Stall at Styal Wood Fair, Sunday 27th September 2015

No conservation today - instead we were spreading the word about MNTV, and the wonderful things we do, to the general public at the annual Wood Fair at Styal. And hopefully we'd be able to bag a few new members too!

It was chilly with a heavy dew when four of us set up Daniel's gazebo in the mill meadow, but once the sun climbed above the trees it was very pleasant. Some long hours with scissors, glue and sticky back plastic had meant we actually had some up-to-date looking display boards this year, rather than embarrassing throwbacks to 20 years ago!

Displays including some pictures from this decade!

Several of the group manned the stall all day while a few others came and went during the day. Sue proved to be extremely adept at extracting email addresses from passers-by, so hopefully some of those will turn into members that come out on workdays with us.

There was time for a wander in the garden in the sunshine, and a gander at the other stalls in the meadow. When the sun dropped behind the trees again it got decidely chillier, which signalled time to pack up.

Another rhodybash at Lyme Park on Sunday 20th September 2015

We had a good sized group of 13, plus Gary the Ranger and a youth Ranger who joined us for part of the day.

We continued the work done by MNTV the previous Sunday along West Drive and also by some mid-week volunteers who had been in to cut back and burn more rhododendron ponticum!

As the ground was dry, we were asked to work on the sloped area, keeping the flatter area at the top of the slope for any groups of volunteers who might work when it was raining or just after rain, when it would be too slippy to work on the slope safely.


the fire on the lower level slope

We split into 2 groups, one group started up a previous fire-site on the lower level and got the fire going quite quickly. The other group walked up the slope and started a new fire part way up. This is always a bit tricky as you have to be careful that the fire doesn't get too big and start to slide down the slope!

working on the higher slope

We stopped for 11's and had Sue's home-made banana cake. The work was going well and everyone was happy with the group that they were in and the task they were doing:-)

The weather was good for us and lots of people walking their dogs or cycling along West Drive talked to us to find out what we were doing.

After our lunch break we discussed a time that we should stop putting rhody on the fires to give them chance to burn down a little before we left around 3.15pm. It was a good day and we could certainly see the difference we'd made just in the few hours we'd been there.

We managed a group photo of most of us, including a 'new recruit' who'd joined us for the first time:-)

 

Rhodybash at Lyme Park on 13 September 2015

Thirteen of use turned out today to carry on clearing the rhododendron from West Park Drive, the rear entrance to Lyme Park.  After meeting in the main car park we drove to the smaller car park at the top of the drive and made the short walk to the worksite.  The site itself is situated on a very steep slope, but this proved to be no problem to the MNTVers who leapt about like a bunch of mountain goats making short work of the thick stands of rhody, one herd dragging the cuttings to the bottom of the hill for burning while the other set up their fire halfway up.

The site was visited by various dogs throughout the day and we attracted lots of attention from the public, many of whom stopped to take photos.  This ongoing task has been proceeding for a few years now and is really making a difference to the surrounding area.  The eventual establishment of native broad leaf woodland instead of the overpoweringly dark rhododendron will make for a lovely and far more biodiverse environment.

Thanks to the rangers for looking after us, staying all day and providing biscuits to supplement the cake supply.

Tim

Oak woodland clearance at Erddig, Sunday 6th September 2015

Today's workday almost didn't happen! After frantic attempts at setting up a workday, James at Erddig came to our rescue by agreeing for us to join the Merseyside and Chester groups.

Emails were circulated in the few days beforehand, and we managed to muster a good turnout, with seven of us attending (Lisa, Matt S, Tim, Neil, Tricia, Adrian and Emily enjoying her first MNTV experience). We even had to disappoint the odd person, capping numbers at seven to avoid having too many people overall.

This was our first trip to Erddig (near Wrexham) for many years, but the journey was shorter than anticipated, and the grounds very beautiful, with some enormous mature trees and dazzlingly colourful wildflower borders. And the sun was shining!

The worksite presented us with a wall of tangled greenery. Our task was to identify the oak saplings that were planted a few years ago, and then cut back everything else so the young oaks wouldn't be outcompeted by other trees and simply die off.

The plan is a long-term one. The area will become an oak woodland, with the weaker trees being thinned out in 15-20 years time, and the remaining trees growing tall and strong, ready for harvesting in about 200 years. I doubt we'll see the end result - even Adrian may have hung up his bowsaw by 2215!

