Week of Mon 9th Jun 2025
Wednesday 11th
River banks of balsam
Another session of himalayan balsam pulling with Stroud Valleys Project. Today we were on the opposite bank from last week, but was an altogether different scenario.
While last week only had relatively small amounts as a result of previous years work, this side of the bank had a dense seam of balsam running in between the grassland and the riparian vegetation on the bank.
There were only a few of us, so we stayed together to work methodically through the task.
The weather was very hot today – close to 25C at times and no shade shelter next to the river. So plenty of water breaks alongside the regular stops for cake and lunch.
It became apparent that it was tough work doing manually and we could probably make more progress with a brush cutter. We made pretty good progress today, but will have to return later in the season. That will be a good opportunity to bring the brush cutter and get the bulk of the stretch completed.
Friday 13th
Water safety training
A training course today with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. The DEFRA Module 1 on Water Safety awareness in a four hour session up at Ebley Mill.
The instructor, Jordan, was excellent. He trains in a variety of topics, but has also volunteered for the last ten years as a first responder for water incidents. So he brought a lot of practical knowledge to the material.
I spend quite a bit of time in rivers, and working by waterways. So it was extremely helpful to have a detailed overview of the various risks and issues to be aware of while working near water.
The main takeaways for me were spotting egress points in advance, understanding river flow and the procedure for assisting someone who has fallen in (Shout, throw, reach).
A rather controversial part was the division of site into Hot zone (the water), the warm zone (three meters from water) and cold zone (beyond that). The guidelines when working in the warm zone is that life jacket or flotation jacket should be worn. This would definitely extend to Himalayan Balsam pulling which we don’t do.
Saturday 14th
Take Two
Do you ever wish you could go back and just have a Take Two? Just redo the the whole thing differently and work to a new outcome?
I feel like I’m on Take Two of my fifties, with the Take One being the continuation of my forties which didn’t actually happen.
In August 2019, a couple of months before my 51st birthday, I walked home from work for the last time. After 29 years of continuous employment, I had a sense that I wanted to traverse my fifties on my own terms.
It would have been pretty easy to just carry on with Take One to be honest. I had a pretty good job, a wide network of contacts and plenty of opportunities to do new things. No-one would have batted an eyelid if I’d have carried on working until 60.
Take Two, of course, didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. Six months in, a little thing called covid came along, and the next month my investment portfolio dropped 32%.
But, after emerging from lockdown, I was more determined than ever to carry on with Take Two. I had started to get interested in nature recovery amd 5-6 projects took me all over the Cotswolds. In my local community, I got involved with organised the annual walking festival and other related events. While online, the Artocalypse – an art community I co-founded during lockdown, continued to thrive.
I slowly began to find structure, purpose and identity for this Take Two and rather liked it. It felt 10x better than Take One would have been, and that was mainly because I was now allocating time exactly as I choose.
2023 was a pivotal year. I began to keep a diary, mainly to keep track of all the various things I was doing. And I also started running the Dursley Code Club, which still remains my favourite part of the week.
All of a sudden, five years passes and I feel that there’s now no going back. I’m firmly on Take Two, and Take One is never going to return.
I haven’t looked back since.
This post is my submission for the June 2025 IndieWeb Blog Carnival, hosted this month by Nick Simson. If you have a blog, why not make a post on this topic and join in?
I look forward to reading your thoughts on this topic.
Last orchard guard
Went over to Fromebridge for the monthly orchard work party with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. While walking over, we stopped to look at the pond, where we were putting vegetation in April. It was looking excellent, despite the recent drought and the low water levels of the pond.
We also stopped to make a temporary repair to some fencing near the canal which the cattle had breached and accessed the towpath vegetation.
There were quite a few tasks to look after the tree bases and remove some encroaching thistle from the grassland. But I chose to put up the last tree guard, ready for planting later on in the year.
I worked with Mike to put the posts in according to the spec we’ve been using on the others.
However, the ground was extremely hard with all the dry weather, and after about a foot of post ramming, we hit a brick wall, and they just weren’t sinking any lower.
It’s not a critical task since we won’t be planting until much later in the year, so we decided to abandon it until the ground is much softer.
The orchard is actively grazed, so there is a risk that the cows could collapse the posts which aren’t deep enough in the ground. Rather than take them out, we decided to put some temporary bracing supports at the top of the posts.
This will hopefully allow the cows to pass through and graze without feeling the need to push the posts.