Jane and I were out with the ‘Green Gym’ team again this morning, helping with some work near Dishley Pool. To start with, we were trimming down some of the dog roses and hawthorns — not all of them but enough to stop that growth becoming too dense a thicket and allow more light to the understorey.

Later, after the long grass had been cut using a device called an auto-scythe (a bit like a hedge trimmer but mounted horizontally near the ground), it was onto raking the cuttings into piles. That’s where the pitchforks came in, lifting the piles onto the back of a vehicle to be transferred to where they could be safely left.

Like most jobs involving lifting and moving, the best technique seems to be smaller loads which can be transferred quickly and easily rather than trying to hoik up an oversized mound. Anyway, job done and it will be interesting to visit next spring where, hopefully, a wider diversity of plants will be poking their heads up rather than just grass and the odd nettle.