Old Spring Wood: 16-07-2019

Sticks at the ready chaps!

Any of the above sticks would have been less than helpful for the NCVs' task this week. What was needed was something long, strong and light enough to hold in a bashing position. 

Something more like this...

As you may have already guessed - the task involved the use of said sticks to bash the bracken growing in remaining section of Old Spring Wood not covered during our first visit there some weeks ago. There was an incentive for NCVs to turn out for duty this week as woodland owner Rosemary was laying on a special bracken bashers' lunch. Who could resist?

And here they are at work....

Halfway down the hillside, over by the boundary wall, 
lay a nice juicy patch of bracken just waiting to be swiped.

Everyone wound each other's clockwork mechanism up and off they set.

NCV Vikki seemed to enjoy her first experience of BB.
Mind you this picture was taken at the start of the proceedings.

Looking back across a completed patch was a bit disheartening 
as things did not appear much different.
However - they were!

 Alistair made sure no pieces were left under the tree branches.

 Some NCVs likened their stick swing to that of Roger Federer

One group of NCVs swept around the outside of the area 
and started approaching it from below.
As you can see - the bracken was fairly tall 
but not nearly as tall as it used to be a few years ago.

 Coffee time was an alfresco affair, with Alistair making sure his head didn't fall off. 

Over rigorous bashing can cause neck screws to become loosened.

Ken and Graham stretched out side by side, enjoying the respite.

There were a number of areas of woodland where rocks and fallen branches lay hidden beneath the bracken. Anyone catching one of these obstacles with their stick started vibrating violently as if in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

And then it was lunchtime and the long plod up to Rosemary's began. Everyone here?

No, as it turned out. Ken had taken a wrong turn and was later than everyone else arriving at the dinner table. He turned up assuming that folk would be worried about where he had got to; a search party perhaps. But no - everyone was oblivious to his absence.

All he was met with is "Have you been bashing until now?"

In future we will keep him on a lead.

Once up at Rosemary's, Alistair flopped down in the nearest chair.
Luckily his head was still attached to his neck so eating lunch was not going to be an issue.

Everyone waited in eager anticipation for their feast.

Ken recovered from his extra long trip to the hill top in a nice easy chair.

After a huge spread of burgers, chicken, nut roast, chips and veg

 the fruit pies and custard were brought out. Hurray! Custard!

Three cheers for the chef in her pinny.
Hip Hip .....

 After lunch it was back down into the wood with VERY full stomachs.
Anita trialled the 'walking backwards' technique to see if it was more effective/easier .

Liz tried out the 'fall forward on your horizontal stick and then pull the bracken back over it' technique. This was trialled a couple of years ago, at Guisecliff, to good effect.

Occasionally you had to be a bit careful not to swipe off little gems 
like this Blusher toadstool.

This, however, was easy to see - Ruth ad Ros K. tried it out for size.
A perfect NCV kennel.

Liz had a sneaky post prandial lie down.

And then it was all over. Just one more frond to bash. 

Stan suggested that someone should design a perfect  BB stick.

Carbon fibre: a slightly flattened, aerodynamic shape: centre of gravity 1/3 of the distance from the tip. 

Anita suggested it should be fitted with a 'swingometer' (bashometer?) to check which NCVs have done the most bashing. 

Jan (tool master) - over to you!!