Cakeless in Stow Heath

It was a lovely summer’s morning when eleven volunteers gathered at Stow Heath for Thursday's working party. Many of us had not visited this site before and so Trevor began the morning taking us around this glorious 2.5-acre reserve. It soon became apparent that the recent spell of good weather had encouraged nature, especially nettles, to take over…..so that was the first job decided! Alan and John manned the scythes and set about clearing the path around the perimeter, starting at opposite ends and miraculously/by good judgement meeting in the middle. Alan and John were ably assisted by Peter, Mark, Maria and Nina pruning and cutting back other vegetation. Mark also wielded a spade to make an excellent job of cutting some access steps as part of the path.  

Val also joined in the pruning and trimming, tackling the dreaded brambles while also finding time to “listen to the lovely bird song”. Biddy did “lots of raking and chatting” but also spotted and photographed a Speckled Wood butterfly and Hedge Woundwort. Also, as a first for our sites, Biddy found a rather interesting flint. It appeared to be shaped to fit in the hand nicely – a stone age tool perhaps? We like to think that this would have been used by an early volunteer conservation group!

Speckled Wood Butterfly

Hedge Woundwort

Andrew and Nigel were tasked with installing fence posts along the boundary. Andrew did most of the hard work as Nigel is still pleading a bad shoulder, an excuse that is starting to wear thin! At around the 2/3rd stage, however, they hit upon a cunning plan to man the fence rammer jointly, which saw a rather fairer sharing of the workload and, armed with a system that worked well, they were able to make short order of the rest of the posts. 

All in all, a lovely morning – we achieved a lot and enjoyed the beautiful Norfolk countryside and nature while still finding time to have a chat. And so to the subject of cake… or rather lack of it. After an hour and a half of hard work we were all greatly looking forward to the restorative power of cake to have with our coffee and set us up for the rest of the morning. But, horror of horrors… Trevor had forgotten to bring the cake! A mutiny was narrowly avoided and Trevor was forgiven. How could we not on such a glorious summer day in the Norfolk countryside?

Nigel Smith

June 19th 2025