Sawting out our manor

The early morning rain had eased off by the time we got to Roll for the Soul, a couple of us having already visited Eastville parkrun either to help Mel out with some volunteering or else to run the course.

Steph had joined us for the morning and she had brought along some of her Goodgym calendars. These feature various Goodgym runners on tour around the world and would make a nice Christmas present - with any proceeds split between a cancer charity and Goodgym. I'll have a few with me on Tuesday if you would like one.

It was a lovely surprise to also be joined by Kim with Chris taking on child care duties for the morning. Kim had joined us for a while at the Berry Maze and Bramble farm, but it was great to have her join us for the whole run out today - welcome back, Kim!

The warm-up featured a new film review segment with everyone revealing their last watch. No doubt favourable conclusions could be drawn about the personality types of GG members when the most-watched turned out to be Paddington!

Its always a long run out to Manor Woods valley, but it was a little longer still today as we slipped past our usual orchard location and headed up the woodland path for some coppicing.

Martin was a great host as always and gave us some guidance on how best to tackle the hazel and ash growth in our little clearing. We were using loppers, pruning saws and a bow saw and Martin explained that the best way to cut was with a 45 degree slope away from the centre of the stool (stump area) so that water could run off away from the cut branches. He also showed us how to nick the outside first so that the bark remained in-tact after cutting and the tree could be better protected against disease.

Apparently we were to see ourselves as beavers - with loppers taking the place of sharp teeth; managing the forest by allowing hazel to grow back in more useful strong and compact lengths. A quick glance at Chris following this statement indicated that with "saw"s and "beavers", the pun was in the bag, however having had time to reflect on the fact that I tend to share these reports around a little more widely now I've made the call that maybe it wouldn't quite receive the required GG certificate for family viewing.

Moving on ...

Some of us split into pairs to take on the coppicing while others took the remaining loppers to tackle a little bramble growth. The coppicers took on some large specimens and all around were calls of 'Timber' as some satisfying felling took place, with runners posing proudly by their hazel specimens in a manner similar to a sea fisherman and his prize catch. Steph also seemed to enjoy the opportunity to work out a little pent-up aggression with the aid of a bow saw and a hazel trunk.

This was a fun task and it was even harder than usual to tear people away today, so even with a rather brisk run back we were a little late arriving back at base. Apologies for that - but hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves today and I look forward to seeing you all again soon!