HIDDEN STONES!
Yes indeed. The NCVs had their work cut out this week as they were scything in an area that was not really designed for such an activity. No wide open farm field of swaying wheat was awaiting them. Not even an undulating wild flower verge. They would have been easy peasy. No - instead they had to report for duty to the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Dacre Banks, a venue bristling with stonework, alot of which was hidden in the long grass. A good deal of care was going to have to be taken to ensure that scythe blades were not ruined.
Regular readers of this blog will remember that this churchyard, like a number of others in the dale, is being managed in such a way that the biodiversity of the less well visited areas is being improved. Last year sections were scythed and yellow rattle seed was sown in an attempt to suppress the grass. Now it was time to see if the plan was working. Let's take a look to see....
Hmmm. Not convinced that there
has been much suppression...
...and this pile of fallen branches
could do with thickening up
into a proper habitat pile.
OK - Let's get started then, shall we?
Tony - in his Sunday best for some reason -
started slicing away...
...and binman Ken went gathering up the many
fallen twigs and transported them ....
...to Anita, who danced with joy at the
prospect of brash piling.
Soon the churchyard was busy with
mono scythers...
...and stereo scythers.
Grass shifter extraordinaire, Ruth,
raked up vegetation flavoured sausages...
...before deftly skewering them onto a pitch fork
and transporting them aloft to the compost heap.
A veritable walking haystack!
The compost heap got rather high,
so Ros, equipped with crampons
and oxygen mask, climbed
to the summit to try to bring it down in size.
The NVCs were relieved when break
times were called. All this swinging
and raking is thirsty work on a warm day.
As Liz had to attend a full day
training session, the NCVs had to cope
without the assistance of a strimmer.
Ken stopped collecting sticks and started
neatening up the grave edges
where the scythes couldn't be used.
By 2pm one half of the churchyard was
completed and looking much better.
Just the other half to do - probably next week.
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