Gully Blocking ("Hayfield") - Kinder Scout 28 July 2013

Eight volunteers met up at Hayfield and spent the day working on he Kinder plateau blocking gullies.

Balsam pulling at Dunham Massey on 21 July 2013

Eight of us (five regulars and three new faces) went to Dunham today for a day of Himalayan balsam pulling.  This invasive species, like rhododendrons, out-competes all others and must be eradicated to maintain a diversity of flora.  Eradication is by uprooting the plant and snapping the stem in two just above the root ball.  We cleared a swath 10-20 metres wide either side of the footpath linking Dunham Forest Golf Club to the road by the lodge at the end of Charcoal Drive.  Colin, the ranger who set us going on the task, explained that clearing the balsam from around the path should stop people inadvertently carrying the seeds into the deer park on the soles of their shoes.

The weather was pleasantly cool throughout the day after the heat of the last three weeks and none of us suffered sunburn or heat exhaustion - but we did all get nettle stings!

We walked to the worksite from the main car park near the house and on the way there passed the Old Stumpy chainsaw carving (which I remember seeing being carved on a workday several years ago).

Old Stumpy

Weeding and feeding at Biddulph Grange gardens 14 July 2013

Four volunteers travelled to Biddulph Grange gardens and were once again made to feel very welcome by the gardeners.   We spent the morning working in a shaded part of the pinetum weeding a bank that had some "rockery" like areas in it - photo hasn't come out.

In the afternoon we were asked to help feed various groups of bedding plants - every Dahlia in the Dahlia walk was fed individually by a team including our volunteers using watering cans which had been dosed with a much advertised brand of "soluble plant food".  We then repeated the process a parterre, geraniums in the Chinese gardens, a set of Red, Orange and Yellow flowers (whose variety I have forgotten!) at the house end of the Lyme avenue.

feeding the Dahlias individually

Many people asked why we were watering in the heat of the day - the answer of course is that the main watering IS done early in the morning before the garden opens - however the feeding is done when volunteers are available to help.

Pub quiz at The Plough in Heaton Moor - 8th July 2013

Last night we had our July social and went to The Plough in Heaton Moor for their weekly pub quiz.  We’d triumphed back in April and were keen to see if that was/wasn't a fluke!

Seven of us were there (Daniel, Megan, Ally, Phil, Sue, Andy, Lyn).  Sue gallantly sat out the quiz because teams had to be of six or less to be eligible for prizes.

 

Team MNTV

Round 1 (Faces) wasn’t easy.  We scored 28/40 (2 points per question) with Britney Spears, a very young Robbie Williams, Madonna  and Matt Goss among others to elude us.

Round 2 (Pop Music) wasn’t easy either!  We got 16/28 including 10/10 for naming all five of the UK’s winning Eurovision Song Contest acts.

Round 3 (Sport) was better (18/24) and Round 4 (Last Week) was good too (14/20).

Round 5 (General Knowledge) was best of all (20/24).

At the end we didn’t think we’d done particularly well and definitely not well enough to win.  We ended up with  96 points - creditworthy but some way behind the team whose answersheet we marked (106) and the winners (an excellent 118).

Here is a sample of questions from Rounds 2-4:

Who was the lead singer of Hot Chocolate?

Which country’s King Albert II abdicated recently?

Ingrid Kristiansen held world records at which three distances?

Who was the British Prime Minister at the outbreak of World War Two?

At the halfway stage we spent part of our £25 April winnings on a round of drinks.

Thanks to Sue and Phil for organising the evening.

A select day at Styal 7 July 2013

I was unable to get to Styal this week - which left a select few to get on with the work - so thanks to Adrian for this brief report -

As it was only the two volunteers from our group it was decided to scrap balsam bashing and work in the wood yard making firewood to be sold at a later date. 

 

We were using Styal's new tractor borne hydraulic log splitter and tractor borne circular saw, both serious pieces of kit and a joy to work with. 

 

At the end of the day 3 of us had reduced a large pile of logs and branches to small billets which filled 4 of the large white bags. A lot of work for such a small number.