Hi fellow Community Engagers, Here’s the latest news from my placement with Portglenone Green Gym.

Saturday 12th May saw the official opening of the Green Gym Shop on Portglenone Main Street. We toyed with various names, but we decided we should just call it what everyone will inevitably end up calling it anyway!

We have teamed up with Ballymena Fairtrade, meaning we have bought a whole range of fairly-traded produce into Portglenone, where previously such things were pretty hard to come by.

We will also be selling plants and vegetables grown on our Green Gym sites, and supporting other local … Continue reading →

Sooo busy…it’s oddly wonderful I must say!!!

Since my last blog I have been up to loads of wonderful exciting work! Don’t really know where to start but I’ll try to inform you all of my adventures!

As usual the training is brilliant! The funding and fundraising course was great and really useful! I thoroughly enjoyed the Buglife – Coleoptera (beetle) Identification workshop! I must say I really do love inverts and this year is proving to strengthen and test my knowledge on the wee beasties and of course learn and more learning!

I must say, I was … Continue reading →

Well the Lochore Green Gym is still going strong despite the devastation loss of the Fife office. The group have transformed the woodlands of Lochore Meaddows Country Park by removing the chaotic tree fall from last year’s strong winds. We have even started planting new trees. Gary is still collecting treasures (four golf ball last week), Sandy continues to keep us right during the tool talks and Chris and Dallas have been playing with their chain saws again. The group have been missing regular volunteer Richard as he has been promoted to Voluntary office over in Edinburgh. Congratulations Richard! There … Continue reading →

As a bit of a break from the Hermitage, the Team today found themselves Litter picking in and around Burdiehouse Burn. Before the real hard graft started, some moral giving tea was drunk, luckily without incident. No Hell Hounds today. Whilst Willie, Tommy and David sensibly kept picking litter on the banks, Rachel, Allan and Richard bravely donned Wellies and dived into the raging torrent of the burn-in some places, the water level very nearly rose above the tops of their ankles. In spite of this, a certain member of the team (who definitely wasn’t me, oh no…) still managed … Continue reading →

TCV Edinburgh committed themselves to yet another two days at the Hermitage of Braid last week. Continuing their phenomenal work on the extensive drainage system laid down a week before. Sadly, the team was no longer lead by VO Rob and rookies David and Richard had to step up to the mark .Luckily, expertise from Alan and hard graft from the boys allowed for a very successful couple of days. Despite some truly biblical rain on Thursday the team pushed on and utilised the manic floods to test the vast spider web of expert trenches weaving before them. Yet another … Continue reading →