I saw you fourteen times, in different outlooks, from spring to winter.
I admired you, your charming heathers.
I was fearful of you, your wicked mire, I stepped in three times.
You are lucky, so many nice people are taking care of you.
I am lucky too, they taught me who you are, and most important of all, how to live with this world.

The heathers finally bloomed extensively. The bright violet colors of bell heathers and ling heathers were so eye-catching.

In the summer, there was not much conservation work. Summer is the season of flowering and thus in summer, the volunteers spent most of their time on recording the types, the numbers and the location of the rare plants for monitoring their growth. The major rare plant they are working to protect is the marsh gentian, a rare plant of wet heathland that has declined markedly this century. Before summer came and from April, they made wire cages to cover the new leaves of the plant for protecting them from treading by the rabbits and other animals.

Early August, the plant finally flowered. Their delicate blue flowers did not come easily.

Then in mid August, their flowering has almost finished and volunteers removed the weeds surrrouding them and hoped their seeds could be dispersed and there would be more flowers next year.

I never like snakes, especially the poisonous ones. However, the volunteers of Buxton Heath are fans of insects and reptiles such as adders (the only poisonous snake native to Britain and are protected animals in Britain, see the left picture below) and slow worms (legless lizards and are protected animals in Britain, see the middle picture below).

April - May is their mating season when they come out from hibernation. The volunteers recorded and monitored the number of adders and slow worms during that period. They also created some basking places for these animals - tin sheets (see the right picture above). Whenever they found them, they were always excited while I usually just glanced at them and walked away.  

Last week, I have done something I could not believe myself - I cut off the gorses along the bank, just for those adders and slow worms! The reason is that they are cold-blooded but we human beings are warm-blooded (full of love). They hibernate from September to March and they need basking (sun bath) for keeping their bodies warm. They are living along the bank in Buxton Heath. If we do not cut off the gorses, they may grow so densely to block the sunshine reaching them. Anyway, I have done something good for them and for their offsprings even though I do not have a heart for them (the left and the middle pictures below show the gorses bushes before and after my cutting respectively).

Buxton Heath is a heatherland - an open habitat of low shrubs dominated by heathers and gorse with scattered trees. In the summer heathlands are a picture of purple, pink and yellow flowers.

Now is early summer. Heathers start to grow and insects start to become active.

The Heathers

Heathers are actually small woody shrubs.  They are the most frequent plants on heaths, covering usually about 30-50cm deep.  Three common heathers can be found in Buxton Heath:

 ling heather (has a flowering spike of pale pink flowers)

 bell heather (flowers are deep purple, bell shaped and hang downwards)

 cross-leaved heather  (leaves are in fours up the stem - if you look down on the stems the leaves look like a cross)

Orchids

   Although orchids are commonly used for decorating the home and offices, various species are easily found in heatherlands. Buxton Heath is no exception. 

Sundew

 Sundew look attractive - bright red, but they eat insects! You cannot blame them - they live in wet bogs which have very little nutrients. Their weapons are their sticky tentacles. When an insect is stuck in their tentacles, they exude digestive enzymes and dissolve the insect.

Ragged Robin

 Ragged robin has five petals deeply divided into four lobes giving the flower an untidy, ragged appearance.

Cottongrass

  The seed heads of cottongrass are covered in a fluffy mass of cotton which are carried on the wind to aid dispersal.

Yellow rattle

 The yellow flowers of yellow rattle occur in spikes. After they die, brown seed pods remain. When these pods are shaken, the ripe seeds inside rattle, hence the common name.

Silver-studded blue butterfly

  Silver-stubbed blue butterfly is so named due to the silvery blue metallic spots on the underside hind wings.

Dameselfly

   Damselflies are resting on the new pond made by us. We have especially added some sticks in the pond to give them more resting place. (Damselflies are similar to dragonflies, but all four wings of damselflies are near enough equal in size and shape whereas the hind wings of draonflies are usually shorter and broader than fore wings. Also, when at rest, most species of damselflies hold their wings along the length of their abdomen whereas dragonflies hold their wings out from the body, often at right angles to it.)

The mission for this visit in Buxton Heath was to dig a pond for the breeding of the dragonflies.

I had never expected that digging a pond was sooooooo difficult! The hardest part was to dig out the surface mud which was so deeply and intricately connected with the roots of the plants down into the surface. The clever way to do this was to use the sharp end of the shovel to cut into the mud and make a square, and then use the shovel to lift up the cubic shape of the mud. Sounds easy? Not at all. First you needed to have enough weight to make the sharp end of the shovel go into the mud. Although it was mud, its hardness was comparable to a rock! So the best way to overcome this was to jump your feet onto the shovel and so using your entire body weight to push the shovel down into the mud. Well, although I knew this was the best way to do it, I did not follow it because… I knew if I did I would slip over the shovel and fall over - the surface area of the shovel was very small and I was quite clumsy at this kind of “stunt”.

