Saturday 22 December 2007

Cowlersley School and Worts Hill


A two for the price of one morning, and very much a game of two halves.

The morning started oddly, with the non-appearance of our leader, Philip. His door was knocked on, he was phoned repeatedly. No sign of him a the nursery. Rumours started to fly. Apparently it had been his mill's works do the afternoon before, and that was probably the reason for his absence, but we didn't let anything that obvious stop us from speculating.

Anyway, on with the mornings work, which had been organised by Brian. First we went to Cowlersley school to plant 75 trees along side a fence. It was a worthy project, but the site was littered and dog fouled, so it wasn't lovely to be there. We got it done and got away.

Cath and I made a quick trip back to Philip's house to see if he had surfaced. He hadn't, so we spent a short while looking at the house next door, which is for sale. Nice.

So then on to Worts hill. This was another worthy project, but had a nicer ambience. And on a day not shrouded in fog it is probably a picaresque spot. The landowner was extremely hospitable, providing tea, cake and whiskey, and even money for a post-planting round of drinks. Brian despaired of our skills when it came to planting a hawthorn hedge though, he had to follow us round doing remedial work. Our work was also picked over by some chickens, who appreciated us digging up all those worms for them.

A funny old morning, but in the end quite satisfactory. Not much to show in the way of photos, it was too foggy, just another shot of a vintage tractor and some stakes and guards.