October 1st Work Parties

There were two, socially distanced work parties last week: one at West Beckham Old Allotments, where six of us spent a morning raking and clearing some very wet hay from the right hand strip of the meadow; and the other in Sustead. Here is an account of the Sustead work party’s morning:

Our work group's main objectives this week at Spurrell's Wood were cutting the vegetation back on the roadside nature reserve and checking and clearing the nest boxes. After a brief check-in, Carol and Sophia went off to the woods armed with screwdrivers and power drill to clear the bird boxes. Trevor, Nigel, Ellie and I shared out the scythes and rakes. However, before we could start scything we had a busy time tidying and clearing fallen branches after the storm of the previous Friday. Luckily the rain stayed off and we made good progress, with two scything and two clearing and raking. It was a really good team effort, everyone mucking in with whatever needed doing to help get the job done. One tea break in the morning session with a welcome doughnut (thanks Trevor) and we went at it again! I think we cleared all the verges and still had time to do some cutting back/scything by the outdoor classroom. Personally I was pretty whacked by the end, but it was a very satisfying and rewarding morning. Looking forward to the next one!

Nick Stubbs