As team GG began meeting in the car park at Fort Victoria on Wednesday morning, people started to look at what was in the Ranger's trailer - yes, once again it was the dreaded wheelbarrows...! Wheelbarrows at Fort Vic can mean only one thing - loads and loads of limestone chippings for rebuilding pathways. To make matters even worse.....Mark then turned up with the GG trailer which was also full of...you've guessed it...even more wheelbarrows..! Oh well, there was no escape so it was off for a walk in the woods to locate all the pre-dumped piles of chippings and get work underway.
The recent record rainfalls had caused many of the pathways in this area to become flooded and muddy so our task was to shovel away the mud and then make good the surface with chippings. This time there was some 5 piles for us to work from and an estimated 8 - 10 tonnes of material overall. With the workforce split into several teams good progress was made at reinstating the routes in this wonderfully scenic area.
For those who fancied something different (to wheelbarrowing!) there was plenty to do cutting back overgrown areas alongside the main track. See photographs below (many thanks to Eddie for them).
At teatime this week we were shown the "shortlisted" entries for the IoW GG logo competition. All our members had been invited to design a new corporate logo and the results were really quite amazing. The committee are now getting costings done for printing etc and then the final winner will be announced - but a huge WELL DONE to all those who entered....!!
Although the weather was overcast, there were only a couple of light showers during the session - just enough to cool down after feverish wheelbarrowing tasks. Thank goodness we had such a good turnout otherwise we would have struggled to complete the work assigned.
Carrie's Nature Lesson.
This week's find is Enchanter's Nightshade (Circaea Lutetiana), which is part of the evening primrose family. The name comes from the enchantress Circe of Greek mythology, and the generic designation is derived from Lutetia the Latin name for Paris, which was at one time known as the Witch City.
Despite its name this plant is not especially toxic but contains a lot of the astringent tannin. It is a perennial herbaceous plant with opposite simple leaves on slender green stems, which are rounded or slightly notched at the base, narrow gradually to the pointed tip and are not strongly toothed but have sinuate edges. The flowers are white, borne in summer and have 2 notched petals, 2 stamens and a 2-lobed stigma. The open flowers are well spaced along the stalk, and there are no bracts at the base of individual flower stalks. The fruit consists of two equal cells, and usually sets seed, with the flower stalks angling downwards before fruiting. It is native to Europe, Middle Asia and Siberia, and it grows in deep shade and moist environments on nitrogen-containing clay, often in areas where other plants struggle to survive.
Many thanks to Carrie for (some of) the photographs and the Nature Lesson.
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