30/07/23 The third requested thistle pulling session via Mailchimp:
14 hours = 7 of us, 2 hours each thistle (& ragwort) pulling today.
4 of the SOS Directors - Steve, Jenny, Ian, Angela with 3 volunteers, Mary, Anne C. and myself.
As much of the SOS Whatcombe Fields area has been topped by the grazier / contractor recently, we concentrated on the hedgerows and the top of the big field. We finished in pouring rain towards 13:00
Jimm
02/07/23 And 2.5 hours over midday today. Still plenty of work to do, spear thistles are becoming purple in the big field, as are many creeping ones. There has been a lot of flattening of the vegetation at the flat top of the big field, due to the cows, and some topping & cutting has been done by the grazier.
JY
04/06/23 Further update this morning:
I did another ca. 90 mins this morning into the Little Field, and back.
The Little Field is pretty good, except for the top hedgerow, but in all only 215 thistles (of which 2 only spears, the rest creepers) were pulled.
Jimm
01/06/23 Update to this report under :
This afternoon I spent another 2.5 hours in the fields, in the big field either side of the footpath leading upwards from Jo's Gate, near the water trough.
I did count this time😁: 783 more thistles pulled. Jimm
27/05/23:
Four of us turned up, 3 directors of SOS in Steve S., Jenny S. and Ian M, with me.
Overall the SOS Fields have fewer thistles than in previous years, and far fewer than when we took them over in 2015. In many areas the guest cattle have trampled the grass, so the thistles are quite easy to spot.
We did between us ca.13 pulling hours. Even so, there are still some there, and younger ones will grow at this time of year.
Please would anyone walking in the fields take some stout gardening gloves along, and pull creeping and spear thistles up when they are spotted.
Thanks particularly to those who gave their time this morning.
Kind regards,
Jimm Y-->
