Dacre Banks Nature Park: 26-06-2018

This week the NCVs were carrying on the good work that the student team had begun a couple of weeks ago, when everyone else was busy with basketry and raised bed construction. If you have read the blog entry for that week you will remember that they were down at Dacre Banks Nature Park making a start on straightening and securing the 3000 tree tubes that have been there since February 2016. Plenty of work to keep us busy then!! The day was very hot but that didn't stop us achieving a good deal - we finished working at 1:45pm having checked and dealt with just about every tree in the area. This was quite a relief as the temperature had soared to 29 degrees by then!

A view of the nature park at the start of the day. 

Things didn't look too bad from up here - just the odd leaning tube here and there..

However - at ground level it was a different story.
Some trees had been bent in half by 
the gale a couple of weeks ago.

Others had been pushed to an extreme angle and needed 

returning to the vertical or, in the case of the many of the roses, 
simply setting loose from their tubes to allow them to ramble 
around more naturally.This required us to do the rather prickly
 job of unwinding their tangled stems - not always possible.

Everyone partnered up and got to work.

That looks better!

On and on - up and down the rows we went. 
We needed to work systematically to avoid double checking the same trees.

In spite of sitting in the middle of a plantation of 3000 trees not one 
of them was big enough to offer any shade for coffee time!

Liz had come prepared for good bio-security practice.

Note the tarpaulin to put our bags on and trugs for washing all the tools in later.

Everywhere was so dry that not a single tool had anything

 attached to it by close of play. Never mind - at least we were prepared.

Back to work in the relentless heat.
Water, sun hats and sun cream were a must have.

At lunchtime we made an effort and walked across the field to the stream

 where there was some welcome shade from two nice big old trees.

Phew!

Michael waved a magic wand at lunchtime and produced, 
not only a chocolate cake.....

... but also a delicious citrus one. (Thanks Gwen!!!)

The structural integrity of this was somewhat challenged by the high temperature, in spite of it having been in the fridge until 10 mins before this picture was taken.

Never mind - it was a good excuse to eat it. It wouldn't have lasted until tomorrow!

David - "I wonder where this tree went?"
Ros K. - "Don't ask me - I've been too busy eating cake to keep an eye on it. 
I think I need to let out the waistband on my trousers."

Meanwhile - further along the valley at St Cuthbert's school - Osian and the student group were doing a different task on this, the final day of their placement. He reported as follows:

Two of the students and their two supervisors cleared the St Cuthbert's school logo flower bed of lavender, ready for raised beds construction and planting by the school children. 

Lavender almost gone.

The boys also sorted through some stones to create a border edge to an area containing a bench and then back-filled it with gravel. 

A nice neat stone edging in place, 
weed suppressant was laid down and then on went the gravel.

There was plenty of that available.

Just a little bit more in these corners,

There you go - an excellent job!

All done and dusted, with tools cleaned in line with bio-security guidance, the student team headed to Pateley Bridge Pancake House (other pancake houses are available) for their farewell ice cream treats. We thank the students and theTeaching Assistants for their work during the year and wish them well for their future endeavours. 

Tools back in the trailer and the job's a wrap.