High Wray Christmas weekend, December 12-14 2014

A big weekend deserves a big blog entry – and they don’t come bigger than the annual MNTV Christmas festivities, which returned to the idyll of High Wray in Cumbria for the fourth year running.

Eleven volunteers (Matt, John, Ally, Neil, Lisa, Mick, Pip, Sam, Louise, Tim and Belinda) made the trip up this year, with five of the group enjoying their first MNTV Christmas, emphasising what has been a very successful year for attracting new members.

Charlie popped in to say hi on the Friday evening, somehow finding time from her busy schedule at the nearby Elterwater Hostel. While Sam joined us at the worksite on the Saturday morning, the remaining ten arrived in good time on the Friday, although Lisa almost made herself into a Darwin Awards candidate by following her satnav into the lake where the ferry crosses Windermere. Signs showing cars plunging into water helped her to stop just before tarmac turned abruptly to H₂O.

Having expected many people to eat at home before travelling up, I was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough food for Friday’s supper, but Ally managed to make the butternut squash soup go twice as far by the clever use of milk, and we just about fended off starvation before settling down to a slightly chilly night.

Somehow we all managed to be ready for 8.30am on Saturday, whereupon the new ranger Matt arrived, full of the same enthusiasm as his predecessor Jamie. Half an hour through icy country lanes took us just south of Coniston village, to a hedge in a tricky location between fencing, and on top of a low wall.

As hedgelaying sites go, this was a challenging one, but nothing that the skill, dedication and perseverance of MNTV couldn’t handle. Despite having several novices in the group, and despite being pelted at regular intervals by rain and hail (which always seems to happen when we lay Cumbrian hedges), we attacked our task with gusto, and by 3pm a thing of beauty had emerged from the tangled chaos that had existed when we arrived. Another handful of hedgelaying experts have now been added to MNTV’s burgeoning expertise.

Halfway through the day, Lisa, Mick and Pip had headed off to prepare Christmas dinner, and by the time the rest of the group returned to the basecamp, culinary wonders were already in the process of being performed. The aim was to eat around 6.30-7.00pm. The turkey, potatoes (roast and mash), carrots, sprouts, parsnips, stuffing, broccoli, pigs in blankets (and possibly other things that I’ve forgotten, there was so much) were all timed to perfection, and we sat down at 6.45pm. You just can’t buy precision like that.

Secret Santa’s sack had already been passed round (somehow there were enough gifts for everyone, including the weekend leader – who, er, shall remain nameless, and who forgot to bring something). Everyone seemed pleased with their gifts, but especially Neil (see Sunday morning activities!).

After the relative quiet of people contentedly tucking into dinner, we enjoyed a few games and some superbly stimulating conversation on a number of topics. As usually happens, Tim talked a load of outrageous nonsense. And as usually happens, a quick consultation on Google confirmed that Tim was actually telling the truth. This time, we found out that sugar gliders are very cute furry creatures similar to flying squirrels, and that cows have a tendency to face north, and sometimes have magnets in their stomachs to collect the metalwork they accidentally eat, which is then retrieved when the unfortunate bovine eventually heads off to the pastures in the sky.

The day’s endeavours caught up with most of us sooner rather than later, and bedtime was taken at a respectable hour. Neil had worked his magic on the heating system, and a noticeably warmer sleep was enjoyed by all.

The inescapably ‘drich’ weather scoffed at any plans we had for a scenic walk on Sunday morning. We scoffed back by enjoying a morning of untempered joy and excitement, both within the basecamp and elsewhere.

First, Neil took out his Secret Santa gift, which was a mini table tennis set that was perfectly suited to one of the small tables in the kitchen/lounge area. Mick and John proved particularly adept, and played out an epic ‘mano a mano’ struggle of skill and wits to rival the classic Federer-Nadal Wimbledon final of 2008, in stark contrast to the frankly appalling efforts that were on show in some of the other matches.

Mick, Pip and Louise then headed home, while the rest of us went to explore the nearby Trust property at Wray Castle. A highly informative guided tour was followed by a less structured ‘wander at will’ exploration, which mainly involved Ally and Neil regressing to childhood by playing a plastic oversize Connect 4 and having a vigorous swordfight on a plywood castle.

Back at the ranch Lisa cooked up a hearty lunch of turkey, sausages, bacon and eggs, and Sam proved that yesterday’s veg is today’s bubble and squeak. Then it was a soggy relay of taking our gear out to the cars, and a heavy hearted departure after a weekend in which the magic of Christmas had burned as brightly as an MNTV rhodybashing fire.

Happy Yuletide, folks, and see you in 2015!

