Bridge House

The river bank along the grounds of Bridge House is quite steep with a fair amount of balsam on both sides.

The view from the riverbed

 We cleared a lot but there is still more to do, particularly on the side opposite to Bridge House.

Thanks to Neil for the photos and apologies to Jen who spent most of the afternoon working alone on the top of the bank thus missing out on photo opportunities!

Along the river bed at Glebelands

With the temperature in the high 20s, it was pleasant to wade along the river bed in the shade of the trees.

We cleared a lot of balsam growing low down on the riverbanks and in difficult to reach areas on the Meadow Mead  side of the river. Unfortunately there is still one large clump of very large plants which is difficult to get at either from the river bed or through the undergrowth on the bank.

Although the river level was low, there are still a few deep spots where we could see lots of fish (chub?).

Finally I saw this plant flowering right down at water level but haven't yet managed to identify it.

Upstream from Black Rocks

Almost exactly a year ago we paid a first visit to the area of little islands between Black Rocks and Cogmill. On that occasion, the river was too deep to wade and the area was almost covered in Balsam. We had to revisit the following week to finish clearing.

In contrast, this year the river was not much more than ankle deep and there was far less balsam to clear. However some plants were already more than two metres tall and the first flowers had appeared.

We were able to clear all of the little islands and some of the field edge on the far bank. Another visit in a few weeks time will probably be necessary to tidy up any stragglers which we missed amongst the tangled undergrowth and also to tackle more along the field edge.

First session of 2017

Balsam is already growing strongly (3 to 4ft tall) so we had our first session of the year on a warm spring day. Starting at Parsonage Bridge, we cleared along the river bank upstream, tackled a big clump at the grassy area off Meadow Mead and cleared some patches near the community orchard.

There are still a few more patches to clear which can only be reached from the river bed but it was a good start to the year's activity.

Spring 2017 - Survey along the Frome

On Easter Monday, I walked up the river from Nightingale Bridge to Cogmill to see whether there were any signs of balsam, and also  to enjoy the bluebells.

Although still early in the season there are already signs of balsam growing at various places along the river.  I spotted balsam in the field edge downstream from Bridge House, along the bank by the community orchard and by the open area off Meadow Mead. There's certain to be more I didn't spot. Most plants are just a few inches tall so pulling in any quantity would be back breaking work.



Also on my walk I kept a look out for rubbish in the river. The worst examples were a gas cylinder and a garden chair. There are also some fallen trees which are collecting rubbish


On a more positive note, the walk along the river was very pleasant and the bluebells were looking good!

Autumn along the Frome

Here are a few photos taken on a walk along the Frome Valley which was made all the more pleasant by the complete absence of Himalayan Balsam!

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Nightingale Bridge revisited October 5th 2016

A walk down Hillyfields to Nightingale Bridge in early October showed two things. First, all the balsam plants pulled by volunteers and stacked in piles have vanished, allowing new grass and other vegetation to grow in the mild weather. Second, a handful balsam plants have had the sheer nerve to spring up and flower near the back of the patch which was cleared by volunteers.  The overall picture is, however, of a job well done!

These two pictures show the area to the left of Nightingale Bridge. The bottom one is 'before', and the top one was taken in October.  You could not tell that this field was so heavily invaded.