Wed 25th June 2008 - Dimbola Lodge Freshwater.

Our GG meeting this week was out at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater. This was a follow-up visit to one we had made earlier this year but there was still loads for us to tackle....! The jobs undertaken this time ranged from tree pruning through to weeding the numerous flower beds around the main building. The weather was a beautiful sunny day and this encouraged an excellent turnout of GG members. We had to leave part of the hedge untrimmed due to the discovery of a blackbird nest with young ones still being fed - the hen bird soon returned once we cleared the area.

Many thanks to Carrie for the pictures.

Late entry.........

June's contribution to the Blog.

Well, guys if you have ever wondered what our blogmaster, Bob the Blog, looks like, here he is amid the Purple Haze next to the Jimi Hendrix statue at Dimbola Lodge in Freshwater Bay, West Wight. Green Gym were there doing their bit for the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust and in true JMC style I collared Bob as a model! Good one, eh?

Wed 18th June 2008 - Play Lane Millennium Green Ryde.

And yet another new venue for the Green Gym to visit. This time we were in Ryde ( most unusual for a Green Gym meeting) with another exciting new place to work at. The Millennium Green is towards the bottom of Play Lane and is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Our task was to help the trustees with a wide variety of jobs which included scrub clearance, fencing, building footbridges and steps etc - so it was a good job that plenty of GGymers turned up...! The weather was overcast but warm, so ideal to get stuck into the work in hand. The trustees seemed to be pleased with what we achieved in the allotted time - so maybe they will be inviting us back in the future?

The photographs this week were taken by Carrie - many thanks to her. The top two show before and after shots of the clearance work - number 3 is the steps and blanked off area - number 4 is an ants nest that was found during the cutting back.

Wed 11th June 2008 - Cowes County Primary School.

This week we were at one of the school sites that we get to visit - the primary school at Cowes. We were there a few weeks ago and were tasked to continue the work we had been doing on the nature area plus additional tasks on the children's garden and the perimeter hedging. The weather was just right - lots of sun but not as hot as it had been recently - so there was a good turnout of GGymers. The planned tasks were pretty much completed - so we didn't get a detention...! Many thanks to the staff who allowed us the use of their staff room for our tea break - with some of our numbers staying after the GG for a school dinner (see picture above). They really enjoyed themselves and tell me that there wasn't any boiled cabbage or milk puddings on the menu - certainly not how I remember school fare.....!

Thanks to June for the Merry Munchers photograph and to Carrie for the others.

Wed 4th June 2008 - The Roman Villa, Brading.

Frequent readers of this blog site will be fed-up with me starting the page recently with "This week we were at a new site......" - but I find myself using it once again. One of the great things about Green Gym is all the different places that we get to visit and this year we are going to more new venues than ever. The grounds of the Roman Villa are quite extensive and one area, entitled "the paddock", seemed to have more than it's fair share of ragwort. All GG members were given a detailed brief about pulling the plants, then it was down to hard work to pull and bag as much as possible. This was a well attended meeting, we even had two new members helping to swell the numbers even further...! The weather was much improved on last Wednesday (see previous blog) with sunny skies and the temperature just right for active work. Come tea break, we were treated to a drink and cake of our choice at the centre and we were invited to take a tour of the main building. A big thank you to those who made this available to us.

Keen eyed "pullers" noticed what we thought were a couple of orchids in the field, one of which was a bee orchid - the other unidentified. See the two e-mails below the pictures for definitive answer - courtesy of our resident photographer Carrie. Many thanks for the pics and info Carrie.

E-mail one.... Attached are a couple of pictures of us actually working and the bee orchid. There is also one of the other plant we thought was an orchid, but Colin Pope says it is actually broomrape, which is a parasitic plant having no leaves and no food source of its own so it extracts these from other plants, probably the leaves you can see in the bottom of the picture. Not only does the Green Gym keep you fit and healthy, it’s also a bit like a huge outdoor classroom where you can discover all sorts of fascinating information.

E-mail two... Apparently the plant is not just broomrape, but Common Broomrape, as apparently there is more than one sort. Further research reveals they do not possess chlorophyll and are often red or brown. This makes them very unusual in the plant Kingdom, because most plants do contain chlorophyll and can photosynthesise. The stems are very stiff and straight. There are many different types of broomrape, and they can be found growing as parasites on different plants such as gorse, ivy and carrot.