A nice before and after shot.
Wild flowers blooming once again!
Above and below…the hillside we have cleared.
When we last visited here, I finished the blog with this comment..
Exceptional progress was made on the clearance but it would be nice to return (perhaps on a warmer day!) to continue the work. Let's hope that it isn't another TEN years before we get a repeat visit….!
I needn't have worried, Mark pulled out all the stops and arranged for us to return to the job - and less than one month later! On a rather grey day (not the warm one we had requested), with a sharp wind blowing from the SE, we all met up in the Downs car park before transiting the busy main road and finding our way down to the quarry. Not exactly an easy place to find as it is tucked into the northern face of the hill, just to the south of Brading. On reaching the crest, most people remarked just what a wonderful view you get from there. Everyone was soon doing their "mountain goat" impersonations - clinging to the hillside whilst cutting away at the undergrowth with their chosen implements.
As we got further and further away from the bonfire, more GGmers had to get involved with dragging the cuttings from the slopes and over to the fire, a strenuous "workout" for all those concerned. Other team members started raking up some of the flailed cuttings to encourage the natural plants to thrive.
On our last visit, the bottom of the quarry had been mechanically flailed and looked rather bare but this time around there were the signs of green growth shooting through. We noticed that there were already primroses flowering around the edges where we had cut back previous…
.nice! Needless to say we did the usual litter pick of the surrounding area. It was a weary team that climbed the hill back to the cars but a glance over the shoulder showed the amazing work we had all accomplished in just a few short hours. A good job everyone!
Thanks for the photographs Mark.
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