Biddulph Grange Garden 26 July 09

Text from Daniel who organised the day - photos from various cameras

Six of us went to Biddulph in Staffordshire today to work in James Bateman's 19th century garden. It was a different workday to our normal Sundays in several respects:

1. we spent the day weeding flowerbeds and edging the lawns outside the visitors' entrance (more delicate work than usual!)
2. Daniel got to drive the 4x4 all-terrain vehicle
3. we had our tea breaks and lunch in the gardeners' hut, and
4. we ended the day with clotted cream teas in the tearoom

Despite the wet weather we had a great time in lovely surroundings and aim to repeat the visit later in the year, possibly for a joint workday with the Wolverhampton NT group.

Sttal 19/7/9

Another one that I've missed.

I'm told it was a very wet day - and four volunteers turned out - spending the day pulling Himalayan Balsam.

Shugborough 12 July 2009

I was elsewhere for this one - thanks to Daniel for text and photo

Five of us made the trip down the M6 today to Shugborough. Joe Hawkins, head gardener, gave us his usual warm welcome, aswell as providing us with pineapple & apricot cake from the tearoom! Joe had recently returned from a three-week holiday in China where he'd visited the gardens of the Imperial Palace in Beijing. He had a lot of interesting tales to tell.

We did two worktasks during the day, one either side of lunch. In the morning we cut back branches from yew trees next to the coach house. This involved ladder climbing - a first for me in all my days with MNTV! After a picnic lunch on the banks of the River Sow we spent a couple of hours liberating a stretch of iron fencing on the edge of the car park from the holly, rhody and oaks that smothered it. Revived by ice creams (thanks Tim!) we wandered back to the cars via the marquees of the "People & Pets" weekend event. For pets read dogs...and a few ferrets!

5 July Dunham Massey - Island pond / pool

About 8 volunteers turned out to work in the pond at Dunham Massey.

Island pond / pool is an integral part of the system that drains the park at Dunham and so requires periodic maintainance to allow water to flow.

Two large trailer loads of Iris were removed and no one got completely soaked, most of the open water visible in this photo was solid Iris before we started - I was unable to get a before photo as I was need to help in the collection of the tractor / trailer, and therefore the job started before I got there

Monsal Dale Walk 18 July 09

In less-than-clement conditions, 8 of us plus a baby left Ashford-in-the-Water in high spirits. Many of the paths we followed were lined with a wealth of wild flowers and we had great views across Monsal Dale, despite not having to make any demanding ascents. The weather had improved considerably by lunch time (largely thanks to the fact that I had been slowly broiling in full waterproofs) and we were able to take in the renowned views from Monsal Head in the sunshine. People were even stripping off as we found a good rocky outcrop on which to enjoy our afternoon tea. Following the river back down the valley, we saw the most unexpected sight of a water buffalo wallowing in a muddy pool! Back in Asford, we rewarded ourselves with ice creams and more relaxation in the sun. A great day, thank you to all those who helped make it such.

Sunshine Shade

Three of us spent today making temporary repairs to footpath in the northern woods with Tim Ryan (warden) and Andy (long-term volunteer). The Nationalt Trust's Cheshire Countryside Wardens have taken over the land management of the estate and a priority is to drain and repair sections of footpath that have become waterlogged and boggy.

We started the day by "shovelling slop off the path" - to quote Tim - and wheelbarrowing it to one side. Next we dug a drainage ditch across the path and finished by edging the path with two large beech logs. In due course the edges of the path will be defined with more logs/fencing and the path surfaced with stone chips.

At 2 o'clock the heavens opened and we had a torrential downpour for 30 minutes. It didn't dampen our spirits too much and we saw proof positive that our drainage channel worked!

update on some previous work

I thought I would share a quote out of an email from a member of staff at Dunham Massey....
I have had the opportunity to look at the progress of the hedge that you
guys laid earlier in the season. It looks great, it's all taken and it's
shooting away like mad. Hopefully it'll be possible to continue the work
next year.

If you could possibly pass on my thanks for the hedgelaying work to the
other members of the group when you get the chance, I'd appreciate it.
Nice work!