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.

Now is mid-November and I can feel the autumn everywhere in UEA. To me, a person coming from Hong Kong, a comparatively warm area where the trees are always green, the yellow and red leaves here are very attractive.

Autumn is found on the way to my law school.

Autumn has also come to my room. Here is the look from the window of my room. 

The only thing which I had difficulty in adjusting myself, is the sunset time. When I arrived here on 20 September 2006, it got dark around 6 p.m., then gradually in two weeks, it became 5:30 p.m.. And then on 30 October 2006 (i.e. in about another two weeks), due to the end of the summer saving time causing the clock moving one hour earlier, the sunset time, in a second, suddenly became 4:30 p.m. And then in another two weeks, it became 4 p.m.! And it is becoming earlier and earlier!

The result of these… my afternoon classes suddenly became evening classes and I need to carry a poweful torch with me for the evening classes (my law school is located in a park and some paths there are not lighted). Soon after lunch, it will be evening time.

Cromer is about one hour bus or train from Norwich. It is an old small town. There was a large Morrison supermarket and we had lunch at the cafe of Morrison.

Cromer is at the seaside, so naturally there is a beach, but not just a beach, the beach is next to a cliff. When we were there, it was windy and cold. There was hardly any person at the beach save for the few people walking with their dogs.

At that time, the bus station there was under repair and the temporary bus stop to Norwich was located in open air just opposite the tourist office. To safeguard our lives, while we were waiting for the bus to Norwich, we sheltered in the warm tourist office from the cold wind, watching the old men and women standing in the wind at the bus stop. Old people can be stronger than young people!

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.

I went to Toll’s Meadow for the conservation work organized by the UEA conservation club. Toll’s Meadow is situated in Wymondham, ten minutes’ train from Norwich.

Toll’s Meadow is a Local Nature Reserve, some five acres owned by Wymondham Town Council. Local Nature Reserves are places with wildlife or geological features that are of special interest locally. They offer people special opportunities to study or learn about nature or simply to enjoy it.

A meadow is an open community of grasses and wildflowers with very few trees. This rich habitat supports a wide variety of animal life. Like Buxton Heath, to maintain the initial habitat of Toll’s Meadow, some volunteers go to Toll’s Meadow to cut off the trees to prevent it from turning to woodland.

That day, we were assigned to dig out the weeds from the surface of certain paths. This was to let the field to have better air supply and better chance of seeding. The tool we used was the pitch fork. It was not hard work because no one needed us to work hard. 

 The weeds we dug out were then piled up.

After working for one hour, we had the tea time - hot tea and tea biscuits prepared by one of the volunteers of Toll’s Meadow. It seems that tea time is part of English life.