Five, then six, pick up sticks

A warm and slightly muggy late summer morning on the Ham Lands saw 5 Richmond GGers gather with Sharon and her merry band from the Friends of Ham Lands for our regular second Saturday session of habitat maintenance.

Today’s task was clearing up and shifting brash left over after some areas were cleared by machinery, with the ultimate aim of restoring the area to grassland. We donned gardening gloves and grabbed rakes and a canvas bag and got to work.

The area was covered quite thickly with dry and broken woody branches and sticks, and within only a few minutes we had filled our first sack. We carried and dragged this to an area behind some bushes to deposit the load, before heading back for more.

The sun started to shine and there were walkers aplenty - as well as some amusing dogs of various shapes and sizes - as we made great progress. We were then joined by Claire from GG H&F, and the extra hands made even lighter work of the remainder of the job.

Having cleared the area and feeling proud of our efforts, we repaired to the nearby Swiss bakery for some astonishingly good grub and very welcome coffee. Great job everyone!