Our office, including all the advisers recently volunteered to swap the office for a day to support The Conservation Volunteers in Norwich, helping us all improve and enjoy our local green spaces. 
Our task was to clear bracken in our local conservation spot, very close to Norwich city centre, Mousehold Heath. Often we loose sight of nature on our doorstep, five of our staff all live very close to this site. We all regularly use it, personally I have fond childhood memories of many walks with my grandparents and sisters and equally enjoy taking my own children there now. I remember visiting the bizarrely named Vinegar Pond across the seasons, teaming with frogspawn in Spring and iced over in the winter. It’s rather different now, climate change no doubt. It has changed somewhat from a heath to a wood due to it no longer being naturally cleared, trees were used for firewood and the bracken for animal and human bedding as required years ago. Now it contains precious remnants of heathland habitat which we were helping to protect by removing invasive species, mainly bracken thus allowing the delicate heathers to flourish. Armed with scythes, large hay rakes and gloves we were challenged with a large area to clear. We came across a few startled frogs and lizards, whom we escorted to safety!
Back-breaking work ensued under the hot sun, resulting in a hard but very satisfying day’s work. We recommend volunteering as it was easy to find a local activity and book ourselves in – please have a look and see where you can support your local green spaces and in doing so create happier and healthier communities.https://www.tcv.org.uk/volunteering Many thanks to The Conservation Volunteers for providing a history lesson as well as a great day out! We will definitely attend again.
