On a beautiful cold sunny morning 5 GG Yorkies joined forces with the good people of St Nick's to do some clearing and improvement works at Heworth Holme. Most of us started with extensive bramble clearing, the brambles getting progressively longer and more tree-like as we went. As always the brambles fought back, twice stealing my hat and getting Ed in the eye! Meanwhile Richard had volunteered enthusiastically for coppicing and tree-removal duties (after careful instructions on which ones to kill).

We all converged in the epicentre of the Bramble Zone to fight off the Boss brambles, and remove some dead trees, playing a little game of who can get the biggest one, and then finally the battle was won (not before one free fought back and hit Rich on the head on the way down).

Rich and I then started a new task to clear part of the Bramble zone and dig a wildlife scrape, while the others continued with coppicing and clearing tasks. Not only did we find a wing mirror and an old cobble, we also struck scrape gold in the form of clay, and made a good sized pile to kick off Monday's group task (and get me some much-needed brownie points :-))