Field day

Mid-September, the weather is on the turn. Gone are the heady days of summer, but the hay needs bringing in, so the wildflower meadow can flourish.  There’s lots of wildlife in the meadow – lizards, frogs and insects.  The grass has to be hand raked to preserve the wildlife and to stop the rotting cuttings putting too many nutrients into the ground and changing the meadow’s plant life balance.

The field had been mown with a brush cutter (giant strimmer to you and me) and now the long rows of cut grass and other plants needed raking up and putting into the woods where it could rot nicely, and provide further havens for other herpetological inhabitants. 

It all came about when I asked my team if they wanted to do something different for a ‘team day’, and the result was this – we volunteered our services (humanpower) to Pensthorpe, which has around 700 acres of land that it manages for conservation.

The idea was proposed by one team member so she was team leader for the day, but our work was of course directed by the Pensthorpe team.  We spent all morning raking and moving the grass and saw lots of wildlife including butterflies, dragonflies, and the already mentioned lizards and frogs.

After lunch we moved to working on fence repair, and I learned how to dig a 3 foot deep post hole.  It was hard work, but we worked well as a team, and the three missing fence panels were erected securely and the electric fence to keep the less popular wildlife out of the nesting grounds was pinned back across.

It may seem odd that charity staff should volunteer for another charity, but in my mind it was a fitting example of how our charity (an air ambulance) contributes to the wider community – not only through our services, but through our thoughts and deeds as community members.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and so did my colleagues, and though we were a little tired, the objective of effective teamwork was not only achieved, but Pensthorpe had a clear wildflower meadow and a new fence erected.

Links:

Pensthorpe

East Anglian Air Ambulance

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In the club

I’ve not blogged in a while – but I’ve been busy!  Earlier in the summer – on one of the hottest days – my friend Sheena and I hired a car transporter and solved three problems in one day.  Problem one – my daughter’s mini had been assaulted by a badger and had come off worse. Problem two, she had another old car she needed moved as they were moving house and needed the car ‘gone’. Problem three, Sheena had killed her old Ford and it had sat outside her house slowly deteriorating under the trees. 

Have transporter will travel!

The cost of getting the cars moved by a recovery company was horrendous, so we hired a transporter and did the car shifting ourselves.  I’d never driven a transporter (and still haven’t, Sheena got to drive), or operated a winch, or – and this is tricky – driven/guided a car onto a transporter up two narrow ramps before.  This was the day!

Trip one was taking the mini to a garage about 12 miles away to see if it was rescuable (it wasn’t).   Trip two was taking the old car (a Ka, which we could save with a bit of TLC) to Sheena’s – a 75 mile journey.  Trip three was taking her Ford from home to a peaceful resting place for possible rehabilitation or to where, like Miss Haversham, it could wither away gently and deteriorate with a bitter, sly grace.

Chizel in the cab

The transporter club

One thing we noticed when driving all the miles in our transporter, requisite car on the back, was the waves, flashes and smiles we got from other transporter drivers. For one day, we were in the ‘car recovery driver’ club!  What was even better was the sudden change of expression from camaraderie to shock as the fellow transporter realized our truck was occupied by two women (and a small dog).  We didn’t see a single other female transport driver, though we know you are out there!

Waggytails club

Axle in the garden

My story leads on from the dog in the cabin (Chizel) to a whole team of dogs.  I don’t have a dog, haven’t had one since I was a child, but I do love dogs, and luckily they seem to like me.   This year I have become involved with a dog agility club and have been helping out at the agility displays during the summer – mostly being an equipment shifter, but once having the luck to run a dog (or rather let the dog run me), and once as a commentator.  I have taken Sheena’s large and handsome Caucasian Shepherd cross (Axle) and his pal (Chizel) out for walks, and all of a sudden I’m in the ‘dog club’.  Other people with dogs will stop and talk to me.  People without dogs will stop and talk to the dogs. 

The ultimate club!

We’ve been working with my daughter’s dog too, helping improve behavior because… the last and rather corny link to the title of this blog is my delight at the onset of grannyhood. My daughter is, to put it colloquially, in the club.   I am sure I will have a whole new range of things to blog about next year!