near trees, flying debris and it being unsafe to be out and about.

What to do now ... well, Denise and Martin both reached for jigsaws of which the bunkhouse had several and we set to work solving them.  We had this 500 piece one done by 11am.  Neil was given the honour of putting in the last piece!

On several occasions the lights all went out, only to (thankfully!) come back on seconds later.  The rain hammered down and the wind blew - at times shaking the road sign outside the bunkhouse!

After lunch the weather had calmed down a little and the rain had stopped.  Five of us went on a safely-away-from-trees walk on the road up the valley to the tiny hamlet of Ysbyty Ifan.  The river was in spate and was thundering under the bridge.  We looked round the church then headed back.  Denise used the privvy of a widow who at 86 years old is still farming sheep!

Back at base we freshened up and after a couple of hours were tucking into a scrumptious Christmas dinner of turkey (nut roast for Tim) with all the trimmings followed by Mary's homemade Christmas pudding with brandy sauce.  That was a good meal!

Secret Santa then called and everyone received a gift:

We were determined to complete the 1000 piece jigsaw that Martin had started in the morning, and got it done by 10:15pm.  Trees and sky held us up for quite a long time at the end.  Neil again fitted the last piece!  Three pieces were missing and Daniel noted this on the inside of the box lid.  It was eight months to the day since the puzzle was last completed and on that date there were two missing pieces!

On Sunday the wind had died down a lot and Lewis confirmed by phone that the workday was on.  He met us at Hendre Isaf at 9:30 and we drove in his pickup and Neil's car to the worksite near Ty Mawr.  We passed last year's worksite on the way!  The task was to remove tree guards from oaks that had not been tended to for years and cut down any invasives like birch.  The ground was very steep in places and we had to work and tread carefully.  The old guards were bagged up and dragged down the slope to the carpark.

Lewis is the TWIG (The Woodland Investment Grant) ranger and will be with the Trust for about 2 years to oversee planting of 100,000 saplings across Snowdonia.

We finished the workday at 12:30, had lunch at Hendre Isaf, tidied and swept up then left for home.  All in all it was an excellent weekend, and more sociable than ever because of the enforced day indoors on Saturday.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Daniel

Tree thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 1st December 2024

We gathered at a small carpark at the bottom of Alderley Edge, by an old quarry on the first day of winter.

There are two patches of meadow above and below the quarry face that have saplings in and the task was to remove the samplings so it stays an open area.

We set to work in the upper meadow, pulling up birch, beech and sycamore saplings, but leaving the oak and broom.

We took tree poppers. spades, mattock, saws and loppers. The poppers weigh around 10kg, so they are hard work to carry around, but they do a good job at pulling up trees by their roots.  The trees were well anchored in and even with the tree poppers hard to get out.

We quickly realised that despite it being December the weather was warm, so when the drizzle stopped we took off our coats - I even took off my jumper.

We had Ginger cakes and mince pies at morning break. It was a lovely spot in the winter sunshine - we could hear woodpeckers in the trees.

Some of the “saplings” were too big to get the jaws of a tree popper round, so after lunch we moved to a different area above the quarry face and picked out the “easier” ones.

We had a good day, and you can see from the photo that we made a difference.

Jenny

Cancelled - workday at Hayfield on 24th November 2024

Unfortunately due to the recent snow and continued freezing temperatures up until the weekend the ranger could not confirm whether ground conditions were going to be suitable for the planned task until Saturday at the earliest.  As such, he decided reluctantly to cancel the workday.

The Hayfield rangers look forward to hosting us in January when hopefully the weather will be more favourable!

Tree thinning at Lyme Park on Sunday 17th November 2024

Six volunteers from MNTV turned up today, despite rain being forecast for most of the afternoon.

We met Chris the Ranger in the main car park and drove from there to the Knot car park.  Two joined Chris in his vehicle with the rucksacks and tools to drive down West Drive and up towards Paddock Cottage where they waited for the rest of us to join them.

