Pateley Bridge Churchyard: 22-10-2024

 

 If you walk into any supermarket in Britain at the moment, you will be reminded that there are a number of special days coming up that you should be spending your hard earned cash preparing for.

Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night, Christmas. So much celebration lies ahead!!

However - did you realise that there are only 2 days remaining before the most important celebration of all in the UK's calendar of important dates?

No? 

No idea? 

Why - WORLD TRIPE DAY of course!!! The day when the Tripe Marketing Board will do its best to encourage you to eat tripe with gusto - whatever anyone may think of you. 

The NCVs could hardly contain their excitement - only 2 days to go. How should they decorate the outside of their houses? What recipes for tripe should they cook for the big day? Should they send cards to their loved ones to mark the occasion? 

As you can imagine, they were all extremely glad that there was a task in Pateley Bridge churchyard to focus on  to take their minds off the upcoming festivities. After all, time passes much more quickly when you are busy. Tripe day would arrive sooner if they did some manual labour. And here they are, trying their best not to get over-excited with thoughts of tripe.

 

 

The task involved cutting down the

extemely high laurel hedge

 at the back of the church.

 

Then the brash had to be shifted 

to the bottom of the steps over here....

 

...where some of it needed processing...

 

....before it was hauled up... 

 

... to the top of

the steps for chipping. 

Brash shifters certainly got 

their steps in today!!

The steps first had to be power 

hosed by Andy to make them 

safe to use.

Once he got started he then carried 

on and did all the slippery paths 

around the church itself.

Great job Andy!!

Up above the church the chipping team

got busy getting rid of the brash tsunami

that just kept on coming.

It was fed into the gaping maw

of the industrial chipper that had 

been hired for the day...

 

...then shot over the wall, 

back into the churchyard. 

Here it was collected into a 

big heap by the end of the day.

It was a VERY noisy process.

Meanwhile, back at the hedge face....

 

...Liz just kept chainsawing....

 

...and Osian just kept pulling.

 

Slowly, bit by bit, the laurel was 

dismantled and either chippped...

 

...or turned into two enormous log piles.

 

 

By close of play it was all but gone...

 

...and the boundary wall was revealled.

 

Thank goodness for the biscuits and 

tarts provided by the church and 

the banana buns, kindly made by Liz.

They provided a much needed

 boost to energy levels!

 

Job finished, the NCVs packed up 

and headed home. Only one more full

 day to go to World Tripe day now!!

NB There will be no blog next week. The NCVs are being given a free week seeing it is half term. Liz is on leave and Ros will be making besom brooms up at Brimham, so there will be no-one to keep the troops in order.