WIND, RAIN, HAIL...

...nothing stops the hardy National Trust volunteers (except a brief pause for coffee, pies and cake).

If you have recently walked the path between Syke Farm and Buttermere shore you may have noticed some changes to it. The path above the rock step has been improved and the ditch is draining better. This is the work of a small group of NT volunteers.

On a cold, wet January day I joined National Trust Ranger Geoff Medd, a small team , and Theo the collie, to do some remedial work on this busy path. The amount of use it gets was proved by the fact that even on this grim day we met walkers, runners and even a family with a push-chair. The path needs plenty of maintenance because of this heavy use. The fact that it is on a slope does not improve matters as water runs down and breaks us the surface. You may notice pieces of slate let into the path. These help to direct water into the ditch beside the path. As well as working on the these, the volunteers used barrow loads of chippings to improve the path's surface. You should notice an improvement!

Although it was wet, cold, and quite hard work, the day was great fun and I was made very welcome. Volunteering is sociable as well as useful and there are all sorts of different opportunities in our area. Why not find out more?

The weather hasn't stopped us yet!

This is a post from Ranger Roy's blog that will be of interest to many volunteers. You can follow the blog here: http://www.northlakes.blogspot.com/

As I write this, the weather we are having right now reminds me that it sometimes controls the jobs we can tackle. We are now into the fourth day of freezing temperatures. Today is sunny but even in the valleys the temperature will struggle to rise much above freezing throughout the day. Fortunately we were still able to do the planned work last weekend (one of my working weekends) but at times the ground can be just too hard to work.

On Saturday morning I went with three of our regular volunteers up to Watendlath. We replaced a step-stile over a fence to allow access to a walk along the river. It isn’t actually a public right of way (PROW) but the Trust does want it to be accessible for walkers. This was a day that gave us the opportunity to stop and take photographs from Surprise View – you can see why this is a hugely popular viewpoint and the skilled, patient or lucky can take some stunning photos. Actually, you’d probably have to obscure the lens with a finger to take a bad picture!

Surprise View

In the afternoon we moved on to Castlehead. There is a small crag there that we are encouraging outdoor centres to use for children to learn and practice abseiling skills. Because it is a small crag, it isn’t used by experienced climbers so there are no conflicting users. But, it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) so we are limiting the area being used at the top and foot of the crag to minimize both damage to vegetation and erosion. That’s why we were there working on a fence.

That was two good jobs completed on Saturday and on Sunday we tackled another.

This time there were 12 volunteers and we joined Naomi on her foreshore project. There is an access-for-all path that runs from the large car-park through Cockshot Wood to the lake shore. Like many of these paths it was accumulating a surface layer of mud and leaves. If we don’t clear it. vegetation will reclaim the path very quickly. So we set to work and, with a good deal of scraping and brushing, we gave the path its annual clean up. It’s hard, physical work but it does feel good when we look back at a good, clear path.

BBC at work

BBC Look North provided an interesting diversion by coming to film and interview Naomi about working with volunteers on her Derwentwater Foreshore project.

Where better to take a break?