Monday 22 May 2017

Fence removal at Styal on Sunday 21st May 2017

Fourteen of us ventured to Styal to remove fencing with some members of the Chester and Merseyside groups. A small group had to be rescued by Neil after getting lost en route to the site (sorry guys, I can make cakes but am directionally challenged!) and then we all set to work removing masses of wire fencing.
 
Christine and Neil dismantle the old fence
We raced through the area that Colin had planned for us to tackle, with a short break for cupcakes made by my wonderful nieces.

Neil clearly advertises the group while everyone else blurredly eats cake
 
By dinner we had completed the whole area and Colin found us more fencing to fight for the afternoon. There was much wrestling of wire, fighting with undergrowth and baling twine - thanks Jenny for bringing her pen knife. Neil showed us a new game of playing trampoline on rolls of wire and Tricia looked like she had been fighting with bears!
Neil bounces vigorously on the rolls of old wire
Thanks to everyone who worked incredibly hard in pretty humid weather. It was a hard day but we accomplished great things.

Hope to see you all soon

Lisa


Thursday 18 May 2017

MNTV social: walk and meal at Lower Withington on Thursday 18th May 2017

Eight of us met in the carpark of the Red Lion at Lower Withington, with enough time to pre-order our 'after walk' meal, and get ourselves ready for a 7pm departure.

The route had been found by Kate on the 'my.viewfinder.com' website and was a fairly flat circular walk of 3.7 miles, across fields, on farm tracks and quiet country roads, with beautiful views and only 5 or 6 stiles to navigate on the way round.

It was a lovely evening and we stopped fairly soon after setting off, to pose under the beautifully carved owl by the communal green on Trap Street.
We then had a fairly leisurely walk, admiring various beautiful houses along the route, and stopping for a while to admire the Jodrell Bank telescope in the distance on a couple of occasions.
It was lovely to see everyone chatting as we walked along, particularly as we were a mixed group of MNTVers and other friends, some of whom hadn't met before.
We managed to finish our walk bang on schedule, arriving back at the Red Lion at 8.30pm. After a quick change of footwear, we went in to order our drinks and pay for our meal, which arrived very shortly afterwards and everyone agreed, was delicious.
Thanks to Kate for finding the walk for us and coming along to join us amidst her packing and moving house activities. Also to Andy who, having reccied the walk with Sue the previous week, became the default leader, checking the route on his iphone as we went along.
Thanks to everyone for coming along, it was really nice to see you all:-)

Sunday 14 May 2017

Fence removal at Lyme Park on Sunday 14th May 2017

Ten of us met in the main car park at Lyme before Craig, one of the Lyme Rangers,  arrived to tell us where we would be working.
Craig explained that there was a long run of  about 600metres of fencing, wire and old posts, that needed removing at the Deer Sanctuary along East Drive near Caters Slack.  A short run of the fencing had already been removed and new stock fencing fitted, so the deer could safely jump over the fencing to get onto Caters Slack, a large grassy area, which will be home to some Highland cattle and Aberdeen Angus cattle once all the new stock fencing has been fitted.
We squashed ourselves into a couple of cars and drove up to the deer sanctuary to start the work. We had been pre-warned to wear long trousers and tuck them into our socks and long sleeved tops, because it was tick season and, being near the deer sanctuary, it was advisable that we protected ourselves as much as possible!!
It was a lovely day(mainly) but, during the morning, we were aware of a large grey cloud coming our way!!
Just before it arrived, most people went to sit in the cars to stay dry. Karin and Sue however, decided to don their waterproof clothing, and stick it out! The rain, with a bit of hail, passed fairly quickly, then we were all back out working in the sunshine.
Craig  used his tractor during the afternoon to help loosen some of the stubborn posts, so we could then remove them.
We all worked hard, with laughs along the way, and had finished removing the barbed wire, wire and fenceposts by 3pm.
It was a good day and we were pleased that we'd managed to get it all done:-)
Thanks to Karin and Adrian for the photos.

Tuesday 9 May 2017

2016 Yearbook

Back & front
Workdays/socials & January
April
August & September
December & Socials