On a very wet morning half a dozen of us carried out some essential maintenance tasks on the reserve. The bushes alongside the paths have been growing at an incredible rate, at least a foot a month. We split into several working parties and carved our way through the jungle to try to keep all the paths walkable.

Meanwhile we also did some light summer pruning of the stoned fruit trees, and checked round the apple trees as well – we think we’re going to have an apple crop on the Common this year.