After two amazing days of snow, we meet at East Challow car park in the rain... how disappointing. And worst of all, we've been told in advance that there's no chance of a bonfire today. Grumbling slightly, we get ourselves ready: Jim puts on his waterproof trousers in order to make the rain stop, and starts unloading the van. Here he is doing the classic "backwards down a ramp" manouvre.

A short stroll down the towpath along the Stockham Park section, and we can see what our job for today is: a couple of whopping great willows have tumbled down in all the wild weather, and have fallen clear across the towpath and into the arable field beyond. Roy and a couple of stalwarts went out last Monday at short notice to clear the towpath, so people could at least get past, but today we have to tidy up the corpses, and all without a bonfire!

That's Jim under all that greenery, slashing away like a good 'un. There are two or three trees all tangled up together here, hindering us from removing the main big one that fell, so first we have to try to get some of the minor ones out of the way.

We get to work cutting down everything that we can reach while trying not to trample the crop. Here's Roy extending his saw... and look, just a little bit of snow remaining on the field.

Once the trusty chainsaw gets buzzing, the boughs start to fall, and it all starts to look a bit more hopeful. For the time being, we form a relay to tuck the debris under the hedge line.

Meanwhile, on the towpath, Malcy, Vic and I have been given long-handled saws and told to make some progress on another willow that has dropped a branch which is now hooked up on a different tree. Left to it's own devices, it will no doubt try to drop on someone's head, so we get to work.

A cry from Chinnor John to bring the camera quick - oh look, Nice Geoff has made a start on yet another tumbled willow, this time one lying right across the water. Mind which one you cut, Geoff!

Meanwhile Vic and Malcy are still sawing away....

Here's Doug, holding the reins of a runaway horse - no, he's been told to bring some weight on an overhanging branch, to prevent it squashing us when it falls.

Come on you two, haven't you finished that branch yet?! What's that? It's a different branch? Oh yes, so it is. Actually I knew that (he! he!) as the three of us took it in turns to cut through the branch of Damocles, half of which was actually ivy.

Finally we got it down, and here's Vic using an axe to get the cursed ivy off the trunk so that we could saw it up into sections.

Meanwhile, Doug's heave-hoing did the trick, and Roy chops up another tree trunk into manageable chunks.

To give you an idea of the scale of what we do, here's the stump of the main fallen willow - what a whopper, eh?

And here's another torn trunk to be tidied up. Most of the willow on this section is Salix Fragilis or Crack Willow, and you can see why it got the name! It really isn't very strong, and will split and rip in high winds: this is one of the reasons why we have no compunction about chopping them down when they are so close to the towpath. One good wind, and they are a complete menace to passers-by.

Jim and Malcy are sent back into the field to check how much of the branch is sticking out into the field, and then sent back again to chop it off neatly and throw it back up into the hedge.

Finally here's an amusing sight - did that feather actually fall and pierce the ivy leaf? Or did some passer-by think it looked nice there? We'll never know....