Tuesday
Today we found ourselves at Corstorphine Hill to clear a big ditch and attack the dreaded Salmon Berry with SPANKY SHINNY NEW TOOLS!!!!. We first began the day with our much needed tea to be joined by a hoard of midges…nice, just what you expect at the end of October! The day began with Rob starting his mission to make the path perfect, which was a great challenge that he excelled in. The rest of the group split into ditch drainage clearers and salmon beaters. First challenge- finding the salmon berry…we soon discovered it was everywhere and cracked on hacking and digging.
After lunch Salmon Berry was on everybody’s destructive list. This started off very successfully and resulted in a ‘hit the Sycamore Tree’ game with the roots, which Derek was great at and Alan was less successful…. And I should have said welcome back to Ronnie, however, he may need to be more careful with tools in the future when he comes back again!
Wednesday
On Wednesday we travelled out to Butterdean Woods in East Lothian for a spot of path building. After meeting with the ranger, we started the day with a nice cup of tea and a selection of biscuits, before heading down the track to see what needed done. There were two sections of path that needed edged, filled with hardcore and topped with wind dust. Before we started with filling the path there was some preparation to be done and Alan dug a very nice drainoff the side off one of the path sections. There was also stakes to be made and Rachel was delighted to chop down a few sycamores for this job. Once the path was edged it was time for the hardcore. Unfortunately the pile of hardcore was back next to the minibus and this meant many long trips with the barrow.
Lunch was back at the minibuses and it was good to see our new recruit Alex discovering the alternative use for a wheelbarrow – a chair! After lunch there was a lot more barrowing to do but the last section of wind dust was smoothed out with just enough time for Dave and Rachel to lead us on a nature walk. This week we were looking at the different leaf shapes. Dave led us to the section of the wood which is home to the fairies, with lovely little wooden houses and a fairy holiday park too!
Thursday
Beescraigs was today’s destination which resulted on a road trip down windy narrow roads, really good fun in a minibus! When we arrived we met the ranger who showed us to a rustic boardwalk, which needed a little BTCV TLC. The problem being that the boardwalk was required as it passed over a rather deep park of water so wellies galore. Some of the team cracked straight on with this whilst the rest of the team set about repairing sections of path that had become boggy. This challenge was relatively easy in the morning as the type 1 was a short distance, however, after lunch the pile of type one was a fair distance away along a bumpy up and down path. A Round of applause to Rob who, by far, barrowed the most trips. Also I would like to thanks the people who help create “my feature” to redirect the path I was very impressed with the end result. All in all a really good day.
Click this link to see more photos