Woodland maintenance at Styal on Sunday 7 December 2014

Six volunteers braved cold, rain and some hail today at Styal to continue the work in the hanging beech woods at the back of Mill Meadow.  We were cutting down holly bushes to let light down to the ground and give space for the future planting of young beech trees.  Today we did not have the chipper which is still awaiting repair and also there was a Victorian Christmas fair and carol concert in the mill yard which would have been disturbed by the noise of machinery.  In the time allowed we still got a lot done and felled some quite large hollies.  They were stacked ready for chipping at a later date.

(Text and photo provided by Adrian)

Gorsebashing at Formby on 30 November 2014

Today we had our second workday of the year at Formby on the Lancashire coast.  Three travelled in Daniel's car from Styal and four others made their own way there.  We worked with six Merseyside NTVers and the 13 of us spent the day gorsebashing on an area of dune heathland a ten-minute walk from the rangers' office on Blundell Avenue.  The work was akin to rhodybashing but with a lot more prickles and no bonfire!

We all went at it 100% and by the time we finished at 3pm had cleared gorse from a large area:

Panorama photo showing large piles of cut gorse

The rangers will remove all the gorse cuttings from the heathland and in time the area should return to its natural heather cover.  There is a lot more gorse to be removed and Formby's regular Friday volunteer group will resume next week from where we left off.

As Christmas is fast approaching Daniel had baked a Christmas tree-shaped chocolate cake and this was enjoyed by everyone at the 11:30 coffee break and at lunch.

Pub quiz at the Hesketh Tavern on 24 November 2014

Six of us went to the Hesketh Tavern in Cheadle Hulme last night for their Monday night pub quiz and our November social.  We caught up on each other's news, heard about yesterday's workday at Hayfield and discussed some committee/group matters.

Team MNTV came third out of the 18 teams, scoring 85 points out of a possible 105, and won £10 of pub food vouchers!  Key to our success was scoring 15/15 in the Wipeout round (in which you got one point for each correct answer, a five point bonus if you got all ten correct but lost all points if you got one wrong).  A very good team effort.  As Megan said: “Collectively we’re quite clever”!

Rhody clearance at Hayfield on Sunday 23rd Nov 2014

Twelve of us (including 2 'newbies') met the National Trust Rangers and their dogs in the Sett Valley Trail car park and we drove or got lifts to nearby Park Hall.

It turned out not to be one of our usual 'rhody bash with a fire' activities but, instead, we were pulling up rhody re-growth to ensure it didn't get established. Anything that wouldn't easily pull out was left alone and would be sprayed later to kill it off.

There used to be lots of rhody around where we were working and it was good to see that huge area's were now devoid of rhododendron ponticum.

Although it was sometimes hard to spot the small rhody, it was quite tiring to keep bending down to pull it up, it was quite cold and a bit windy, nothing can beat the views you get from working in the High Peak and that alone makes working at Hayfield a pleasure every time.

At the end of the day, when most of us were still there, we took a group photo. Some members reckon it's getting a bit 'cheesy' to include a group photo in the Blog but I think it's a great reminder of the day:-)

 

Birch clearance at Thurstaston Common on 16 November 2014

Over to the Wirral for the day to remove birch, a task the group has been doing at a few properties recently, but this time with added spiky bushes (the birch is growing in the gorse of the heathland areas at Thurstaston Common).  The heathland here is what makes the area a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with rare bird and plant species, including the carnivorous sundews, and the birch needs to be prevented from starting the process of woodland recolonisation.  There were numerous Scots Pine saplings which would rapidly take over if not removed.

Six volunteers from our group joined with the Merseyside and Cheshire groups, and the ranger, who was treating the birch stumps to stop them regrowing, had trouble keeping up.  The weather was warm and pleasant, a fine chocolate spice cake eaten and a satisfyingly large area of the heath was cleared.  Mick

Holly clearance at Quarry Bank Mill on 9 November 2014

Twelve of us met up in the car park at Styal on a bright chilly autumn morning this Sunday to carry on a project started by the group a few weeks ago.  The task consisted of the removal of holly from the steep banking bordering the mown field at the back of the mill.  The bank is an established beech woodland but the holly has grown between the beech trees shading out the earth beneath preventing the establishment of a more diverse understory.  The understory should regenerate naturally due to the seed bank being a natural store of native plant seeds that has lain dormant in the earth since the holly took over.  Once the understory has reestablished it will attract a far greater variety of wildlife.

Scrambling about cutting and dragging the holly trees down the steep soft bank was a particularly strenuous job and I expect there were a few sore muscles the following day.  After being dragged down the slope the holly was humped over the fence and taken to the chipper where the big orange machine munched the trees up into sawdust and spat it back over the fence.  Unfortunately John the ranger's knob came off in his hand and the machine stalled so we had to stop a bit early, but we got plenty done and had a lot of fun.

The cake provided this week was an Irish Whiskey cream sponge made with instant Horlicks because Tim had no cocoa powder - but it tasted okay anyway!  Tim