We have spent a lot of volunteer time up to April 14 adding an extra grass verge along the east side of the main path to facilitate safe passing during the pandemic. It involved removing roots of mainly ivy and nettles before laying turfs. At one stage half a dozen turfs were stolen by teenagers making a camp site of sorts on Hob Moor. Fortunately they were caught taking more so thanks to Lesley and Paul we managed to recover them all. Shots below show the verge looking north and south from the opposite bund.

Great session to end March with 6 of our friends from GoodGym helping Louise, Lesley and Malcolm cut up illegally-dumped garden waste at the N.E. corner of Mayfields and moving it round to the composting area. A very pleasant evening session.

Almost the end of March and spring is arriving. Over the past 2 weeks we have done a tree check (thanks to Adam), added more gravel to fill the puddle at the north end of the main path, removed more ivy and nettles to extend the grass verge for safer passing with social distancing, and added a wild violet to our collection of photos of native wild flowers on Mayfields.  In the warm and dry weather we’ve had to do quite a bit of watering of recent shrub and tree addirions.

Adam admiring one of many blackthorns

Completion of a safe and wide path at the Little Hob Moor end.

Watering an Rowan donated  (and planted) by Ian Tomlinson

More ivy and nettle roots removed redy for adding more turfs on April 2nd.

Lovely to see wild violets coming onto the site.

Paul  & Lesley did a brill job on Tuesday March 9 laying a turf verge between the area they had just helped plant and the main path.  Here’s hoping  cyclists will use their sense and avoid cycling on it unnecessarily.

We added a few pictures to one of the information boards on March 6 explaining about the planting recently done by Lesley, Paul and Malcolm beside the path near the Little Hob Moor end.  We thought they might be of interest.

Someone decided to fill the empty leaflet box with dry leaves over the weekend.  Fortunately we managed to borrow a useful pair of long tweezers from Pam Brown to help get them out before adding new leaflets.

A local resident presented us with a useful oak tree at the end of February to see if we could find a good home for it on Mayfields.  Lesley and Paul helped plant it near the newer bench at the back of the meadow on Sunday.  Malcolm watered it again on Tuesday March 2nd.