Birch removal Thurstaton Common 30 Sep 2012

Two manchester volunteers shared a car from Styal to Roydon Park on Thurstaton common on the Wirral. Where we met up with two volunteers from Merseyside and the local ranger. A third Merseyside volunteer arrived nearer midday. The task for the day was removing birch saplings from one of the paddocks.... Three areas of the common have been fenced and are now grazed - in an effort to maintain the rarer open heathland habitat holding back the natural process of "succession" which would see it reverting to woodland - which has a lower conservation status. With all the rain this year the grazing animals had plenty of lush grass to graze on - and as a result it took longer than normal for them to graze off the birch in the paddock they were in. The net result they never got moved into the other paddocks - leaving the birch to grow unchecked. Once it gets too big - the grazers won't manage it - and then volunteers are needed to either cut it down or pull it up. We got some done but there is a lot left to do.

Quarry Bank Gardens (Styal ) 23 Sept 12

Four volunteers turned out and spent the day in the upper part of the garden clearing undergrowth and brambles.

Musical comedy - Chess Pieces 21st Sept

Eight of us went to support Kate's acting debut in a musical comedy called 'Chess Pieces' written by John Waterhouse.

The play was based in a 'lesser part of Hell' where 2 demons challenge each other to a game of chess using the souls of mere mortals as the chess pieces. Multiple characters were manipulated in and out of tricky situations with a final twist at the end!

Kate played a Women's Institute Campaigner and dressed the part in clothing borrowed from her family and friends. The photo above shows her in character, brandishing her umbrella against the characterful 'lager lout'.

An entertaining evening, which started when some of us went to eat at The Art of Tea in Didsbury before the play...................................well done Kate:-)

Alderley Edge 16th Sept

A good turnout of 11 MNTVers who joined with another 14 or so Sale and Congleton volunteers to clear vegetation along a boggy part of a path in Clockhouse Wood, Alderley Edge - felling and cutting back holly and other tree's to allow the light onto the path and help dry it out.

Some of us, using mattocks, created a number of gullys to divert the rainwater off to the side to stop it running down the path making it boggy.

During the afternoon some chickens from a nearby farm came and visited us!! Picture shows the chickens and, behind them, one of the gullys that we made.

At least the bad rainshower waited until we'd got home but, in some ways, it would have been good to see how well the gullys worked if it had rained while we were still there!!!

Two other views of the path - uphill into the area done on this day

and down hill into the area worked on previously

Dunham Massey 9 September 2012

After a period of confusion as the committee were unable to find a leader for the day, 5 volunteers turned out to Dunham Massey and met up with the Ranger on duty - John.

We had some discussion about potential task, the tools available that we had with us, those that could be borrowed from Dunham Massey, and the other equipment available (one of the task would have been made a lot easier if the tractor / trailer were available).

We settled on Rhodi bashing.

The fire didn't go smoothly so we managed to bash a lot more than we burn.

MNTV social on 5 September 2012 - quiz night at the Unicorn Inn, Wilmslow

A good number of MNTVers met up at the Unicorn Inn in Wilmslow for the first of the two September socials, to see if we could continue our good run of success in local pub quizzes. As usual, there was a good spread of knowledge across the team, with plenty of obscure (but yet correct!) answers being submitted. The team ended up with some prizes of drinks vouchers after winning the music quiz by a clear 3 points, after some last minute answer changes to a few of the suggested song years - seemingly this gamble paid off! The main quiz wasn't quite as successful, and there appeared to be a number of "regular" teams in attendance who were just that bit stronger with their general knowledge. All in all, it was a really enjoyable night, and hopefully one which can be repeated soon with the "unofficial" MNTV quiz team.

Gardening - Quarry Bank Garden 2 Sept 2012

Seven volunteers turned out to the Gardens at Quarry Bank near Styal and spent the day (for almost the first time in recent memory) gardening in a garden.

The task was hard work and felt slow.  It was removing perrenial weed from an area of ground near a gravel drive that leads to a holiday cottage.  We were pleased to stop for some cake and somewhat latter for lunch.  We completed the area at about three pm and left for home.  The weather was overcast initially but the sun came out in due course - and as we were working in a sun trap got a little warm...

Photographs with luck in due course.....