A general tidy up today at Manor Valley Woods. Our group split into several smaller teams and tackled the brambles in the new and old orchards, and cleared the path up to the rabbit field.

A wide selection of tools was employed - shears, garden fork .. and loppers.

We finished with one of the last bottles of MVW apple juice

A short session for some of us today, due to the last of the hot weather. Kudos to Dushyant for arriving early and getting stuck in right away.

The task was to clear pathways around the orchard trees to facilitate access and in preparation for fruit picking later in the year. Following that, there was time to clear pathways up to the rabbit field - and to sample some of the early blackberries.

We finished with some locally sourced apple juice - as is the Manor Woods custom.

A morning spent snipping off and unearthing bramble risings from the meadow space on the edge of the orchard. A few wildflowers starting to emerge now and plenty of hawthorn blossom surrounding us.

A pleasant morning enjoying the sunshine before the rain predicted later

Fact of the day - briar is used in the maufacturing of tobacco pipes.

A group of us met in the rabbit field to cut back brambles and continue the clearance begun by the council mowers.

The area had previously been checked for nests and we were careful to avoid the denser areas to avoid disturbing any birdlife. The hope is that by clearing the space we will open up the area for any slow worms in the hibernaculum.

We had some wide ranging conversation going on as we worked - North Indian vs Sri Lankan paratha, Romanian vs English comedy - and cross stitch techniques

Woodland path today as we were planting trees. Peter had sourced a selection of oak, hornbeam and crab apple from Bristol Tree Forum that we could use to fill in some of the spaces left behind after ash dieback. We clambered up the hill, having to watch our footing on the slippery slopes and cut deep slots with spades to allow the oak tap roots to penetrate deep enough. In all 300 new trees have been planted in the newer section now.

First dry day of the year (at least it feels that way) - and it was even sunny!

We got to work cutting and scything the bramble risings at the entrance to the orchard. These were then raked and cleared into the surrounding borders, keeping the space accessible and encouraging wildflower growth.

A diverse range of conversation topics covered "Zoology - is it just remembering a list of animals?", "Should your barber also be your surgeon?" and "Anatomical enhancement for the purpose of ski jumping".

We finished with Orchard apple juice, listened to nesting Ravens and watched a robin enjoy our newly exposed orchard pantry.

A short video of our morning