Central Manchester Guided Tour 22 August 2009

MNTV member Liz Whalley gave a great tour of Manchester City centre. It's amazing how many obvious things one becomes oblivious to in their local city. We were all made to realise how much there is to see in Manchester and what a great city it is now. The sunshine had drawn everybody out to sit on lawns and chat or enjoy a drink in a beer garden so there was a vibrant atmosphere. Although is was quite sobering as we remembered Manchester's impressive industrial history and saw key areas now packed with crowds enjoying the sun with a drink. Walking along the canal to the Castlefield area the canal was overflowing; initially we were able to dodge the floods but there came a point where the entire tow path was underwater. I was impressed by the determination of the group to continue regardless; we paddled along the tow path or shimmied along the hand rail undeterred. We ended the afternoon with tapas and a well-deserved sit down!

16 August - Speke Hall

Seven volunteers from the our group turned out to Speke, and spent the day Rhodi bashing with volunteers from the Chester group.

Three fires were lit, and a reasonable area cleared. Though the day was complicated by both bumble bees and wasps.

Hayfield 9 Aug

Ten volunteers turned out and spent the day cutting Rhody - due to recent comparatively dry weather we did not have a fire and built a large stack of cut material instead.

It may be part of our task to burn it on our next visit to the area. The area we cut was a steep bank above a stream on "Park Moor" - Its difficult to tell from the photos - the pile (in the top photo) is about 6 feet high most of the way along, in the second photo you can see the ground dipping away to the left of the pile, the birch trees started off completely surrounded.

Like the Rhody in the foreground of the photos the area cut will be allowed to regrow for a while until there is enough leaf area to be treated - hopefully eradicating the problem.

It was a very hot day and we got through considerable volumes of drinking water (I drank 2.5 litres and gave away 1 litre to other volunteers who were running low!)

Lymm Dam Walk 4 August 2009

In very humid conditions we explored the Bridgewater Canal, had great views of Manchester silhouetted against an orange sky, and completed a circuit of Lymm Dam. Thanks to one of the footpaths being closed for repair, we had to make a bit of a detour and the GPS devices on the walk confimed that the walk had been 4.87 rather than the promised 4 miles. However, the conversion of a sports field into a housing estate did not succeed in throwing us off route! We arrived back in Lymm just as the light was failing very much in need of refreshment. This we enjoyed in a beer garden in the village centre, whilst being amazed at all the things modern mobile phones can do.

Formby 2 Aug 2009

Thanks to Sue for leading the day, bringing sticky cakes and generally looking after ua all at Formby. I did get a swim - but due to cramp stopped after about 5 yards! In the past (3 out of 4 previous trips) I've got further. I enjoyed to the work and the sun - but the 8 inch nails were a bit of a challenge.

In Sue's words.....
Work task - finishing revetment work started by wardens, which involved layering and fixing horizontal half round timber to form a barrier to prevent the sand from blowing off the dunes onto the field. Also put up 2 chestnut pailing fences either end of the revetment to join with an existing chestnut pailing fence thereby preventing people from walking on the sand behind the revetment, and then laying a carpet of hay (3 bales!) on top of the sand within the fenced area to reduce movement of the sand. This work was done along a section of the circular walk around the property to enable prams and wheelchair users good access to the property.

The sun shone!! and at lunchtime we went onto the beach (in 2 groups so the tools could be 'guarded') and Gordon went for a swim (not for the first time I believe - this seems to be a fairly regular Formby event!!) As we finished work early, we dropped our stuff off at the cars outside the Countryside offices and went in search of an ice-cream and red squirrels. We found the ice-creams okay but unfortunately, due to the recent outbreak of pox, we didn't see any squirrels (apparently numbers have fallen from 300 to around 30!)