Meal at the Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester on 15th December

Tonight Andy H, Andy S, Christine, Daniel, John, Karin, Megan, Sue and Tricia met for our annual Christmas Meal.  Where has 2016 gone?!  The venue this year was the Indian Tiffin Room - a 'street food' restaurant in Manchester near HOME (the art, theatre and film centre).  We had pre-ordered off the Christmas menu and everyone enjoyed their dishes.  Personally, my lentil flour crêpe with spicy potato masala filling and dips plus hot chicken curry and peshwari naan bread were delicious.

Everyone say "cheese"

We heard about everyone's Christmas plans, people's holidays in India, the recent High Wray Christmas weekend and - with a touch of envy - about one of our number's upcoming trip to Chile and Easter Island.

Thanks to Sue for organising the evening and for bringing the Chairman his new MNTV-logoed clothing!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our members.

Daniel

This imaginative wheels/lamp ceiling
hanging caught everyone's eye

Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on 11th December 2016

Mince pies were provided for the last MNTV workday before Christmas.  We had fine weather and a good stretch of hedge to go at.  The twelve volunteers split into pairs (and a trio) and got quite a lot of hedge laid and brash burnt.  The sun nearly came out, the sheep in the field came over to investigate and the group ornithologist clocked up some fieldfares, nuthatches and a tree creeper, amongst others.  On a day like today hedgelaying is a pleasant mixture of problem solving and outdoor exercise.  We will be back again at Alderley in the New Year to carry on with the hedge.

Mick

Finally getting to Cumbria - MNTV Christmas weekend at High Wray, 2nd-4th December 2016

This was our first proper Christmas weekend for two years: Storm Desmond wreaked havoc in 2015, the high winds causing the cancellation of our weekend, with the rain and consequent flooding taking the national headlines. This year Cumbria was in a much calmer state, and we enjoyed good weather throughout the weekend.

We were eleven strong in all, with nine arriving on Friday evening (most having met for a meal at the pub on the way) and two joining us at the worksite on Saturday morning. Having metaphorically shuffled our feet and looked askance when offered some hedge laying (a larger group isn’t ideal for the task, and several people usually end up getting cold – see ‘Alderley Edge Jan 3rd 2016’) our task would be pulling up an unwelcome encroachment of spruce next to a SSSI area of bogland above Windermere. This would be a much more energetic task and make sure we would all keep warm and supple all day.

Pip shows how it's done while Tim and Ranger Matt look on.

After Ranger Matt had shown us the technique for using a mattock and loppers to manoeuvre the spruce out of the ground (cunningly using a noticeably small specimen for his demonstration) we split into four groups to have a go ourselves. Some of the trees were between twenty and thirty feet tall, and tested our arms, backs, and other obscure muscles that only get woken up about once a year.

One for each of the twelve days of Christmas. All eleven of us now on the worksite, plus Ranger Matt.

Morning break saw us joined by Louise and Lyn (a small search party helped them to find their way across the bog to the worksite) and woodland ranger Richard, who had seen movement among the trees while out walking, and came to check that nothing untoward was going on. He was accompanied by both his dog and his son, who was magnificently attired in a tiny dragon suit. The dragon was particularly fond of chocolate brownies, which was handy, as we had plenty of them to go round.

Lisa demonstrates 'the death of Christmas' in tree form ...

... and hides among the debris. Note the fine badger bobble hat.

The heave-ho then continued, and a large pile of vanquished spruce began to accumulate, before we took lunch. Matt and Lisa headed off to start cooking Christmas dinner, taking two trees with them: a five foot spruce to use as the basecamp Christmas tree; and a one-footer to plant up at home. The rest of the gang continued to work throughout the afternoon, finishing up at 3pm to return to the basecamp. Two more spruces also made the journey back, to be taken home by Louise and Lyn.

Christmas dinner went like clockwork, and was served up at 6.30 bob on, with a strange absence of panic (I even had time to leave the oven for 20 minutes to get a shower), and there was just enough to go round with a small amount of leftovers. Dessert stole the show though, with the sticky toffee pudding (accompanied by a choice of toffee sauce, cream or fancy vanilla custard) going down particularly well. Louise warned us she might have to take hers to the dorm so we wouldn’t hear the rude noises she’d be making while eating it!

