Litter picking at Styal on Sunday 18th December 2022

Seven of us met up at Quarry Bank Mill for a litter pick on our last workday of 2022.

We drove to the track alongside the airport.  The slush had frozen and it was very slippery, but we stuck to the edges looking for litter.

We worked our way down the lane and around the grounds of QBM.  Most of the rubbish was on the airport side and was the usual mix of bagged dog poo and discarded cups and bottles.  We found a drinks flask, a few car parts and several house doors dumped near the hotel.  We also found a snowman:

Morning break was Christmas cake, but we didn’t stop long as the weather was still cold.

We headed back to the QBM carpark to meet ranger Stu and have lunch, but the rain started and some of the paths were still closed so we called it a day.  Most of us set off home but Victor discovered he had lost his car keys!  Stu took him back to the spot where we had the morning break, but couldn’t find his keys.  Eventually Victor’s partner drove over with the spare key so he got home before it got dark.

Happy Christmas and hope to see you next year.

Jenny

Dinner and quiz at the Jolly Sailor, Davenport, on Thursday 15th December 2022

Ten of us met tonight for our first social of 2022!  Plans to have socials earlier in the year hadn't come to fruition despite good intentions.  The venue was the Jolly Sailor in Davenport - nearby for some but an hour's journey for others - for dinner from 7:30pm then their weekly quiz from 9.

It was great to catch up with everyone, particularly those who aren't workday regulars, and have different conversations to those we have on workdays!  The quiz was the same multi-round format we'd enjoyed at The Hesketh in Cheadle and was hard (especially the artist/song round) but fun.  Ten was too many for a team so we split in two.  MNTV1 scored 68 points and MNTV2 scored 71.  The winners scored a lot more!

L to R: Sue B, Phil, Lydia, Andy, Megan, Sue D, Daniel, Paul, Denise and Chris

Thanks for Denise for organising the evening and to everyone for coming along.  Here's to having more socials in 2023.

Daniel

Birch thinning at Alderley Edge on Sunday 11th December 2022

Seven of us spent today at Alderley Edge thinning birch on the heathland across the Macclesfield Road from the NT car park.  This was a continuation of a job we last did on 30th January and which other groups have done since.  The temperature was about 0C but the ground wasn't frozen.  There was no wind all day and in fact it never felt particularly cold.

Ranger Tim Ryan was not on duty but had explained the task to Daniel during the week and left us a map with instructions:

We worked all day in the red circle in two groups.  Neil, Andy and Jenny established the fire (blow torch and leaf blower worked their magic) and kept it going while Adrian, Daniel, Victor and newcomer Charlie dug up the birch saplings using tree poppers and mattocks and dragged them to the fire area.  The rootballs were cut off and discarded and the trunks/branches burned.

At elevenses and at lunch we ate the Christmas tree-shaped chocolate cake that Daniel had baked.  It wouldn't be a December workday without this shape cake!

During the day we cleared a good sized area:

Before ...

... and after

At about 2:30pm we stopped loading the fire and let it die down.  We taped it off with high vis orange/white netting and ended the day at 3:15 after returning the wheelbarrows, tree poppers and mattocks to the rangers' tool store.

We heard from Tim in the following week that he is very happy with what we did.  We are next at Alderley on 15th January and will be doing this task again then.

Daniel

Burning pre-cut rhody at Lyme Park on Sunday 4th December 2022

Eight of us met Ranger Alex in the main car park at Lyme Park at 9.30am, and walked up towards the Lantern to where the was some rhody, in huge piles, waiting to be burned.

We soon got the fire started and the rest of us were kept busy un-tangling the rhody that had previously been left by other volunteers, so it could be dragged nearer the fire site, and then cut into shorter lengths to be loaded on the fire.

It was a dry but cold day. We managed to get all the pre-cut branches burned, before starting on other rhody in the area that was still growing, so we could cut and burn that too.

Lunchtime

Sue, one of our MNTV volunteers and also a Lyme Park volunteer, found us to say hello - today was a day she was volunteering at Lyme rather than with us.

Chris, the Lead Ranger at Lyme, took a break from doing paperwork and came to see how we were getting on as well. 

We loaded the fire until it was nearly time to finish, then we put orange netting round it (far enough away so it didn't melt!) to alert anyone who might walk through after we'd left. Then we walked back down to the car park, satisfied that we'd done a good days work!!

Thanks to Adrian for additional photo's.