Today I went to Buxton Heath for an activity organized by the conservation club of my university. I knew I would need to do some field work there. But, I did not expect… it was tree-cutting! The only tool is… saw, not electrical one, but the hand saw. God, I have never used any saw in my whole life, not mentioning using it to cut trees!

Of course, nothing is impossible. I learnt then. I learnt that I should not move the saw horizontally but slanting downward to the land. I learnt that I should not use only a small part of the teeth of the saw, but needed to use the whole length of the teeth. I learnt that when I have cut half width of the tree trunk, I should pull the whole branch down so that I could easily cut the other half otherwise the saw would be stuck in the trunk. I learnt that after I have cut about two-third of the tree trunk, I would have no more strength to cut the rest and then needed to try to pull the branch down until it was completely broken.

Needless to say, when I returned to my room after this physical exercise, hands and legs ached. And there was more, I suddenly found there was a three inches (7.5 cm) long hole at the left botton part of my trousers! It must have been torn out when I tried very hard to cut the tree but sitting on a cut-down trunk (because I was too tired then). Now, of the only two summer trousers I brought from Hong Kong to the U.K., one was gone forever.

We needed to cut two patchs of trees (For the first picture, the trees at the left and front side. For the second picture, all trees in the picture). They were willow trees but were not the weeping willow which I was familiar with.

Here is the look before cutting (see pictures below).

Here is the look when a large part of the target trees have been cut down (see pictures below).

Here is the look after finishing cutting (see pictures below).

Here is the remains of the trees which I have cut down (see pictures below).

After one hour of work, we had the tea break. (It seems the British people like to have tea breaks after one or two hours of work. At least the cleaners of my hall residence have many tea breaks during their working time.) An old warden of Buxton Heath boiled the water for us. (There are only two wardens in Buxton Heath - that old warden and a young warden who drove us from the campus to Buxton Heath. All of them are volunteers.)

Buxton Heath is about 10 miles north of Norwich. It is a heathland, the dry type (the other type is wet heathland). Why we need to cut down the trees there? Well, it has taken me some time to understand it.

Heaths are habitats characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, found on mainly infertile acidic soils.  They were probably created as forest clearance began several thousand years ago to make way for crops. Primitive farming techniques could not prevent the leaching of nutrients, rain washing the nutrients out of sandy soil. Crops failed, the land was abandoned and these poor soils provided a unique communities of plants and animals which have adapted to living there. Lack of management allows trees such as pines and birches to return to heathlands, eventually turning areas back into woodland.

In short, we cut down the trees in Buxton Heath because we do not want it to turn to woodland and affect the initial habitat of the heathland.

Our target trees were located in the marshes, so we all needed to wear wellies (plastic boots).

 A snake? No, this is a legless lizard called Slow Worm although it looks like a snake (snakes do not have but lizards have eyelids). It was found on the way. (It has very good camouflage)

 Blue and grey sky - a typical English weather - sunny, cloudy and rain, all at the same time.

  I have just done the body check and got my latest body weight. I have lost 8 pounds in a month (since I came to the U.K.)!! When I put on my trousers yesterday, I suddenly found the waist part of my trousers much slack than before. Isn’t it amazing? I believe the major reason is the diet. For almost every meal (save for breakfast), I simply cook (in specific term, boil) pasta, add some meats and vegetables, no oil, no salt, nothing else, just add some white sauce I bought from the supermarket. For breakfast, I will eat cereals with milk if I do not need to go out in the morning, otherwise I will eat sandwich in addition. I run two or three times a week, half hour each time. I cannot run too often because the right knee will hurt if I do.

I run on the grassland. But the grassland is not flat, so I need to watch out not to twist my ankles while I am running, and this way I cannot run fast (which probably I cannot either even on sports ground). But running on the grassland has an advantage - the shock to my knees seems to be less than the cement road.

Here, it rains often (most of the time dizzy rain, not heavy rain), and after running, my sports shoes will attach a lot of grasses and muds, and I need to wipe them off each time I return to my room after running. So most of the time you will find grasses and muds in my rubbish bin!

Strumpshaw Fen (10 minutes of train from Norwich) and Buckenham Marshes (adjacent to Strumpshaw Fen) are both part of the Broads. 

The Broads is now the UK’s largest nationally protected wetland and an important area for wildlife.

The Broads are a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes (known locally as broads) in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Broads and some surrounding land was constituted as a special area with a leval of protection similar to a national park.

The total area, the majory of which is in Norfolk, is 303 square kilometre with over 200 kilometre of navigable waterways. There are 7 rivers and about 50 broads, mostly less than four metres deep. Out of 50 or so broads, only 13 are generally open to navigation, with a further 3 having navigable channels. 

Strumpshaw Fen and Buckenham Marshes are both part of the Mid-Yare Valley nature reserve of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).

I went to Strumpshaw Fen and Buckenham Marshes as an activity of the conservation club of my university. The purpose was to watch birds (including ducks). Well, I know nothing about birds. The only bird I could see and have learnt to recognize during this outing was kingfisher - a beautiful bird with blue and orange feathers, and I had to use the binoculars of the others to see it.

RSPB is managing the Strumpshaw Fen very well. At the receptionist of the Strumpshaw Fen, the warden is very friendly and will chat with everyone who enters and tell you how you can walk in the area. Inside the Strumpshaw Fen, there are signs to show the ways.

On the way, you will meet other people who also come for watching birds, some carrying, apart from the binoculars, the tripod and bulky camera. Then people will stop and chat, about what they can see, the changes of the bird habitat, etc., just like old friends.

Cambridge is famous for the Cambridge University there. The city centre of Cambridge is not big and it looks like it is smaller than the city centre of Norwich.

In the Cambridge University, surely you can find a lot of old churches and buildings.

However, there are some new buildings too and some of them are quite modern in outlook.

The disappointing thing was the river. When I first time visited Cambridge a couple of years ago, the river was clean. Now, the river is polluted with patches of green algae at the water surface.

One thing you should not miss in Cambridge is the second hand bookshops. The books there can be as cheap as one sterling pound only.