Lisa's lemon drizzle cake went down a treat at break time, and by 3pm the three groups had collectively cleared a large area where the oaks now had space to breathe and enjoy clear views to the sky. We burned the remaining brash, with Neil taking the prime role tending the fire.

At 3.30 we were ready to head back down the M56 after a great workday. Hopefully we'll be back at Erddig in 2016!

Wonderful Wharfedale Weekend, 29-31 August 2015

Twelve of us had enjoyed a superb weekend in April in Snowdonia with glorious weather, outrageously gorgeous scenery and a healthy slice of entertaining banter.  Our next weekend in Upper Wharfedale promised to be just as good!  At the end of the weekend in Snowdonia I may have kindly or stupidly said that if nobody else was willing to lead our next weekend away then I would. Kind or stupid?  You decide.

My weekend started with a train trip to Skipton.  Upon my arrival in Skipton I was met by Neil who had kindly offered to help me with the shopping, of which our bargain buy was marmalade for 27p.  After doing the shopping we headed to the beautiful Yorkshire Dales to a place called Buckden in Upper Wharfedale.  We were early to meet the ranger Roisin so we headed for the local pub.  30 minutes later we met up with Roisin.  She showed us round the bunkhouse which is lovely.  One of the rooms is even ensuite as is the leaders’ room!  That evening Neil and myself dined on pizza & salad with the others arriving throughout the evening, these being Tim, Louise, Jo, John, Nita, Sam and Sam’s very good friend Carbe.  That evening we took part in a little libation and swapped stories.

Saturday dawned cool and cloudy with some low cloud still lingering on the hilltops.  We were up early but Richard must have been up earlier than any of us as he had left Stockport at 6.30 that morning and arrived with us just after 8am.  Breakfast consisted of cereal and toast and we broke with tradition with bacon and eggs on offer too.  We were ready to go at 9.30 when ranger Peter and new ranger Patrick arrived.  They told us that we were the first group to use the basecamp and that the day’s task would not be rhody bashing as expected but laurel bashing.  Peter drove the pickup and Patrick walked with us to show us where the worksite was.  We didn't use the cars at all for the time we were there which was a change.  Having walked along the river and up into Redmire Wood we reached our worksite for the day.  It was on quite a slope but we weren't going to let that get in the way of our work.

The wood was created for Buckden House which was the residence of Sir John Charles Ramsden and his wife during 1831-1879.  It was then lived in and cared for by the Stansfield Family until 1938.  The woods themselves were used as a pleasure park and so had lots of interesting trees and built features.  There were many carriage tracks going up the side of the hill for folk of years gone by 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 and was out of control and so we were getting rid of it.  We did this by dividing into three groups and cutting and dragging cut laurel into large piles.  We worked hard and at break and lunchtime enjoyed cake and biscuits.  Richard had made some very tasty shortbread.  Maybe this is why he couldn't join us until Saturday morning?  Roisin had been baking cakes for the Malham show which was taking place on the Saturday.  She had left one that hadn't gone quite right at the basecamp for us the night before so we enjoyed that.  We gave it first prize!  We ate our lunch in a clearing and saw dark clouds lurking and just as we were finishing up the R word happened and it was torrential for a while so we all dived for cover under the trees.  Once it had eased off we got back to work in our waterproofs.  We finished work at 3pm and Peter and Patrick took us to see four very tall Giant Redwood trees and we had a game of how many MNTVers can we it round the trunk?  Answer: 4.  After this we headed back to the pickup via a viewpoint, onto the basecamp and straight to the Buck Inn.  We spent a while there and that evening dined on pasta bolognese, garlic bread, salad and for pudding meringues with strawberries and cream. My thanks to Louise for her help in the kitchen.

Sunday dawned bright but cloudy.  Sam and Carbe left after breakfast and today our ranger was Roisin.  We spent the morning carrying on with the work we had started the day before, but because there were less of us we only split into two groups.  During our break Roisin produced some of her prize winning cakes - the flapjack was particularly nice.  We finished working at 1pm and upon arrival back at the basecamp we again headed to the pub.  I should point out here we are not alcoholics just enjoy each other’s company!  After a drink we went back to the basecamp and had lunch which was leftovers.  It was after this that people started departing.  As Neil and I were staying until Monday we said we would clean.  John went for a walk. The last to depart was Richard - he left at about 5.30 which left Neil, John and I.  We ended the weekend with a trip to the pub for our evening meal.

My thanks must go to Neil for all his help and the lifts and to the committee for their belief in me organising the weekend!

Ally