Another week and another area of the Blackford Hill for BTCV to work on. It was a cold, frozen start on Tuesday and the solid ground scuppered our plans to scrape the top off the pond path and lay some new wind dust. We had to wait for the sun to rise up and blast it’s heat on to our work area so we could penetrate the surface. This gave us a great chance to clean up all the debris that we have created over the last 4 weeks so it was back into the bushes to recover the mounds of cut vegetation and burn it all off. Again we were thanked by many passing locals who are enjoying our efforts. One local photographer was immensely thankful for the extra light now reaching previously darkened corners of the pond area, he assured us he has some great pictures! Possibly better than ours?
On Wednesday snow stopped play and we were forced to rethink our allocation of skills. So we ended up in waterproofs armed with loppers and set off into the hills, our task to cut back the ever vigorous Gorse that has taken over the western side of the hill. The snow turned to sleet and rendered our fire making attempts futile. Thanks to the Ranger service for allowing our group access to Hermitage House for our lunch break. It was a welcome relief for all to get indoors and warm up as well as a great chance for us all to enjoy one of our regular sites in full.
The snow blast that we worked through on Wednesday had turned to rain by Thursday and had created some very muddy, sloppy conditions which made work hard and building a fire a challenge. But that’s what we like here at BTCV…a challenge! So after some more intense Gorse clearance the mountain of vegetation needing moved or burnt was growing out of control! We finely got a strong fire going which with the wet vegetation created sublime smoke signals visible across the Grange and Morningside, the return of Auld Reekie indeed. The volunteers received some great praise from passing dog walkers and joggers who all were very thankful for this particular clearance as the upper path was nearly shut off due to the encroaching Gorse, a satisfying outcome to quite a challenging, cold and wet week, well done to all.