On Wednesday we were asked to help the Oxford Preservation Trust with work at Iffley Glebe. We had a few tasks to take care of: * Maintaining the ancient wall by weeding all the little plants that start growing in the crevices and end up damaging the wall structure.
* Lopping back the low over hanging branches of the large sycamore tree near the entrance so the tractor can get under it to complete the meadow mow.
* Cutting back and pulling up nettles closely along the wall where the tractor can't reach.
* Clearing the area around the gate to the storage garage, which was overgrown with brambles.

Many hands make light work of such tasks, particularly hands which are enthusiastic loppers and weeders! Sadly we didn't catch sight of the fox family who are raising their cubs on the Glebe, but we did get to listen to bell-ringing practice from Iffley Church.

Welcome to GoodGym Philip!

5 of us met for the Rickety's Tuesday quiz, with no cancellations due to the football this time. In the usual Dodo Pub style, there were no straightforward question and answers. We had one round using all the letters of the alphabet, another sudoku style answer grid, a picture round, the music round etc. We learned that Mario is a plumber (news to some of the team), the most common aliens are called 'greys', and Kier Starmer is the rumoured influence for Mr Darcy in the Bridget Jones films.

We managed a very respectable 2nd place, with £10 of bar snacks as the prize. We also made a pretty solid dent in the £90 tab I was mysteriously sent when the previous quiz was cancelled.

Pizza, pints, and peanuts for all!

Our friends at Flo's The Place in the Park asked for our help to get the word out to locals about their great refill shop. Stocking everything from toiletries and cleaning products to pasta and pulses, it's a great resource for the local area, plus using it saves lots of plastic waste from going to landfill.

We were advised that the best tool for getting leaflets through doors without getting fingers pinched by aggressive post flaps are wooden spatulas. Sadly, we were spatula-less this time, but managed to avoid and leaflet-posting injuries, got all our flyers delivered, admired some ambitious front gardens, and made friends with several local cats.

...is wheelchair accessible paths around the nature park. So who better to shovel and barrow 10 tonnes of gravel to make the dream a reality than GoodGym?!

We are actually quite the pros at this task, having created the current network of wheelchair accessible paths around Boundary Brook Nature Park 2 years ago. Those paths stood up to the wettest of winters pretty well, showing up the need to link up some other areas to the network. Tonight we started to build the path to the bird hide (a project we also had a hand in). We certainly got our step count up and a decent upper body work out pushing gravel all across the site to the furthest point!

There might be some sore arms in the morning, but also pride in what we managed to get done.

Watch the Countryfile episode featuring Boundary Brook Nature Park and Wytham Woods here.