NB Readers - please note that Osian has now managed to send in the Fishpond Wood photos from this Tuesday's task and they can be viewed in the blog entry below this one. They provide sound evidence that his claims of work done were not false!
Vanessa starts things off...
My favourite place that I have visited with the AONB was
Ellington Banks. It is an area the public aren’t allowed in so we had to be let
in through a locked gate. Ellington Banks is where the army do their training so
we were escorted by John to the place we were working at and we weren’t allowed
within 30m of the army lads.
When we arrived at Ellington Banks it was very sunny. Our
work involved clearing scrub; this is going to make it beneficial to plant and
animal life like crested newts and woodlarks. The land that we were working on
was very flat; it was furrowed having been ploughed once upon a time.
Jan was explaining to us how to cut down a tree properly; you need to saw the tree as close to the ground as you can. We then carried brash to the fire. When we were eating
our lunch on a little hill an AC130, which is a military plane, flew over us.
The reason this was my favourite place is because the
weather was very warm all day and the ground was not as muddy as usual.
Indeed Vanessa - an unmuddy day has been a rare commodity over the last few months and one to treasure!
Hannah chose a different venue....
My most favourite place that I have visited with the AONB is
Fishpond Wood. I like Fishpond because after a few visits I have got used to
the woods. When I first went there it
was difficult to find my way around, but now after I’ve been a few times I find
it easy and I know where all the paths lead to.
I have been involved in lots of
different tasks at Fishpond woods but the main one that sticks in my mind is Rhododendron clearing. I learnt to saw through the thick Rhododendron
branches by using my saw correctly and then I used my loppers to tidy up the
branches. I also learnt to cut the branches as close to the ground as possible.
Another task I did was gathering all the branches that I had cut down and then
putting them tidily in a big brash pile, so they can be either burnt on a
bonfire or left for the wildlife to enjoy.
At first I thought I wasn`t going to really enjoy working
with the AONB, but after a few weeks I realised that I was starting to enjoy it
because I was looking forward to the different tasks that we were doing. Also I
was looking forward to meeting and chatting to new people, I wanted to hear
about their stories and look forward to these days.
It is a pleasure to hear that Hannah has enjoyed working with the other NCVs - they are certainly enjoying her cheery company!
Josh agreed with Vanessa about the best place to be for a different reason...
The best place that I visited was Ellington Banks. Ellington is an army training ground. I enjoyed the visit because I am hoping to join the army. I particularly enjoyed looking at the army lads walking around with their guns and there was lots of smoke grenades, flare cases and bullet cases.
The weather was perfect and I think it was one of the nicest days of the year. We could sit and have lunch and not worry about being cold or getting caught out in the rain. While we were having lunch we saw a AC130 plane curling around the army training ground.
We were tasked with clearing scrub and this involved using loppers and saws to clear the shrubs. Then we had to ferry it to the fire.
Once we finished we took a steady walk back to the van to set off home.
We all wish you luck with your application to join the army Josh.
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