"Tally Ho!" The NCVs cried as they sallied forth to tackle the mowing of the remaining half of Holy Trinity churchyard in Dacre Banks. If you remember, last week they were carefully picking their way around the graves with their scythes, without the benefit of a strimmer to show them where the hidden obstacles were.
This week, Liz was back in action, 2 strimmers at the ready. "Off we go!" she shouted - so off they went. No further encouragement was needed. Grass was flying everywhere....
Due to the heavy rain the day before
the grass was laying, flat and soggy
on the remaining half of the churchyard.
This meant that (a) you had to scythe
in circles rather than in nice straight lines....
...and (b) scythers needed to
stop regularly to sharpen their blades.
A couple of the team needed to prune
the bottom branches of the lime tree to allow
ease of access to the compost heap.
Various NCVs took it in turns to use
the strimmers. Great for speedy work
and surgical precision, but extremely noisy!
Amy was given a crash course in how
to use one and was soon performing
as if she was a professional strimmer.
Grass was raked into sausages
and Ruth showed Mick how to transfer
a sausage onto a pitch fork
for ease of shifting.
All over the churchyard NCVs
marched, carrying haystacks high
above their heads.
You had to be careful not to
decapitate a frog now and again.
Excuse me scythers -
you've missed a bit here.
No we haven't.
We have fet it uncut on purpose to allow the
autumn crocuses to finish blooming.
Despite having just returned from a cycling trip
(Lands End to John O'Groats),
Andy still managed an energetic
hip swinging scything technique.
Mick, too, has been on holiday
and entertained Adrian with tales of
being attacked by a hoard of marauding
jellyfish.
Once lunch was over, the scythes
could be put to one side.
All that remained to be done
was strimming, raking and grass shifting.
As no brush was to hand,
Ken improvised with a glove
on a stick to brush off the gravestones.
It was actually extremely effective.
The compost pile, by close
of play, was a good deal bigger
than at the start of the day!
And finally:
The NCVs' workshop toilet is now complete and looking very professional. Amazing what can be achieved with some old barn doors and a roll of toilet paper!
On Sunday the 22nd September, Honorary NCV Harry exhibited his very own tractor at the Nidderdale Show. He was very proud and pleased to be taking part!!
