​Volunteers numbered 8 for this our first residential of 2020. With hindsight we were lucky to have been able to go away as the following weekend all of Britain was going into lockdown with the Coronavirus outbreak.

As usual we travelled on the Friday evening and went with our own food for a Saturday night meal, breakfast and lunches. We were all grateful to Niamh for taking charge of food: working out the Saturday night meal and doing a big shop on the previous Wednesday kindly assisted by Jude and Anne.

On Saturday morning Pauline of the Peak Park Rangers Volunteer team met us at Marsh Farm, where we were staying. Some walked, others went in vehicles the short distance to our work site on the shore of Tittesworth Reservoir. Our task over the next two days was to construct a post and rail fence to enclose a small area of bank just away from the water’s edge. This would create a barrier to an area leading to a small jetty where water users could prepare their boats etc before launching into the water. It would also keep out wandering Canada geese.

It was quite strenuous work, digging deep holes for sturdy wooden posts and then firming these in. We were soon all quite mud splattered and noticing some muscle groups that were a bit unfamiliar! But as usual everyone tackled the task with gusto and a lot of effort was expended to make sure we were digging holes to the correct depth and posts were level.

We were certainly ready later that evening for our bangers and mash, veg and fruit pies. We actually were 3 people down from the number we shopped for, meaning plenty to eat and leftovers to take home. Not all the mash was eaten that evening; however I think we all enjoyed the following morning’s breakfast when we had fried mashed potato and sausages. We do eat well on these weekends!

On Sunday we again worked hard, joined again by Pauline and also by Dave from the Park Authority. Drawing on yesterday’s experience we all knew what was needed and were able to just set to without needing as much instruction. We were flying - admittedly somewhat weighed down with a lot of mud!

​​Join us next time and have some fun – it’s catching!

​Jonathan