Wed 26th Oct 2011 - St Mary’s RC Primary School, Ryde.

I just knew I shouldn't have mentioned Green Gym's good luck with the weather in the last blog - as we had a wet morning this Wednesday! At least it didn't pour down all morning - more like short, sharp showers. It was nice to return to this site and see how the children had been developing the grounds since our last visit. Everything was looking very good but we were tasked to work on 3 main areas. The "natural" area had become very overgrown with brambles so these were cut back and the roots dug out. The willow trees to the south of this area were cut back to allow the sunlight access and allow regrowth (hopefully NOT brambles!) The pond area had the perimeter hedge trimmed back and the pond weed was skimmed off and a general tidy up. The third task was to cut back some of the non-native trees and shrubs along the woodland walk area, once again to let the sunlight through. A good turnout of GGmers considering it was half term holidays and the less than perfect weather!

Many thanks to Carrie for the photographs this week.

Wed 19th Oct 2011 - Mill Copse, Yarmouth.

Had you been in the area of Mill Copse on Wednesday morning this week you may have been thinking..."If you go down to the woods today, you will be in for a BIG surprise..!" With 30 plus GG members all beavering away at clearing away pre-felled trees, undergrowth etc and neatly putting the logs into piles whilst burning the rubbish, it was certainly busy. Once again the weather held good for us, amazing considering we are well into October (I will now get the blame when it rains on a Wednesday morning...). The object of our work there is to try and clear areas within the copse to let the light in and allow the plants on the ground to compete. Many of the trees in this area were planted in the 1960's and are of the quick growing conifer types that really aren't much good for anything except making logs. Even then they have a high resin content which can cause flue problems if the logs are used in log burning stoves. At least they will make good nature habitats while they are stacked up in the copse!

Many thanks to Carrie for the photographs this week.

Wed 12th Oct 2011 - Golden Hill Fort, Freshwater.

As the GG team members were driving to Golden Hill on Wednesday morning they needed to use the car window wipers - an ominous sign as the last time we worked there we all got soaked...! By the time we had all mustered in the car park, the weather was improving and there was only the occasional light shower during the morning. With somewhere around 30 people in attendance, we split into 3 groups - two were tasked to clear pond areas with the third burning up material that had been cleared earlier in the year. For ponds to function and thrive, they need to be in open areas that have access to sunlight. This certainly was NOT the situation when we started on the two "ponds" as they were both very overgrown. The undergrowth, brambles, unwanted trees were cut back and piled neatly in cleared areas with all the rubbish collected and removed. Fortunately both these areas were dry at the present time but we expect they will soon be filling up as the weather comes on to winter. The burning of material seemed to go well with the piles looking far smaller at the end of the work session.

Many thanks to Eddie for the photographs this week.

Wed 5th Oct 2011 - Seagrove Dell, Seaview.

This week the GG Team were back to work at a site we first visited almost 3 years ago to the day. The pond and surrounding area at Seagrove Dell had certainly thrived in our absence, so it was was good that we had a excellent turnout to tackle all the jobs! Due to the recent "Indian Summer", the pond area was almost dry so team A were soon in there removing the overgrown bullrushes, brambles and weeds etc. Team B started cutting back the trees and shrubs that were stopping sunlight reaching the pond, team C attacked the VERY overgrown area at the far end of the site with team D cutting back the hedge along the footpath. As if by magic the outline of the pond was revealed and by the time we all packed up, the area looked much as we had left it some 3 years previously. Although we had some light rain during the morning, the showers held off until we had finished - so perhaps the weather gods had decided to help out by starting to fill the pond again?

Have a look in the County Press (page 21) this week - there is a nice half page article about our recent visit out to Yarmouth. Fame again for Team GG....!!!!

Many thanks to Carrie and Mark for the photographs this week.