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We tried to start a fire using an out-of-date bandage with a lint pad of Neil's, some paper of Adrian's and Mary's flint and steel fire starter kit.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.