Every second weekend in May the Association of Polelathe Turners & Greenwood Workers (aka the bodgers) get together in a field somewhere in the country for the annual general meeting, or as we know it the Bodgers Ball.
For 2010 the venue is the village playing field at Stratfield Saye on the Hampshire/Berkshire border. There is a small sports pavilion in the field and that's about it, we will be providing the rest. Weather permitting we're expecting it to be a popular event so the size of the usable area is important.
Behind the field is a woodland area which needs clearing but would be useful extra space to use for the campfire, bbq area and perhaps the bar. We are planning to suspend tarpaulins from the trees to form a covered area for whittling and maybe other demonstrations. I am also keen to put in a 'pee-bale' (see here for Wipole Hall's recent innovation in composting) if I can persuade people to let me, though a full composting toilet might prove a little too radical for this year. So on a windy, rainy, Friday Alison and I went over to Stratfield Saye to help with clearing the woodland area. It's all of 28 miles by the back roads, or as the 'landrover travels', but it takes at least an hour normally and a lot of the single track roads were flooded which doesn't make it faster!
Since it was last used for greenwood courses (at least 10 years ago) the underwood has become untidy and brambles spread over the floor. By the time we arrived the last of the rain made itself felt and an enthusiastic team of Derek, Jim, David and Sue, Veronica and Alison and I set to clearing the hazel, hawthorn, brambles from the woodland floor.
The team did and excellent job and by the afternoon we'd made good inroads and with a fine fire the debris was soon consumed. We managed to do all the clearance with hand tools, bill hooks, loppers, slashers, hand saws and scythes. I thought this appropriate as the theme for the weekend will be 'back to basics'. The petrol powered monsters stayed in the landrover. The two scythes I took were particularly good for clearing the brambles fitted with ditching and bush blades. I might have converted a few more folks to modern scything and I took a rake as well which was much admired, though I broke a weak tine on the woodland floor.
In the playing field was an amazing circle of fly agaric mushrooms, I've never seen fly agarics form a circle before and I'm told this was a good omen. I'm looking forward to the bodgers ball at Stratfield Saye, the site has a good feel and I think it will be a great success with or without the assistance of mushrooms.
3 comments:
Proper job, as they say here in Devon. Glad to see you are on the ball, don`t forget to roll it all flat and get a good grass seed mix down!
Hi Sean, hope you well and not too wet? Ha, I remember enough West Country speak to know that 'proper job' is praise indeed. It used to be one of my favourite phrases, until it was beaten out of me. I totally forgot to take a roller. Never mind. I know now who to invite for the pitch inspection!
Or in Yorkshire - a right job! I wasn't aware of the Back to Basics theme, how far back?Will bronze be allowed or will it be all flint &bone? ;-)Looking forward to it already, will there be a scything demo or anything? The tools seem to have moved on a bit from the (what seemed to a 10 year old) heavy monsters I used for thistling 'when I wor a lad'. Excellent blog by the way, makes me feel quite lazy, keep up the good work. Richard
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