A group of us attended Manor Woods Valley group’s regular volunteering session to clear scrub from a wildflower meadow. It was lovely to see some cowslips and native daffodils already blooming on what they call the ‘Rabbit Field’. We had a first time Goodgymer today so well done to Nell for your first task! We cleared a massive site which was satisfying to see the progress made. Don’t worry there’s still plenty of scrub left for nesting birds. After the task was finished we were treated to some Manor Woods Valley apple juice made from the apples we helped harvest last year.

Six of us had fun today trying our hands at coppicing in Manor Valley Woods.

Working in pairs we cut the Hazel stools down pretty much to ground level ensuring that the cuts were at an angle that allowed water to drain away from the centre and avoid it rotting.

While Dave and Danica, and Jason and Emma worked hard sawing away at the branches, Julie and Paul carried them away to be used as a natural bit of Hazel fencing.

There were some mixed feelings about this, it certainly felt pretty drastic but we learned that this encourages longer term growth and can extend the life of the tree from around 80 years to 1000! In fact our eager beavers today were performing a role traditionally performed by actual beavers who surely know what they are doing!

The coppicing also has the benefit of allowing more light into the space which can encourage other surrounding growth. So all good - even if it felt bad.

Thanks to Danica for the pun.

Two of us made it to Manor Woods Valley nature reserve on what turned out to be a nice day (nice for December at least). We made great progress in managing the Manor Woods Orchard for wildlife as well as getting it ready for the wassail on 14 January. No insects were harmed in our clearing process as a ladybug was moved to the scrub on the side of the orchard. We finished with some non-alcoholic cider made from the apples we picked back on the harvest days in the fall. We can’t wait to come back for the Wassail!

Apple Day at Manor Woods saw 8 of us join the local community in harvesting the fruit to send for juicing.

The juice will be split with most going to a local food bank and the remainder served at future volunteer sessions.

Techniques ranged from gathering up fallen apples, pulling down branches to twist off the fruit, shaking them .. and a good deal of bashing with big sticks!

Once we were finished we were treated to apple juice, dried apple snacks and some delicious apple cake. All in all a great morning in the orchard with 300 kilos of apples gathered in total.

A warm September day saw this year's Manor Woods Valley apple harvesting begin.

As in previous years, the crop will be juiced and sent for pasteurization before most is donated to a local food back. The remainder will be served to the volunteers on the group's volunteering days.

The crop was a little lighter than previous years but we still filled a good number of bags, with more to follow in October at our next GG session.

After we finished we were treated to coffee and biscuits before heading off on our separate ways.

A great turnout today for the June session with Manor Woods Valley Group. Indeed, with three back to back community missions today, for some this wasn't their first good deed of the day and for one particular individual it was their 3rd (with a 4th 'regular' mission still to come!)

Today's task was to clear a space around the new fruit trees, both to prevent them becoming lost in the brambles and also to encourage some wildflowers with the newly available light.

In no time at all we had cleared a large area and we headed off into the sunshine, some to their next mission, one on his holidays (have a great time!) and - for Danica, an extra assignment to save a local hedgerow.