Time Well Spent

Just prior to Christmas I was lucky enough to discover a group of individuals who give up there time every Thursday and spend the daylight hours maintaining the excellent Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve(pictured).

Located on the banks of the River Avon near Coventry the group are known as The Brandon Marsh Voluntary Conservation Team. I decided to give it a go and join up and I have not been disappointed! Every Thursday since mid December I've reported for duty and given up my time along with the other members to tend the woods & marshes of the reserve. I've met some wonderful people over the weeks and have been literally inspired by the commitment & enthusiasm of the members. I was shocked by one member today who informed me that he was just about to turn 70. Another of the long term members & founders of the team is an amazing 82 years young. Looking at the before and after photographs of the reserve and seeing it first hand its plain to see what an astonishing difference the team have made over the years. Quite literally extra land leased to the reserve by Warwickshire council known as Newlands has been turned from woodland into a thriving marshland. This has allowed species such as Bittern, Cetti's Warbler and Barn own, the latter of which bred last year in the newly placed Owl boxes, to flourish.
I joined with an open mind and with the intention of learning at least 3 new things every visit. I've already lost count. Being an enthusiastic birdwatcher I also join a number of the members every Tuesday for a trek around the reserve and have so far been lucky enough to see Bittern and Water Rail, two species not on my Life List. Over the weeks I've re-established my love of birdwatching and thanks to other members can now identify more species by call. This post is a thank you to the team for allowing me to be a part and being able to make a difference.
I'm now joined by another member of the boating fraternity who decided to accompany me last week and has also got the bug.

Big Freeze Continues

Well we're now almost 7 days into the new year and still waiting for the temperature to struggle above freezing at night.

The ultimate was last night we're the on-board weather station recorded a temperature of -9.8C. As you can see from the picture the marina currently resembles a scene from the Arctic. The ice in the foreground was churned up by one of our 'Ice-Breaker' boats and I measured it at almost 2 inches thick!
Always one for a challenge I took the opportunity to break out myself and plough through the 250 yards to the marina office for water & diesel, the jetty water points are naturally frozen and currently switched off so we were getting desperately low on water. Probably just as well that Quidditch is due for hull blacking in the Spring as the hull took a total battering during the short voyage! I have to say that being literally frozen in is quite an experience and one we've encountered before but not for such a sustained period. Things literally do go bump in the night.
Around 4am this morning we we're woken by a loud bang that seemed to vibrate through the whole boat, almost as though someone had ploughed into us. I can only surmise that the ice has somehow compacted around us and then crushed under the pressure. It happened again around an hour later.
Anyway I'm delighted to report that our central heating is performing beyond expectations, last year the system literally failed once a week but since I completely rebuilt the thing in November it's not failed us once. Our Kabola Diesel fire literally runs 24/7 and sustains an on-board temperature of around 23C, dropping to about 18C in the early hours before the heating cuts in.