With dire warnings about Storm Eunice, one of the most powerful storms to hit the UK since the Great Storm of 1987, we were not sure what the weather would be like this morning – and if any one would turn up for this morning’s work party! However, it was a fine, calm morning in Adel and Alwoodley, and we had an amazing turn out of fourteen people and three dogs!
We split into two groups, one group litterpicking, and the other path clearing. The path clearers, under the guidance of Rob, set off to the picnic area and made their way down the Meanwood Valley Trail, cutting back holly and other vegetation intruding onto the paths.
The litter pickers set off in pairs in different directions through the woods and gathered many bags of rubbish. One litter picker – ie me – had time to enjoy the sights of nature, including these snowdrops on Buckstone Road.
Snowdrops on Buckstone Road, Leeds
Storm Eunice, and Storm Dudley earlier in the week, had blown over a few trees in Adel Woods, including this large one in Buckstone Road.
At about 11.30 it started to rain quite hard, but we soldiered on till 12.
Friends of Adel Woods: wet but unbowed.
Later on the weather turned a little cooler and we had heavy snowfall over lunchtime.
King Lane, Alwoodley, at 2.15 pm on the 19th February
A chilly morning, but the inch or so of snow which fell yesterday evening had more or less disappeared. So we had a great turn out of ten Friends, including one new Friend, Lily.
While three people went off litter picking, the rest of us set off to work on the paths.
Our first port of call was a low lying branch over Crag Lane – not a problem for walkers, but a problem for horse riders. This branch first started to sag a few months ago and it has been on the “to do” list ever since, but today we were able to put it on the “done” list!
From here we moved on to the path leading from the Stairfoot Lane car park down to the Stairfoot Lane steps and cleared a lot of brambles and bracken which was encroaching on the path.
As we did this, we noticed that a large silver birch had come down on the “middle” path leading from the steps to the pond, obstructing the path. We sawed this into smaller sections and moved it off the path.
We then went down to the bottom of the steps and went towards the pond along the path by the side of the stream. Our first stop was to cut back and remove a tree which had fallen some time ago, partially obstructing the path.
By now it was 11.30 am and Steph left us, heading back to the car park via a rather overgrown path heading up to the “middle” path. This was not a path we had worked on before and so we cleared the branches growing across it.
By now it was 12 noon and so we set off back to the carpark – walking along the path by the stream to the pond.
These bags – seventeen in all each contain hundreds of unused charity bags. What is extraordinary is that someone has gone to so much trouble to hide the bags in the middle of dense holly bushes, a good ten minute walk from the nearest entrance to the woods.
Finishing on a high note, we enjoyed the walk back from the Bog back to the car park. By now the weather had become considerably milder and it was another very pleasant day.