Tuesday 30 October 2012

Snowdonia Marathon weekend - 27/28 October


Five of us travelled over to north Wales on Friday for the 30th Snowdonia Marathon on Saturday.  We reckoned the five of us have been to 60 Snowdonia Marathons!!  Adrian and Hazel have been every year since the mid-90s.  Only Daniel was foolhardy enough to run this year and Ally, Adrian, Hazel and Sue manned the feed station at Bryn Gwynant at the 8.5 mile marker.

The weather for the race was ideal for once - no wind, cool and high cloud.  All the summits, including Snowdon itself, were out of the cloud all day and the autumn colours were beautiful.  Daniel stopped at several points on the course to take photos.

After all the runners had passed Bryn Gwynant the four returned to Llanberis and after parking in the volunteers spot behind the Electric Mountain Visitors Centre spent a couple of hours on the finish funnel, handing slate coasters to finishers, wrapping them in foil blankets and directing them to the Army Cadets hut for hot drinks, biscuits and massages.

Daniel met the others back at the basecamp at 6 o'clock and an hour and a half later we were tucking into a delicious supper of spiced lentil & tomato moussaka (watch out for the recipe in the next newsletter!) and Eve's pudding.  The evening was spent chatting, reading the papers and trying to solve two 1000 piece jigsaws (both very difficult because of acres of blue sky).

The wet weather arrived overnight and after an extra hour in bed and bacon butties for breakfast we packed, did a few more pieces of the jigsaws and went home at lunchtime.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Alderley Edge 21 October 2012


I hadn't got organised enough after my holiday for this one - so thanks to Tim the volunteer for most of the words and the pictures.  This work is on the same path that we visited on 16 September though I get the impression from Tim that on previous trips we may have ended up carrying the tools far further than we needed to!



Just a brief note to let you know what we got up to on Sunday 21st.  Four volunteers met up at the car park at 9.30 where we met Tim the ranger.
The main task was the installation of a path extending from the raised path already there for about 25 to 30 meters up the track thus bypassing a very muddy hollow. First we installed an edge consisting of holly logs felled previously about 1.25meters from the sandstone cliff face,then by scrapping the accumulated soil and sand from the cliff we filled in the area from its base to the log border.





After compaction, aided by the numerous walkers and some enthusiastic stamping by their kids, the resulting path looked very impressive with the red sand contrasting with the black mud and the silvery holly log edging.  We also dug a meter wide drainage ditch along the side of the path to help drain the track farther up. 

The second part of the task was great fun chopping down some fair sized trees and piling them up to form a barrier to stop people straying on to the adjacent farmland. The feed back from the public was great and they all seemed really appreciative of our hard work.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Sunday 14th October - holly fencing at Styal


Today had been advertised as a "mystery workday" in the programme.  It became a workday in the southern woods at Styal.  Eight of us worked with ranger John building "dead" holly hedges to demarcate a footpath. We cut down holly saplings/trees in the nearby wood and then cut suitable trunks in to four-feet stakes. The stakes were hammered in to the ground either side of the path and the rest of the holly cuttings were woven in between the stakes.


After the workday we walked over to the Apprentice House and had a look round the Apple Fair on the lawn at the back.  There were a lot of English apple varieties on display with free sampling.

Thursday 11 October 2012

Meal at the Imperial restaurant in Cheadle, Thurs 11th Oct

A select group of MNTVers met at the Imperial chinese restaurant in Cheadle to take advantage of the 'Imperial Deal'. This consisted of a choice of starter, main course and a drink for just £7.50 - although some of us paid extra to have a pudding afterwards!

We all chose to eat with chopsticks and bowls although not everyone was still using chopsticks at the end!! The food was lovely, the conversation lively, the staff were attentive, humerous and were happy for us to linger - a thoroughly enjoyable evening:-)

Monday 8 October 2012

Dunham Massey 7th October 2012

Thanks to Sarah for the following words for a work day that I missed
 
We had a good turn out at Dunham yesterday, with nine volunteers showing up to Rhodi bash in the Woodman's covert. The area has improved massively since we first started working there and the natural flora and fauna is finally taking over from the Rhodi. We had fun playing french cricket with a Postman Pat ball that Adrian found and despite a slow start we ended up with possible the hottest bonfire I have ever known.