Coronation celebrations May 2023

The May work party was brought forward a week to prepare the woodland for toasting the King on May 6th. Warm sunshine at last!

We had a nice morning and a good turn out for a  mowing and strimming session to reclaim some of the paths and tidy up the glade.

The fire pit was lifted out for cleaning properly!

Bunting going up!

Squeezed on to the picnic table for refreshments and chat.

May 6th 2023

I've always wanted a summer evening event in the woodland, so it was lovely to host the first coronation event of the weekend, such a pity it rained! 

The event team did all the organising and put up the lights and the woodland did look really pretty.

Speech by Nigel.

The toast.

Catch up Feb-April 2023

 It was a cold spring and quite wet. 

Glade tidy!

Thinning the smaller trees, previously marked, on the boundary.

Clearing round the snowdrops

A nice pool forming in the central ditch.

Snowdrops!

In March we didn't have a work party as there really wasn't much to do.

Early April

It was a nice day bit there were only a few of us this month. We looked at the water on the path and decided to just live with it, see photo later. We took down and cleared the rest of the small trees near the den. We lifted and divided more snowdrops and planted them round the glade.  

Greening up

Wild garlic, planted in the autumn.

Main pathway

Pool still there

We decided that there wasn't much we could do about the water flowing over the path as it's only a temporary problem in the wetter months and most of it goes through the pipe anyway.

Redcurrant flowers

Wild daffodils

The woven hazel beginning to bud!

Work Party - Sunday 8th January 2023

 

Happy New Year! We didn't meet on the first Sunday of the month as it was New Year's Day but we were there bright and early on the second one. 

 

The first job, as a favour to the parish council, was to rake up and relocate the leaves around the village hall. The ancient oak tree on the other side of the road is beautiful but it does have a lot of leaves. As a gesture of good will we cleared some driveways as well.

Some of us walked round the wood and identified, and marked, trees which need to be removed as part of the 5 year plan. We looked for dead, diseased or potentially dangerous trees and then letting light to the densely planted areas.

Some locally grown hazels, given to us by the Framsden tree warden,  were planted. One at the entrance to the den to improve the shape and some more added to the circle around the picnic table. 

The seasonal stream has reappeared.

The snowdrops are up!

Work Party - Sunday 4th December 2022

 A grey day, as you can see by the photo,  but a good turnout and we got lots done. This is the new frame to help define part of the den. The old, rather wobbly, structure was removed as it was getting unsafe. This was made from local hazel poles to give a sense of structure and eventually guide the planted hazel which has been there a while and is finally growing a bit bigger.

The den from the entrance with the new structure at the back.

Putting it together.

Now that the ground is softer, we managed to get the stakes in and, with basic hedgelaying skillls, weave the growing hazel to make a more enclosed area for the picnic table.

Making the hedge

Using it for refreshments at the end.

Leaf raking and blowing was also done.

Rain on ivy.

 See you next year!

June -October 2022

 

Autumn has reached the woodland and a bit of a catch up, since the last post, is required. Due to a change in personal circumstances, I have been very busy and some things have had to be put aside, one of those has been blogging but the monthly woodland work parties have continued so here goes.

June, the village was busy with platinum jubilee celebrations and other events so we didn't have a work party and we scaled down the annual plant sale and had a plant stall at the midsummer get together. We still made a bit of money and a good time was had by all.

July, during June the woodland had a couple of cuts by a volunteer to keep the paths open, by July the growth was slowing down and the drought was setting in. At the monthly work party we gave the spring bed, at the bottom of the wood, it's annual cut and rake and moved the picnic table into a new location next to the glade, after clearing a bit of space. 

August, still hot and dry. The side, summer  meadow was cut and raked and the still newish hedge along the road was given a soak thanks to Glenn and his bowser.

Later on in August, Richard got his team together to put a membrane down and spread donated bark chips to make a better surface under the picnic table. He also took the time to take the table apart, paint it and reassemble on site.

In September a lot of people seemed to be busy and the continuing dry weather meant nothing urgent needed to be done in the woodland so I took the decision to cancel the work party.

October, a good turn out of volunteers meant that I nearly had too many people to find jobs for, luckily I have a good team who know what they are doing. The first lot of leaves were raked off the grassy paths and a new leaf pile made at the bottom end of the woodland to save traipsing up the hill to the top. 

We tried to put posts, cut from coppice hazel in the woodland, in to weave growing branches round the new picnic table area but the ground is too dry so it will have to wait. We had to content ourselves with creating an arch framework for the entrance instead. 

We finished a bit early for refreshments and a meeting about the upcoming halloween event.

Next event in the woodland, annual pumpkin lantern trail and marshmallows round the fire. October 31st 2022 from 6.30.

Woodland group AGM Thursday October 7.30, at Hill Farm.

Next work party Sunday 30th October, to get ready for the Halloween event. 

Work Party - Sunday 8th May 2022

Cow parsley

 Work party delayed from last week because not many people were available. There weren't may of us this week either but we did what needed to be done. 

What a difference a month makes, really greening up now 

The main aim was to mow the paths and glades and cut back the path edges to keep it all accessible. The grass was also strimmed around the benches in the glade.

For some reason it won't let me add captions so here we have mown paths and red campion.

A very few bluebells 

Work Party - Sunday 3rd April 2022

 

Firstly, yes there is a month missing, I had a sudden personal upheaval and was unable to attend the March work party. They did some coppicing in the glade area and general tidying. March has come and gone now but I did manage one visit to the woodland to catch the primroses and wild daffodils. We had some amazing warm sunny weather and everything started to grow, followed by freezing temperatures and snow showers.

The longer dead grass and leaves were removed from the main path edges.

Always an exciting moment when the trees start greening up again.

The picnic table has been moved to a spot  nearer the glade, this area where it washes been seeded with woodland grasses and wildflowers. 

It's all growing again.