Last week I had the chance to spend an hour with Jimmy and Pete, two of Vyrnwy’s long serving volunteers who began coming to Vyrnwy 32 years ago and 25 years ago respectively. “Good old boys from Suffolk.” It is a fair old trip from Suffolk across to Powys so I asked them why Vyrnwy rather than a more local reserve, why did they decide to play away from home. They simply replied “because we love it here and because we can make a difference and really get involved”. Well they certainly have got involved in a whole range of projects over the years – laying cables for cameras to observe goshawks nesting, walking the trails and repairing gates and styles, watching black grouse lecking by the side of their vehicle, guiding the Springwatch team to good spots around the reserve and then helping the crew deplete the bar stocks at the hotel at the end of the week of filming. They have seen many changes over the years, some they approve of and some they don’t, but they keep on coming back - “because we love it here and because we can make a difference and really get involved.”

A younger Jimmy and Pete

Torrin’s time at Vyrnwy began as an Intern Volunteer last year and then he secured a permanent role as Estate Worker. Recently he has split his time between conservation work on the estate and helping out on the RSPB farm during the peak lambing period. But this week we’ve been working together in the play area.

Newly installed tunnels

Readers may recall that in an earlier blog I said we were going to add some new features in the play area – that project began a while back, but the plan has finally come together. We’ve had a 6 metre length of large diameter drainage pipe ready for some time, but a couple of weeks ago I cut it in half and cleaned up the edges ready for installation. Last week Alwyn brought in the top soil, covered the pipes and turfed the two new tunnels over – looks just like the house in Teletubbies! Once the turf has taken (which will take a little while given the spell of sunny weather we have been enjoying) children will be able to play on top of the tunnels as well as going through them, but just now it is “please keep off the grass”.

Newly installed climbing wall up to slide

Torrin and I have been building a childrens’ climbing wall by the steps leading up to the big slide. The bank by the slide has suffered some erosion as children raced back from the bottom of the slide to climb the steps and have another go. Now the climbing wall covers and protects the bank and the children can either climb the wall and go across the bridge to the steps up to the slide, or they can take a slightly longer, but more gently sloping route across the grass. I think the shortest route will win every time.

John, Tasgmon/Handyman Lake Vyrnwy

Previous Blog: As spring has finally arrived