If digging the surface mud was so difficult, digging the non-surface mud should be easier, right? Yes, less difficult, but… still difficult for me. The non-surface mud was softer and less intricated than the surface mud, but nevertheless heavy, plus the weight of the shovel, god, I wish I could ask help from Giant Goliath.

If digging mud was difficult, maybe transporting the mud dug-out with a barrow would be easier. That was what I thought at first. So when the volunteer who worked with the barrow took a break, I volunteered to transport the mud with the barrow. My god! It was so heavy that at first I could not turn around the barrow which was pointing at a backward direction and then I could not make it move even for an inch! What made me feel ashamed was that that volunteer was an old man and he had moved the mud with the barrow back and forth for several times. (In fact, one of the volunteers who participated in digging the surface mud was also an old man.)

Due to the hard work of the volunteers (except me), we finished the pond-digging in about an hour. But we did not need to fill up the pond with water. It would fill up itself with water in one day - the water from the neighouring mud would slowly diffuse into the pond. Amazing.

Spring has arrived Buxton Heath. There are more green color now. Since all the conservation work for the year has been finished, we simply walked around to see the plants, insects, etc. We also made cages for protecting some delicate young plants of rare species. Unfortunately to me they were just a few green leaves. Therefore ignorant people like me and animals like rabbits may tread on them if they are not protected.

Buxton Heath is now much much less boggy than before, and therefore much much safer to walk on the mire. However I am always the only person among the group who is so scared of stepping into the mire - a mire-phobia symdrome which is incurable for me!! Fortunately I was safe through this time again!! Thank god!

 I dont like reptiles and insects. But the warden is the absolute opposite and most of the people in the group like these creatures as well. When the warden showed me the snowworm, wasp or other insects, he would like to say “it is lovely”, but I usually took a look of the creature and said “oh, ugly!” We have put some tin plates in the area to attract lizards, snakes, etc. Snakes look particularly horrible to me. This time we found some grass snakes but fortunately they were not big so less horrible.       

Every time I went to Buxton Heath, there was something new to me. This time, the adders (small poisonous snakes) started to wake up from their winter hibernation. So, besides cutting down the gorses, we looked around to search for the adders. The result was… we found more than 21 adders! When one volunteer told us we should walk in such direction so that our shadow followed us, I had no clue why it had to be so. Later I realized that the snakes were very sensitive and if there suddenly came a shadow, they would run away immediately.

To be honest, I do not like snakes. They look terrible, ugly and dangerous to me. However, our volunteer warden is very fond of snakes! He knew very well where the adders were hiding because he had been visiting the Buxton Heath for many years already. He led us to look for the hiding places of the adders. The adder sometimes was found to be alone, and sometimes to have one or even two other adders nearby.

Tha adders were not big in size and we could only watch them from a distance (because if we went near, they would run away). Therefore, I was not afraid to watch them. On the contrary, I found it very fun to search for them. They were hiding so well that it always took me some time to spot them (even though the people had already pointed to me where they were). (See the picture below. Could you spot the adders?)

The gorses looked so beautiful at this season. With their yellow flowers, they always stood out in the area.

However, for keeping the place a heath, we needed to cut off some of the gorses (my tools in the picture on the right below - a pair of loppers and gloves).

After cutting down the gorses, we needed to carry and pile them at one side. The gorses have thick and sharp thorns. So to hold them by hand, even wearing gloves, sometimes is very difficult. A clever way to do this is to use a pitch fork (see the picture in the middle below). To the gorses which had been cut off, we also painted a red chemical onto the surface of their remaining trunks to kill them permanently.

 Lunch time was always our happy time.

About five months ago, we cut down the willow trees. This time we burnt them. In five months, the environment has changed so much. The left and right pictures below respectively show the same site of the tree cut today and five months ago. What a huge contrast!

To burn the trees, we first needed to start a fire. We were fortunate to have a volunteer who could start a fire in whatever conditions. That day, while we were half way in the work, the rain began to fall, at first drizzle, then pouring. Still and amazingly, the fire kept burning. This volunteer was one of the three cornerstone volunteers for taking care of Buxton Heath. The other two were a young volunteer warden of Buxton Heath and a humorous old volunteer (see the picture at the right most - he was trying to “attack” the photographer (me!), because while everyone was working hard, I was taking pictures.) I respect each of them very much for their perseverance and enthusiasm in the conservation work for the Buxton Heath.

Before we started our work, we needed to put a large tin plate on the ground. Then we started the fire on the plate, and put more and more trees on it.

At the same time, some volunteers cut the already cut-out trees further into shorter sticks, with saws and loppers. This was to make the burning easier.

