Limley Farm: 19-08-2025

Yet more HBP!!

Yes. That's right. More balsam eradication was on the cards this week - way updale at Limley Farm.

I know, I know. You are right - we were only up there two weeks ago and last week I said that the scything season had started. Well with there only being a small team available last time, and with the balsam getting to the point where it would be seeding all over the place, a second visit to finish the job was vital. The scything would have to wait.

Shall we check to see if the job got done?

The 8 strong team slowly worked 

their way up the dry river bed.

The plants were well rooted between

the stones and often hard to pull up.

Oh Heck!!

NOT a sight for sore eyes!!

That's better.

A heap of defeated balsam.

Helena was proud of her 

balsam collection.

Ruth felt overwhelmed.

Where to start?

These two started up here.

This NCV started down here.

And these two just sat around

 all day doing nothing...

...having roped in a couple of

 cows to do their share of the work.

A more welcome and interesting

sight to see than balsam.

By the time the team arrived at this 

patch of merrily seeding balsam 

they decided it was time to give

 up and go home!

Holy Trinity Churchyard, Dacre Banks: 12-08-2025

 

And so the scything 

season begins....

Yes folks. It's that time of the year when NCVs' thoughts turn to harvesting. Well, at least the removal of grass from various places in the dale in order to encourage wildflowers to flourish. This week they made a good start with the first of these venues - that of the churchyard at Dacre Banks. It was a good place to get back into the swing of things (see what I did there?). Not too big an area and relatively flat ground. The only downside was the presence of stonework lurking below the vegetation.

We had champion scyther Joe, from the office, in attendance to make sure we were all scything effectively. He has won the Northern Scything Championship twice AND the Eastern Championship too. How lucky were we to have him on the team?

And here he is - looking every inch a champion.

Fortunately we also had the use of Andy C's strimmer to tidy up around the graves stones where we had to avoid blunting the scythe blades unnecessarily.

So - here is the team in action. You can judge their progress for yourself.

Left hand side of the path at the start of the day...

..and the right hand side was as bad. 

Andy was up and running 

(or swinging) in no time.

Joe gave Tim a 'how to' tutorial...

...and turned him into a Grim Reaper in no time,

just like the one at the top of the page.

(Just not with the red eyes).

Brenda got busy raking up the cut grass, 

turning it into sausages...

...which were taken off to the compost 

heap in a variety of ways.

Up high...

..down low...

......and somewhere in the middle.

Brenda and Anita eschewed any of these methods, 

opting for the drag bag method.

Erm, excuse me you two.

Less chat - more action!!

As grass was mown, so Adrian donned 

the strimming gear and began to 

sway to the rhythm of the machine.

It was a hot day and coffeetime in

 the shade was a welcome break.

Particularly as birthday biscuits

 provided an energy boost.

The churchyard was a hive of activity all day.

The presence of so much stone work 

didn't make life easy.

Now you lot - I know you didn't do that patch.

That was the church's lawn mower last week!!

What on earth are you doing now?

I thought you had finished! 

Oh - just sowing some wildflower seeds,

including yellow rattle to suppress the grass.

By close of play the churchyard was looking very smart,

both to the left of the path...

...and to the right.

The job was completed by 2pm.

Excellent work team!

Limley Farm: 05-08-2025

HIMALAYAN BALSAM REMOVAL!!!!!

Yes. Sorry folks. HBR up the valley at Limley Farm it is.  

I know - we've been up here doing this regularly over the last few years. But there are thousands of seeds that remain, ungerminated, in the soil each year and more get brought in on people's walking boots every day. All we can do is keep bashing to keep it under some kind of control until the new balsam rust fungus treatment trial is completed and rolled out across the land.

So - here's how the day panned out.....

A VERY small team got booted and

 suited in rather damp  conditions.

First they limbered up with

a spot of HBR by the roadside.

Pull and squash or slash and squash.

Whatever takes your fancy.

A gang of sheep came to see if 

they could help.

Then it was down to the dry river bed.

At first things looked good.

Not much B to be Rd.

Uh Oh. 

More B up here.

The balsam had obviously taken

 up golf whilst waiting to be pulled.

Balsam Utopia here.

Never mind.

We have the A team.

The balsam was soon no more.

Although the weather had improved

there was a much wetter river bed here.

Osian simply waded through to reach

plants on the far side.

Ken preferred to use 

a fallen log as a bridge.

The team pulled all day and made 

some good inroads. However, 

needless to say, there is still more to do!!

Meanwhile, down in the council chamber back in Pateley Bridge, a small group of vols were being trained in the legalities of footpath way-markers. This was to prepare them for any footpath improvement work they may do in the future. They surveyed the Greenhow Geology Trail as part of the training.

A much more civilised way to spend a morning compared to HBR!!