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This has to be counted as one of the coldest work parties for a long time: the wind was just howling, and although it wasn't actually snowing, it felt as though it ought to be! Our task today was mostly scrub-bashing, the continuing fight to clear the side of the cut on the other side of New Road from the Childrey Wharf. Luckily Roy had promised that we could have a bonfire!!
To start with, Phil and Roy attacked a largeish tree with the trusty bowsaws, to provide me with some wood to get the fire going - er, I mean, to start the clearance. 
This belt of scrub is particularly nasty, as it is made up of brambles and wild roses, all held together by well-established Blackthorn trees. Careful, Graham! 
I tried to get an "after" shot of the same tree that Phil and Roy were slaughtering in the first picture - this is it, with Bob valiantly slashing away at the man-eating brambles: 
And this is what the stretch of scrub looked like after our highly-trained team of scrub bashers had been through it. Please tell me that you can see the difference! 
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By now we were all warming up nicely, despite the cold wind: I had started the bonfire, and we were all kept busy slashing, chopping, and heaving the scrub onto the fire. I was asking for some bigger bits to squash down all the blackthorn, so Roy and James tried to find me a nice big bit:
Even Chinnor John was getting stuck in! 
Now we're well into the afternoon, and you can see that the strain is starting to tell... it was too cold to sit around for long at lunch break. 
Here's a good shot of my fabulous bonfire, what a whopper: 
And here it is from the other side. Impressive, huh? Actually I think it looks wilder than it really was..... but this was one day when we certainly appreciated the heat from the fire. Apart from one small incident when the wind changed direction that is: well, I was meaning to cut my fringe anyway, and who needs both eyebrows? 
That's it for today, it was too cold to stop and take more photos! |