A day of mixed weather for our annual task at Snakeholme Pit. A lot of us
gathered to rake hay, pollard a couple of willows and paint the new gate and
other bits of fence and two benches.
We hoped to rake hay in sunshine and look very rural and traditional but
instead the sky was grey and rain threatened. I suppose that’s quite
traditional for the summer. But we set to with enthusiasm and soon had all
the hay raked up, leaving all the lovely little wild flower seeds behind to
grow next year.
It rained a bit at some point and we decided it wouldn’t be possible to
paint the gate but we had lunch, some set off to do the ‘big’ stuff of
pollarding the willows, the sun came out and was very hot, the timber dried
and so we did paint the gate, fences and benches after all. Very nice they
looked too.
A
earlier than usual finish, which was good, particularly as about five
minutes after getting into our cars and setting off there was a torrential
downpour and we would have been soaked if still on the reserve. But would
our paint survive? People have visited since, and it did. And Butterfly
Conservation are very pleased with our work.
So thanks to everyone who helped at this task.
Jude