On Tuesday we were at the community gardens in Linwood where we were spreading bark chip in the various beds and paths at the rear of the gardens. The first thing we did when we got there however was to build a shelter using the van and the container.
We basically made a make shift tent using the tarpaulin from the container with Jim taking charge of the building and also doing his Spiderman impression and climbing onto the container to tie it off. After the shelter was complete we got to work. We were supposed to be getting top soil delivered as well but due to the snow it wasn’t possible, when we discovered that a nice big pile of bark chippings had been left at the back of the garden though we were delighted and knew what our task for the day would be. We quickly got to work with some of us taking the duties of loading the chips, others hauling the chips and the rest spreading them out. In no time at all we had all but covered the majority of the gardens and moved a massive amount of bark chippings.
On Thursday it was our all day event Rhoddy bashing at Muirshiel in fact it was our last all day event of the season Rhoddy bashing at Muirshiel. We got up there expecting the worst due to the snow a couple of days before and were happy to discover that the snow was deep at all. Michael the park ranger quickly showed us our patch for the day and we all quickly got down to work. Ian as usual took over control of the fire but was having difficulty getting it going due to the dampness of the wood but we weren’t going to let that hold us back.
By lunch time Jim and Rod had managed to carve a channel through the Rhoddys so we could attack it from the middle out which made things a lot easier. We quickly worked our way through the vegetation until by the end of the day there was hardly any of it left so great effort guys!! As is traditional on the last day of the Rhoddy bashing season we would be roasting marshmallows on the fire and thanks to Jean and Ian this year would be no different. Thank you to both of them for supplying the marshmallows. I personally had never actually roasted marshmallows before and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy it!!
Thanks again to all our volunteers!!!
Kerr.