Back at the basecamp, enjoying the Christmas roast

After the traditional Secret Santa (no-one seemed upset by what they got, and some seemed positively delighted), Ally organised a couple of games which involved lots of names, lots of guesswork, the odd moment of confusion and lots of people on one sofa. For those present, a certain Irish musician will now forever be known as ‘Delivery’ Van Morrison and the Cluedo character Reverend Green will be associated with rap. After so much hard work and excitement in one day, it was no surprise that everyone was ready for bed by 10.30.

Sunday began with a steady trickle of people into the lounge/kitchen at regular intervals from 8am onwards. There was enough food for breakfast without adding a fry-up into the mix, so we decided the keep the bacon, sausages and eggs for lunch, and go for a walk by Windermere instead. Clear skies and a crisp frost made for a perfect winter morning in the Lake District, and we wandered along the shore to Wray Castle to enjoy great views of the Langdale Pikes, Fairfield and the low-lying countryside in between.

We set off on Sunday's walk with a spectacular backdrop of the Fairfield horseshoe.

The chill in the air made the lunchtime fry-up all the more welcome, and then before we knew it, it was time to clean up, divvy up the leftover food and head back down the M6. It was a very successful and enjoyable return to a beautiful part of the world. We’ll be back up here in August 2017, but in the meantime we have one more workday left this year – hopefully Mick & Pip won’t be left laying hedges on their own next week!

Rhody weeding on Middle Moor, Hayfield - 27th November 2016

Three of us spent a cold clear day rhody weeding (pulling out rhody regrowth by hand) on Middle Moor near Hayfield.  We worked with rangers Mark and Vicky and by 2pm had cleared all the areas that Mark had earmarked for us.  From the first one we had great views of Chinley Churn, the Cage at Lyme Park and Lantern Pike, and from the second had views up to Kinder.

Weeds in front of us, Lantern Pike behind us

A lonely tree and a distant snowy Kinder

Rhody bash at Lyme Park on Sunday 20th November 2016

Nine of us worked in Lantern Wood today to cut and burn as much rhododendron ponticum as we could.


The weather was ok but not great, it was cold and dull and rained on us occasionally which was a shame. We had 2 'newbies', both of which worked really hard on their first workday with us:-)


We had a fantastic start when we discovered that Clare, one of the Lyme Rangers, had already set the fire and got it going for us - this was a real treat for us as we could get going straight away burning the cut rhody that had been left by the previous group.

 

We also had Dan, a youth Ranger who is also doing his Gold DofE, with us for the morning. Chris the lead Ranger, was helping some of the time and then Neil, another Ranger came and joined us for the last hour and stayed behind after we left to cordon off the fire so members of the public were aware of it's presence.

There's still plenty of rhody to cut and burn in Lantern Wood and we look forward to being back there again soon:-)

Photo's by Adrian

Rhodybashing at Bank House Farm on 13th November 2016

Six of us met at Bank House Farm on Sunday for a session of rhododendron bashing in the northern woods near to the oxbow.  This made access to the site a great deal easier because we had only to walk down a track and across a field to get there rather than the usual trek from the car park.

We had a splendid bonfire and cleared quite a lot from near the footpath to Giants Castle and as we were working near the path we also cleared quite a lot of litter.

As it was Remembrance Sunday we observed the minute's silence at 11 o'clock.

Adrian

Hedgelaying at Alderley Edge on Sunday 6th November 2016

Eleven of us met in the NT car park by the Wizard Inn and after meeting Chris, the Area Manager. We walked across the fields to Hill Top Farm while Chris took our tools in the Land Rover and, when we arrived, Chris showed what we were to be doing.
This hedge had not been laid before and, although some work had been done prior to our visit to tidy it up by removing some of the side branches and 'breaking in' at different points so that a number of us could hedgelay along the length, it was still a very tricky hedge to work with.
Matt, one of our most experienced hedgelayers said it was the most difficult he'd come across, but he rose to the challenge and showed others how best to do it, refreshing some peoples skills and explaining to a new volunteer that came, how best to tackle it.

Others of us set a fire and started burning the branches that had already been cut then, once this had been done, burnt what was being cut on the day.

Others of us tried to remove the old rabbit guards that were put in originally when the hedge was planted, to keep the rabbits from nibbling the bark. Unfortunately some parts of the hedge had grown into and around the rabbit guards, making it very difficult to remove some of them.
It was a bitterly cold day and we even had rain, but we kept positive and got a tremendous amount done. We've only just started on this particular hedge so are expecting to be working on it quite a bit in the forthcoming months.

Photo's by Adrian.