Wed 23rd March 2011 - Squirrel Dell, Ryde.

Carrie's Photographs.

Eddie's Photographs.

This week the GG team were back at Squirrel Dell - Ryde. Having eventually overcome the problem of accessing the site, we soon got down to clearing away large areas of bramble. Our last visit to this site was during the very cold weather last winter, so the sun and warm temperatures for this visit were a real plus! The bramble and undergrowth was piled to form hedge like barriers and then the cleared areas were planted with new trees - complete with rabbit guards, stakes and weed control matting. The area was given a general spring clean and all the rubbish taken away. Let us just hope that the squirrels appreciate the make-over we gave them!

Many thanks to Carrie & Eddie for the photographs.

Wed 16th March 2011 - All Saints Church, Freshwater.

Eddie's Photographs.

Carrie's Photographs.

Well Spring had certainly sprung today during our visit to All Saints Church, Freshwater helping the Cemetery Warden Carol. The churchyard was bursting with beautiful daffodils, with great tits and robins singing merrily from all sides, especially when we got stuck into all the tasks - I think they were hoping we would unearth lots of goodies for them, certainly there were quite a few homeless woodlice! Lots of jobs for us - one important one being to clear out the gullies around the bottom of the church building, which had become very overgrown with weeds. Two large groups tackled the boundary walls of the churchyard -– both sides - clearing away the ivy on both the roadside edge and the side past the bier house right along to include the cemetery extension, and barrowing all the greenery over to the disposal area. Other tasks were to tidy up the rubbish tip, paint the large shed a nice shade of green, and clear away the trees from the outside of the wall near the road - Phew!

Many thanks to Carrie and Eddie for the pics this week.

Wed 9th March 2011 - Merstone Station.

This week the GG Team were working out at the site of the old Merstone Railway Station - a place that we have worked at several times before. A good turnout (the car park was almost full..!) and a sunny day soon had the planned work well underway. We were tasked to work on the northern boundary where the hedging had become very top heavy and overgrown with bramble. With half the team attacking the cutting back the others started cutting it all up ready for removal. Just to make matters "interesting" there was a stream between the platform area and the hedge we were working on - needless to say it was just deep enough in places to flood a welly boot and several people managed to get a water-cooled foot! Once the bank area had been cleared between the areas of good growth, new trees and shrubs (kindly donated by the Woodland Trust) were planted up, complete with rabbit guards and supporting stakes. Hopefully this will fill in the bare areas and will help to blank out the rather large tin shed that is just the other side of the hedge. This is a very popular site for dog walkers, cyclists etc and we even had the local hunt passing by as we worked (see pics)! Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

This week we can thank Mark for our photographs - Carrie was away and Eddie forgot his camera!

Wed 2nd March 2011 - Quarr Abbey, Binstead.

Eddie's Pics.

Carrie's Pics.

This week the GG assignment was back at Quarr Abbey - a site that we visited just 3 weeks ago. A wonderful sunny morning (even if it was a little "crisp") encouraged an excellent turnout and the work we had started previously was soon underway once again. One team continued to cut the hedge down from the 20 foot level to around 3 foot while the others gathered up all the branches. Instead of feeding a chipping machine this time, we were tasked to build posted areas in the woods on the opposite side of the lane, then stack the cutting neatly between the posts. Cutting down the hedge turned out to be the easy part (except for the ever present brambles!) - the hard work involved dragging these up the lane, cutting them down to a manageable size before dragging them into the woods and stacking them. Everyone worked extremely hard and the site was cleared before we left - well done to all. Once again, a big thank you to the staff in the tea garden for the free teas and coffee at break time. I hope we didn't buy up all your wonderful sticky cakes...!

Many thanks to Carrie & Eddie for the photographs this week.