The clue to what last week was like is in the title really. There was a lot of water about, and at times we were in it, on it and under it!
On Tuesday we were down in Colinton Dell, doing path scraping and drain clearance. Basically moving mud from A to B. Which is suprisingly hard to do when its raining and the whole world seems to be made of mud…..But no-one was daunted (what’s a bit of rain to BTCV volunteeers??) and the paths and steps are much clearer and easier to walk on now.
Much fun was had clearing a road drain – and to working out whether it was better to clear the bottom first (only to have it filled up again, when higher up sections were dislodged) or the top (and have everything overflow).
Moved further downstream in the afternoon, continuing to path scrape – including successfully removing a small mud/land-slip from one of the upper paths. A nice trench was dug – to try and divert a small burn from overflowing the path. All the while everybody was being gassed to some extent by the sheer quantity of wild garlic springing up all over the place.
Wednesday saw us return to Blackness to dig out the pond. This was fairly amusing as due to it having rained constantly for nearly 48 hours, it meant that there were a fair number of ‘unofficial’ ponds as the whole area was practically flooded! Once it was assessed by Alan that we were not in fact digging out the sea; the group split – some opting for the slightly drier task of cutting back elder trees; with the remainder working on digging out and removing vegetation in the (official) pond. Dave and Alan tested the depth (and waterproof-ness of the waders) first, sussing out what parts to remove and which bits to leave – during the process a large amount of frogspawn was discovered!
Many amusing incidents followed, including: nearly losing a spade, nearly falling in or getting stuck and accidently sampling the water – after being sprayed by some over-enthusiastic person (that was probably me..sorry!!).
During the afternoon’s nature walk, we discovered a new tree (at that time it was unidentifiable by science), so we took the liberty of naming it ‘Gerard’.
(On closer reflection it may be a Whitebeam – we should go back when the leaves are out and it is easier to identify!) When walking back along the beach, along with the usual flotsam and jetsam, we found a shipwreck! And a wheelie bin.
We then returned to the site and continued to cut down more elder (which brought out the usual collection of Wednesday jokes). On the way back the sun (?! what’s that?) shone and small lambs gamboled in the fields.
On Thursday again we stayed in the city, heading over to the pond at Inverleith Park. The task for the day was to remove the overgrowing vegetation from the path around the pond.
That’s right more path scraping! But this time around it at least wasn’t raining (consistently at any rate) and there was the new hazard of swans! Pat in particular seemed to attract them. Well done to all for doing an excellent job of clearing the path and for barrowing it round the pond!
To view photos of past and present projects and our volunteers in action please click here