DIARY continued back to home page
Wimpole - 15th
July 2007
Working in the gardens
helping Phil (the head gardener) laying, planting and digging
up potatoes.
Above: laying
compost around the tomato plants in the Victorian Garden.
Left: planting......Right:
Phil cultivating (easy job!) after volunteers had dug up the potato
plants (hard job!!)
Dalehead and
Longshaw weekend - 25th to 28th May 2007
A weekend of walking
and helping with the open day on the National Trust Longshaw
Estate.
Our accomodation was provided at the NT Dalehead base camp near
Edale - a superb setting and
at the head of the Dale and an ideal starting point for walks
to include Mam
Tor, Win
Hill and Lose
Hill.
Above: CNTV walking group near LadyBower
Reservoir. Just prior
to this, and by complete chance, we watched
a WW2 Lancaster bomber flew over the Derwent Dam,
unfortunately I was not quick enough to get a photo....
This dam is very significant in the development of the bouncing
bomb, being used for bombing
runs and target practise.
(Photos: Roger) Left: Dalehead basecamp ..........................
Right: Basecamp location at head of Dale.
The open day on
the Longshaw Estate included demonstrations of a number of crafts
in which visitors including
pole
lathe turning, archaeological
digging techniques,
dry stone
wall building, basket
weaving, stone
carving and
wood
carving using chain saws!
Below are a few pictures from the open day.
Left: Everlasting flower making from sticks .... Centre: Basket
making..........Right: stone carving(Photos:
Roger)
Wimpole Hall
- 29th April 2007
The Sunday task
involved putting elm trunks in piles, resting on another trunk
so that Simon could pick up the piles
with a machine. Fence posts were made out of the thinner trunks.
At the end of the afternoon we (Val, Mark, Sally, Lop and Tom)
had done 140....or was it 160?
(Photos: Tom) Left: Preparing fence posts ...........
Right: large logs stacked.
(Photos: Tom) Left: smaller logs prepared as fence
posts ........... Right: End of task barbeque.
Anglesey Abbey
- 15th April 2007
Another day task
removing the old pheasant pen fencing plus clearing a circle around
an Oak tree
to create a quiet area in the woodland.
Left: starting the woodland clearing .... a 20 foot circle around
the oak tree (just discernable to top right - Y shaped branches).
(Photos: Roger) Right: Joan and Lop stop for a chat.....
(Photos: Roger) Left: clearing well under way.
Right: removing last part of pheasant fence - just checking no-one
is at home!
(Photo: Roger) The clearing complete except for removal
of stumps.
The cut down bushes were used to create habitat piles which also
marked the edge of the circle.
The plan is to use the clearing as an area to read stories to
young visitors to Anglesey.
Orfordness Easter
Weekend - 5th to 9th April 2007
The tasks at this
old military site, which is one of the largest shingle spits in
Europe, included breaking up and
clearing a collapsing concrete platform, and to repair cattle
fencing.
Left: breaking up concrete platform ........ Right: removing broken
concrete (Photos: Roger)
Orford lighthouse can
be seen in the background.
(Photos: Roger) Left: replacing straining post ........
Right: checking and marking intermediate posts ready for replacement
The task group next to a display of the military work carried
out on Orford.
Dave, the NT Warden, gave us a guided tour of the old now derelect
military buildings.
For more information
about Orfordness and its past history, here are some links:
Lighthouse : Nature
reserve :
Radar
research : Shingle
beach : Secrets
Ickworth House
Task - 4th March 2007
Task involved cleaning
and rubbing down scratched areas of the railings either side of
the front entrance to
Ickworth (by the rotunda). Rain precluded touching up the paint
work, so we moved to the dry moat (OK as it was raining
the not so dry moat) at the back of the rotunda to scrub and power
wash the paving slabs with dilute bleach to remove algae.
Pictured below -
CNTV scrubbers in action....!!
next diary
page