Here came the fun part - warming the marshmallows and making a toast!

While we were working, we found a lizard in the mire. Everyone (except me) felt very excited and wanted to hold and touch it. I do not mind watching the reptiles, but touch them - no way! However, this lizard was small and to many people very lovely. We did not know why it was in the mire because it would be difficult for it to breath there. It should be hibernating somewhere at that time. So finally we moved him to a safe place.

This time in Buxton Heath, I did not fall into the mire. But I still suffered casualty - when I returned home, I found a number of tiny holes in my jacket - the ashes from the fire!

We went to Buxton Heath again today. I was so happy when we returned to the entrance after finishing the work, and after finishing the whole walk without getting my foot stuck in the mire! I felt I had put my life on a gambling table and this time I had gone through the game safe and sound. Well, this time I was lucky although I had been unlucky the last two times. This is life. You never know what will come to you the next moment. Another girl in the team this time had the bad luck - her foot got stuck in the mire and soaked.

A more scientific and convincing explanation for my luck was like this: it was winter time and there was no rain in the last two days. Therefore the muds on the field was harder than before. This helped me to go through the mire safely.

This time we cut the gorses. We also burnt off some gorses cut off some weeks ago. The gorses which have just been cut down should not be burnt off immediately because the oil on their leaves can cause big and untrollable fire. For safety reason, the burning must be done in a safe place without wind.

I went to Buxton Heath again. This time, bad luck still struck me. Although I have been cautious not to get stuck in a mire, I still stepped deep into a mire with muddy water going into my welly. Fortunately, after the same experience last time, I have brought a spare pair of socks to change for such accident. So this time, after changing into a dry welly and a dry sock, my foot was comfortable again.

We cut off the birch trees and the gorse. After cutting, the warden brushed a red liquid on the cutting surface to kill the tree so that it would not grow again. The birch trees which have been cut off were piled up at one side.

Although it was my third time to visit Buxton Heath, the environment looked different each time. It was fall time, so we saw some trees having turned yellow.

I particularly like the birch trees and their straight trunks forming a very nice shape.

When we had lunch, many cows came along to see us.

Game time - climbing the oak tree.

I went to Buxton Heath again as another trip with the UEA conservation club. This time we needed to cut down the gorse and the small shrubs that were harmful to the habitat there.

The gorse were mixed with and sometimes hidden in other weeds, so we needed to push aside or cut down the weeds around them before we cut them down. The trunks of the gorse are usually not too thick and a lopper instead of a saw will then be more suitable for cutting them down. However, in some cases, the trunks of the gorse are thick and a saw will be used then. Needless to say, it was the first time I used a lopper. The next day after this trip, I had a hard time to push down the handle of the toilet in my room because… my arms ached from lopping (Why? when you lop, you push your arms together towards the center of your body, which is the same action when I push down the handle of the toilet). 

Initially I cut down the gorse whenever I saw them. However, that was wrong. Some gorse are required to be kept there because some birds nest on them.  A gorse has many sharp thorns and I really do not understand why some birds like to nesting on them. However, the flowers of gorse are yellow in color and are pretty.

Likewise, not every tree is required to be cut down. The uncommon ones in the habitat will be kept and only the common and redundant ones are cut down. Of course, I had no way to tell which gorse or tree I should cut down. So when I was in doubt, I would either not cut it down or ask the volunteer warden.

This trip, was not as hard as last trip, because lopping required less efforts than cutting with a saw. However, I had a bad luck at this trip…

 On the way returning to the entrance after finishing the work, I stepped deep… and very deep… into the mire, so deep… my right foot was stuck… I tried to pull my foot up, at first I could not, then the second time, and then the third time, I made it… but at the same time I felt the muddy water was flooding in my right welly. You could imagine how uncomfortable it was to walk in a welly which was filled up with muddy water, heavy foot, soaked sock.

The cutting work was in the morning only. In the afternoon, the voluntary wardens took us to walk around the heath site. Before we started the walk, we went back to the van to leave the tools and utensils there. At that time, I finally had a chance to change the soaked welly with a dry one.

However, as my sock was all soaked, I could only walk in that welly bare foot without sock. This was not comfortable since there were some particles inside that welly. But that was not the biggest problem. The painful thing was that without the protection of any sock, my right ankle rubbed against the wall of that welly while I was walking and the skin of my right ankle was rubbed off. To relieve the pain and the friction, I had no choice but to make my right foot to walk on tiptoe. God, while my right foot was suffering, so much I wished the walk would come to an end immediately! Nevertheless, I had walked with right foot tiptoeing, for an hour or so.

The fortunate thing was when I was back to my residence, I did not find any blister on my right foot, although I needed at least ten basins of water to clear away the mud of my muddy sock.