Apologies for this blog being late out – I was away in Stirling and assumed (wrongly) it was being done in my absence. So, anyway…
On Tuesday last week were back at Corstorphine Hill, not spiraea though! A new Project! This time will be widening the path, putting in steps (yes..steps) and repainting the gate leading to the main road.
The group was spilt into 2 groups: the first tackling the gate- scraping off the old paint, before re-applying a few coats. This was made slightly more awkward as we hadd somehow ‘forgotten’ the scrapers which had been bought the day before specifically for that purpose! (The purpose being scraping off the paint – not forgetting to bring them).
The second group were working on cutting back the vegetation from the path and scraping mud off the sides of the path. This was hard work – certainly my shoulder was sore after all that jarring! There were many earthworms and Andrew found a small frog (!)
We had a bit of a problem trying to find a ‘dog-free’ area for lunch – we managed to utilise a couple of bike ramps quite successfully.
After lunch – more gate scraping and trying to find the path. Two more ‘wildflower wanders’ were carried out – up through the nature reserve to the top of the hill ‘Rest and Be Thankful’ (so the hill is called) and past the zoo. No zebra unfortunately; but we did see: some geese, 3 buzzards, a kestrel, a frog and many plants -which were not on the cards so I really got to test my memory!
On the Wednesday we were back doing the Spiraea. You know I think it is actually starting to look ok as a wild plant – this roughly translates as: its too hard to pull up! If it rolls up as a carpet – I certainly don’t want any carpet like that anywhere near me.
The rolling was made all the more awkward by the fact that the rocks underneath were not nice and rounded -oh no! – they were jagged and sort of in ‘step’ shape.
But fortunately Wednesday’s volunteers were not daunted! We got several good ‘rolls of carpet’ up and even managed to get a small robin to come and pick all the creepy-crawlies up after us.
In the afternoon a fabulous discovery was made! We managed to locate the ‘Elf Cups’ of Corstorphine Hill! These are a ring of 7/9 small cup-shape marks in the rock face – all in a circle, with one in the centre. These were supposedly made 3000 years ago – for some (now) unknown purpose.
Thursday – Polkemmet
Mud. Orange Mud. Rain. Don’t really need to say much else.
No, seriously though, well done for all those who braved the rain and the orange mud!