Well most people thought we probably wouldn’t do it, but we did manage to get a weeks worth of volunteering out before Christmas when the snows eventually loosened their hold on the world.
On the Tuesday the group set off to Blackness Castle to remove tree guards from a previously planted hedgerow. No idea what happened… I wasn’t out… but it looked cold at any rate.
On the Wednesday we met up with the Stirling and Jupiter groups at Polkemmet. We did a little ‘light’ cutting back and down of cherry laurel and rhododendron; piling the cut bits up and lighting a lovely big bonfire surprisingly near the golf course. Of course being Polkemmet it is rather hard to find an area which is not a golf course… I’m sure they won’t miss that bit… There was still an awful lot of snow about and as a result not a very high golf ball count, much to Tommy’s dismay.
So we had a nice lunch with hot potatoes etc around the bonfire. This was followed by more cutting back and a snowball fight when it came to eventually putting the fire out. Yes, throwing snow on does put it out… just not very quickly…
Thursday was supposed to be Dunbar, but with the promise of more snow (which didn’t actually materialise…except that singular blizzard around the office at about 9am in the morning) we instead set off to the Hermitage of Braid. There we cleared ice of the main paths and Scout Bridge, cut back a large hawthorn tree which had fallen over the steps and generally continued with the ‘habitat pile’ theme.
The hawthorn tree provided the most fun in the morning, namely climbing over it and getting lost in the large swayths of vegetation. It was also made interesting as tree surgeons were still felling trees in the area..thus making h&s a little bit of an issue.
After lunch (inside) out came the grappling hooks and the real fun began. The object was to try and remove stuff (mainly pipes, trees and rubbish) from the middle of the burn which was pretty clogged up. The venture was made all the more interesting as we had not brought andy waders or wellies…..Dave learnt a valuble lesson of: try and remember to hold on to one end of the rope…so as not to loose the whole thing in the river.
Further downstream, another group had managed to dislodge a traffic cone from the debris…and this had floated down to an even less accessable section of river bend. Fortunately we were able to enlist a young labrador to the BTCV cause…who proved very helpful indeed….we should try and ensure a labrador gets packed in the van next time we have any river work to do.
So another end to a productive week, month, year.
To view photos of past and present projects and our volunteers in action please click here