The week began with checking for damage from the weekend’s high winds. Damaged trees had to be made safe and checks carried out to be sure there were no trees that might blow over onto roads or paths. It’s sad in a way to see damaged trees but storm damage is a natural process and we always try to use the broken branches to create habitats for creepy-crawlies and small rodents etc.
Then Jessie (a colleague) and I met with one of the Trust’s tenant farmers at High Snab Farm to discuss a joint venture. He is developing a camping barn that we would like to use to offer working holidays where volunteers can take part in dry-stone walling, sheep shearing or even lambing if they are lucky – a taster weekend for both aspiring and armchair farmers. The farmer is very keen to work with us like this so we need to work out if it is viable for both the Trust and the farmer.
Sadly we also had to spend about a day and a half rebuilding a vandalised collection box at Calf Close Bay. These are very well protected so someone spent a lot of time and effort for no return. We could have been using our time on projects that are of benefit to the area e.g. 14 volunteers and 6 staff have been working hard to replace an old fence and to lay a hedge in the appropriate local style. If you look carefully as you travel from the west coast and valleys to Borrowdale and on to the south Lakes, you will see different styles of hedge-laying. As far as possible, we work to maintain the old, traditional practices.
By the end of the week, we’d had some beautiful sunny spells with clear blue skies. Spring is definitely on its way.
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