Rainy Morning Blues Turn Gold

The rain had been forecast all week – after a few days of lovely sunshine. And the forecast was right! However, it was not nearly as bad as anticipated and nobody was blue, either in mood or in body temperature. Indeed, what might have been a damp and unproductive morning became yet another golden work party.

12 of us were distributed around the Sustead cluster: expert scythers mowed Sustead Common; a team gapped up the hedge on the road side of the common, around the outdoor classroom and on the north side of Spurrell’s Wood; others continued the work started by the Gresham’s School group three weeks ago, removing as many briars as possible in an area near the bird feeder on the Surveyor’s Allotment – with a view to creating a clearer space to allow typical grassland species such as Common Knapweed, Agrimony, Oxeye Daisy and Meadow Buttercup to flourish, unimpeded by more vigorous plants such as Brambles and Stinging Nettles; while others raked up and removed leaves; and, finally, two volunteers new to scything received a short lesson from Trevor and showed great promise!

One golden frog emerged from one of the leaf piles and managed to escape our digging and scything.

Our break was taken in the welcome shelter of the outdoor classroom and the highlight of the break was the crispy cornflake cookies kindly provided by Amy from the cottage over the road. Thank you, Amy!

Our next work party will be on Thursday May 4th – not April 20th, as advertised. After the large number of recent work parties, things ease up for a while now, so we feel it is better to have fewer work parties but with plenty to do. We will probably be at West Beckham Old Allotments.

Peter Maingay April 6 2023