From there we each carried a bowsaw and pair of loppers to the worksite, which was a densely wooded area, which we got to along a narrow, muddy and steep path.  We took it carefully!!

Once there, Chris sprayed white spots on numerous birch trees and a few oak that needed felling so that more light would flood the area enabling the remaining oak to grow strong and proud.

It was dry to start off, then the rain came - the question was asked "Is this the rain that's forecast at 2 o'clock and will last all afternoon, which has come a bit early?".  Fortunately, no it wasn't.  The rain ceased after a while - phew!!

We stopped for a coffee and cake break and it started raining!!  The same question was asked -  "Is this the rain that's forecast at 2 o'clock and will last all afternoon, which has come a bit early?".  Fortunately, no it wasn't.  It stopped after a while - phew!!

We tried to start a fire using an out-of-date bandage with a lint pad of Neil's, some paper of Adrian's and Mary's flint and steel fire starter kit.  It all worked well until we realised that the wood we were using as kindling wasn't dry enough to burn.  That was very frustrating!

However, overall we made good progress, felling plenty of trees and leaving them to rot down where they lay.  Then, just us we were starting to feel pleased with how things were going, the rain came again - it wasn't even 1 o'clock by then but the response to the question asked this time was Yes, it did seem likely that this was the 2pm rain that had come early, and it would likely continue all afternoon.

We agreed not to stop for lunch, but to finish felling all the trees with the white spots and then head home.

We enjoyed the day, working hard and having a chat, but it was a shame we couldn't get even more done.....maybe next time?

Sue B

Rhodybash at Alderley Edge on Sunday 10th November 2024

Eight of us met up at the Wizard car park before heading off to the rangers yard to collect tools.  We were asked about our ability to use the winch to pull up rhody roots and all, but decided to start without it and review the situation at brewtime.

Thanks to Jenny for scouting out the worksite earlier in the week as I would definitely not have found it otherwise.  It was near Holy Well:

I have to say this was one of the most challenging worksites I have worked at.  It was steep and the rhody we were pulling up was in very wet boggy ground.  Wellies would have been a good idea!

We observed the two minutes' silence for Rembrance Sunday, had brew and decided it wasn't a good idea to go and collect the winch.

Jean found the terrain hard, after hip replacement, so left and the rest tried as best we could to make some impression on the task given us.  It became very drizzly and the weather was closing in making it even more slippery so we called it a day.

Thank you to my colleagues for their hard work in trying conditions.

Christine

7 Go to Biddulph for the annual Dahlia clear up - Sunday 3rd November

On Sunday 3rd November, 7 of us met in the Biddulph carpark ready to tidy up the Dahlia beds, preparing for tulip bulbs to be planted. 

We were surprised to see the Dahlias looking so good, it’s been a mild October.

Although there weren’t many suitable for putting in a vase, we did salvage a few flowers for Visitors to take home. 

Holly and Jack had it all well organised, they had already been through the plants and checked that they matched the labels, some were diseased so were left unlabelled and to be thrown away. Some were labelled “unknown” as they were pretty but the variety couldn’t be identified, they will be planted in one of the other beds for interest next year.  I couldn’t help thinking of Donald Rumsfeld and his speech about “ known unknowns”, and “unknown unknowns”.

We spent the day chopping off the vegetation, leaving enough to keep the label in place. Pulling up the Dahlia corms and loading them into labelled boxes, ready for cleaning.  Working at Biddulph has its fun side (lots of people walking past to say hello) and it’s challenges (the only access to the dahlia walk is via steps so all the waste and Dahlia corms have to be carried in baskets to the vehicle)   

I didn’t count how many loads of compost we walked to the vehicle but I think the back of the little truck was emptied about 10 times.  We must have packed up  60 different varieties of Dahlia. By the end I was tired but happy, we almost got the whole walk done, just one bed left at the end. 

Thanks to the Biddulph team for looking after us so well, and good luck washing down all those corms without losing the labels.