We had a sunny and very hot day for our annual visit
to the lovely Kirkstead Old Mill Cottage. As always, Barbara, the owner,
made us very welcome – providing tea and coffee on arrival, a wonderful
lunch of lasagne and salad, and tea, coffee and cake at the end of the day. 
Oh yes – the task. There were 17 of us ready to take
on various projects. Over the years we have helped Barbara, and her late
husband, Tony, to plant hundreds of daffodils in this private reserve; they
have to be deadheaded and this was a gentle start to the day for some of us.
A huge pile of willow and buddleia prunings along the track near the river
had to be cut up and burned so those wanting a bit more of the traditional
‘slash and burn’ work took loppers and saws and soon had a fire going (a bit
OTT on such a hot day and thanks to John C who braved the heat to tend it
all day). By the end of the day the pile of prunings had become a pile of
smoking ash.
We also planted out many, many pots of daffs that had
already flowered: these went in ‘Tony’s Garden’, a peaceful sunny area that
we had cleared on a previous visit and where we had then planted lots of
buddleias, raised by Tony from cuttings, and daffodils. Though some of the
buddleias were struggling a bit after the winter, most were showing signs of
growth. While we planted the daffs, Barbara and Reg (who
works regularly with her), and helper Alex, were pollarding willows along
the stream and planting some willow stems into the stream bank to provide a
continuous line of trees through the reserve.