My Last Blog

On Tuesday of last week we were out at Thorn Primary School. We had the task of weeding the flower beds and then spreading mulch on them. The weather on Tuesday was great from what I can remember so everyone was in high spirits and we got the beds weeded in no time. It was now onto the mulch spreading which at first Alan and myself started on but soon everyone was on mulching duty and in no time at all the beds were done. Our next task for the day was an area of gravel that was to have a hedgerow planted and a layer of mulch applied.

Jim and Ian took control of the digging of the trench and planting of the hedgerow while the rest of us concentrated on the spreading of the mulch. It was no easy task as the bags of mulch were positioned at the opposite end of the school grounds. Barrow load after barrow load and eventually Eddy and I made the decision that the back was empty enough for us to drag over and tip out, little did we know we were being slightly ambitious. We did manage the task however and by the end of the day everything was completed.

On Thursday of last week we were doing something I personally had been looking forward to for weeks, sowing the wildflower meadow at Durrockstock Park. I wasn’t disappointed. I couldn’t have wished for a better day the sun was shining and it was warm. I had been looking forward to this so much because it had been such a struggle to get the site ready for seeding.

We arrived in the morning and raked the soil and got everything prepared for the seeds, we soon had all the seeds sown and then the fun started. Anyone who was there will know what I’m talking about as you need to bed the seeds in and the only way that you can do this is to walk up and down with tiny shuffling steps. It’s difficult to explain but when there are ten of you all shuffling around in sequence it looks very strange. We also had Anthony out with us who works for BTCV in an office so we thought we’d put him to work and we made him dig the hole for the signpost. At the end of the day the entire area was sown and the sign was installed. Fingers crossed next by next year all the wildflowers will be out in all their glory.

On Tuesday of this week I was leading the group at Glen Park where we were digging out one of the flower beds that had been previously lost to the overgrowth. After a good ten minutes of discussion about where the actual flower bed was we got down to work. We split into three groups the first group consisting of Ken, Jim and Graeme were concentrating on clearing the path.

The second group consisting of Ian McNab and Stephen would start to turn the soil and the final group consisting of Eddy, Jean, Ian, Alan and Robbie would concentrate on the removal of the overgrown vegetation. Within no time at all we were making great progress despite the fact that the bed was litter with roots. The path was taking shape and Jim and Graeme had found a good supply of stone for the border and by the end of the day you could easily see the difference so once again great work although we don’t expect anything else.

Today this being a Thursday we were out at Nursery Times in Paisley. It looked like it was going to be a horrible day but as soon as we got out of the van the rain stopped! We were there to help the nursery build a plastic bottle greenhouse. We started off by threading the bottles over the bamboo canes then separated into little groups.

Eddy and Graeme took the gable end Martin and Julie took the wall and Robert and I took the door and within no time we were finished. It then fell to Simon, Julie and a number of others to wrap string around the columns of the walls. This turned out to be a rather complicated process which I thankfully managed to avoid! At the end of the day the greenhouse was looking great despite missing the roof section due to lack of bottles.

So now I must come to the sad part of the blog. As you all know it’s my final week this week so I won’t be out for a while, I will however be out at some point in the future I can guarantee that. I would like to thank all of you for being so friendly and welcoming. I would also like to say it’s been great getting to know you all and I will hopefully see you all again in the future at some point but until then goodbye!

Kerr.