Countryside Update May 2012 Part One!

It has been another busy month for us with some extra special guests. Upland Footpath supervisor Joe was joined by the organisers of the Keswick Mountain Festival Lucy and Amy plus volunteers John and David for a bit of path maintenance nr to Ashness Bridge. We undertook some landscaping and built a drain in weather that could only be described as changeable!

Amy and Lucy admire the hole they have dug for the foundations of a stone drain across the path. Had it of rained much harder it would have been taken over by some amphibians as a home!

Most of the day seemed to be taken up by changes of clothes, waterproofs on, waterproofs off.

Still the sun did put in an appearance and dried out the ground quite quickly.




It was not all rain as the photo below shows. Amy hard at work whilst ranger Joe moves a la`al stone for landscaping purposes.

Amy took note of how Joe moved the stone and decided if he could do it so could she!













Volunteer John looks on as Amy moves not quite such a small stone down the hill also to be used for landscaping. Anything you can do?

Amy soon mastered the technique. She made it look far too easy.














Amy takes a photo of her hard work. Stone drain nearly finished, just a bit of tidying up to be done.

It was not just all about Amy, Lucy was also hard at work landscaping with Joe. They were busy making three paths into one with a good result.











Lucy below hard at work as well. Inn the background Ashness Bridge.

Even though it was a weekend, lead Ranger Penny found time to come out and see the good work put in by Joe and four volunteers.

It allowed Lucy and Amy to find out the hard way about all the effort staff and volunteers  put into maintaining the paths and landscape for ever for everyone! Now where have I heard that saying before?

The end of the day, Penny chats to Lucy and Amy about the day whilst John and Joe get ready to leave. A grand day out on the fell in good company. Who knows Lucy and Amy may even come back for another go?