Latest Lockdown Briefing: 03-05-2020

Life goes on under lockdown....

Rainbow painted by Liz's two children - 

honorary NCVs Emily and Harry.

The NCVs may well be at the end of their 6th week of lockdown (8 since their last task day) but that doesn't mean they have not been doing useful tasks as far as improving the environment goes. I thought that ardent followers of this blog may well be missing its weekly entry, so decided to gather together some pictorial evidence for you to peruse between your daily walks, keep fit exercises, household duties etc. 

Now - what's been going on around and about? .........

 Anita has been busy growing tomatoes and doing yet more pruning of her shrubs.

That's an awful lot of tomatoes Anita!

Her neighbour's little boy commented that Anita's hedge 

looked like a green train engine. The following morning some wheels, 

windows and a funnel had magically appeared.

The little railway worker at the front is on guard duty.....

...making sure that the robin and her chick that have 

nested in the funnel are protected. 

Ros K. was given some 'funky veg' seeds by a neighbour. Now she has a range

 of colourful veg seedlings growing in her home-made greenhouses.

They soon germinated and include: 'Purple Haze' Carrots,Yellow Courgettes,
'Striped Tigerella' Tomatoes, Red&Purple Brussels Sprouts 
and 'Bright lights' Chard.

🌈Soon she will be eating a rainbow!

Talking of veg growing....

Ruth, too, is busy in the horticultural department.
Her greenhouse is just slightly bigger than Ros's.
I wonder if her veg. will be as colourful?

You may remember that Andrew had pond problems last time with some pesky ducks eating his tadpoles and generally making a mess. 

Ruth has a different problem.....

She has plenty of tadpoles - but lots of duckweed too. 
This can't be removed until the tadpoles grow into frogs. 😞
However - it's nice to see the honeysuckle, birch, flag iris 
and wild garlic at the end of the pond.

Although duckweed is invasive it doesn't get an NCV as steamed up as Himalyan Balsam. Unfortunately this is now germinating in lots of places. Ruth, Anita, Ros K., Ros E and Tony have all seen it. Once it gets a bit bigger than it is at the moment then they will probably spend some of their daily walks pulling it up!

How can something so tiny lead to such a mega sized problem?

(At bit like Covid 19!)

Liz is still working and has spent a good deal of time 

at the barn doing some tool cleaning and oiling.

Son Harry has been helping her construct a platform for the water bowser

that holds the NCVs' bio-security water supply. He did a great job as you can see.

Thanks Harry!

Liz has also been doing some hedge planting in her own garden.

The two 'new' trees are bay trees, re-sited from elsewhere.

If they survive the transplant then she will be able to go into business - 

'The Bay Leaf trading company' .

Looking at the size of them they should provide a sizeable income for the next 10 years.

Mind you - digging them up wasn't easy - as Harry and Emily discovered.

Emily? Wherefore art though?

Ros E. has had to bite the bullet and remove some of the 

climbing hydrangea from her front fence in preparation 
for its replacement. It was only held up by the vegetation. 

Let's hope that it starts to sprout again soon! 😟

And talking of fence replacement - if you remember - last time Tony was having to move a log pile to make way for his boundary fence to be renewed......

The job has now been completed and a new bridge over the stream constructed.

Very swish!

And all those tree tubes he had to check and de-weed?

Well - out of the 650 we planted only 25 have failed to survive the winter.

Obviously some very good planting was done by the NCVs!

 Paul has been back into Hackfall Wood on his daily walk 

and done a few bits and pieces.

He has widened that section of path near the fallen tree root ....

... and up by Mowbray Castle he has constructed an 

excellent hurdle to prevent visitors going where they shouldn't.

Not owning a billhook, in true NCV style, he improvised 

by using an old crepe palette knife.

Well done Paul!

Julia and Dave have been working hard on their veg patch

 which would easily rival any at an RHS show garden.

They, too, have used their NCV ingenuity and produced a home made 

table tennis table using a black and decker workmate, an old table top, 

some clamps and a tape measure. (Apparently the patent's pending!)

Wimbledon can now go ahead - obviously behind closed doors.

Graham undertook a very important job -

the conservation and restoration of Graham!

I think that he had probably put in a hard day's work on his allotment first.

(But I could be wrong.)

A couple of NCVs have been practising their landscape photography on the wonderful bluebell displays that are blooming at the moment:

 Paul took this in Hackfall Wood ....

...and Jan photographed his near Ripley Castle.

He said that the hum of the insects and the lovely fragrance made the sight all the better.

Jan was also quick enough to catch this amazing sight through his patio window - 

a sparrowhawk catching a blackbird.

Nature in the raw!

A challenge set and exceeded:

You will have probably heard of the 2.6 challenge that was put together by organisers of mass sporting events, including the cancelled London Marathon. Its aim was to raise money for charities that are struggling during the pandemic. Well - our own Liz and her daughter Emily decided to run a mini-marathon in the garden on 26th April. They wanted to raise £100 for the hospice that took such good care of Liz's mum. So far they have managed to get over £740!! A great result - but if you would like to help them take that total even higher then click HERE for the fund raising link. 

And finally:

Our very own NCV musician, Tom, has sent me this link to a song he wrote, in 2016, to accompany a J. Scott Skinner tune. It is entitled 'Separate Ways' and he felt it was appropriate for the strange times we are living in. The beautiful photo of the rainbow that accompanies the link was taken up on Nought Moor, above Pateley Bridge, where the NCVs laid a lot of paving stones to improve the footpath around that time. Warning - keep a box of tissues to hand when you listen. 

It is a lovely song Tom. Thank you for sharing it with us.