From Eton mess to Eton Wicked

It was great to catch up with Jen this morning and to welcome Lili for her first GoodGym session. We couldn't have asked for better weather either - what glorious sunshine! It was a real pleasure to be out on my bike for the first time in a while, and Jen and Lili both arrived on foot with smiles on their faces.

Thanks to Claire from Eton Wick Village Association and Wild Eton Wick for inviting us along today. We were joining the Eton Wick Waterways group, led by Laura, to help with their ongoing project to transform the Bell Lane open space into a beautiful memorial garden and haven for wildlife. I love the fact that this is an ongoing project (and one of many that Claire has up her sleeve) because it means we will have plenty of opportunity to return and help out more in the coming months.

The focal point for this space is a stream, which has recently had a lot of silt removed by machine and piled up along the grassy bank. This has vastly improved the stream, but left the bank in a bit of an (Eton) mess, resembling somewhere the Teletubbies might feel at home. So the main task now is to use forks and rakes to break up and smooth out these mounds of silt, so that it can blend in with the rest of the landscape, grass can grow over the top, and it can be mown easily.

We made sure we were all signed in and up to speed with the Covid-19 policy for the project, and then we got stuck in. During the first few minutes it felt like progress would be slow. The silt was heavy and sometimes sticky, and there seemed to be countless rocks and fiddly bits of litter to pick out. We soon got into a rhythm though, time passed quickly, and many (but not too many, and all socially distanced!) hands did make light work.

By the end of our session, Dipsy, Lala, Po and TinkyWinky would not have been very happy with us, but we could see clear progress: a decent section of the silt ridge had been smoothed out, and multiple wheelbarrows worth of rocks, sticks, litter and even old rusty motorbike parts had been extracted. Jen said we had made 'wheely' good progress and I thought it was Eton Wicked! What a barrow of laughs...

Keep an eye on the listings as there will no doubt be more opportunities to get involved at Bell Lane. With a pretty stream and elegant willows there is clear potential for this area to be a real beauty spot, and it will be great to see the transformation unfold.