Wed 24th April 2019 - West Wight Sports Centre, Freshwater. GG # 782.

Terry's Photographs.

A wet start to the session.

Tea break.

All looking much tidier as we leave.

I am reliably informed that this is an ermine moth.

With all sorts of high temperature weather records being broken over the Easter period, it just had to come to an end sometime.....but why oh why did it have to be at 10am on Wednesday morning..? It was dry as we drove out to Freshwater but almost exactly as we started work, the heavens opened and everyone got a good drenching. We were tasked to do the "usual" flower bed maintenance that we have been doing for many years now - all those areas to the car park side of the building. Needless to say they were all somewhat overgrown but with a bit of clipping, weeding and raking we soon had them all looking prim and proper again. Numbers were down a little, perhaps some GGmers had the foresight to look at the predicted weather before setting out..! The staff at the centre were kind enough to offer us a dry room for our tea break with tea / coffee and biscuits - a big thank you for that 👍.

Many thanks to Terry for taking the (rather soggy) photographs this week.

Wed 17th April 2019 - The Bee Fields, Newchurch. GG # 781.

Terry's Photographs.

Details of where this week's session was held.

Taking in the floral displays.

A bit of a hike to the worksite..!

Go on...say it... awww cute dog.

Work gets underway.

After tea break... on to a second dig site.

This week we were back to a site we have worked on many times in the past, the Bee Fields (Martin's Wood) Newchurch. Once again, we were tasked to dig "scrapes"to allow the solitary bees to have easy access to soil they can burrow into. For further information on this site please try this link bees .

We had quite a long stroll down to the work site and a bit of a back track whilst locating it's exact whereabouts 😕. Eventually the work got underway and, as can be seen in the above photographs, the bees of Newchurch soon had numerous new "housing estates" from which to select their new homes.

Although the early morning mist was still in the air, it was pleasantly warm with one brave soul turning up in shorts..!

Many thanks to Terry for the photographs this week.

Wed 10th April 2019 - Treefields, Binstead Road, Ryde. GG # 780.

Mark's Photographs.

A new site again this week, after 15 years and around 160 / 170 different locations we still find new places to work! This time Southern Housing working with the Footprint Trust asked us to led a hand in reinvigorating their community raised beds and various other jobs around their Treefields residential site.

You will see form the photos we had a good day, with excellent weather and a variety of things to do. Weeding, topping up soil, replanting. Other raised beds were weeded, fences cleared ready for painting,  posts removed and others installed. Busy busy!

Many thanks to Mark for the photographs and editorial this week..👍

Wed 3rd April 2019 - The Riverside - Newport. GG # 779.

Terry's Photographs.

The pre-session chat.

Then..straight into the work..!

The bed that we worked on last time...

looking better for a tidy up.

A far more presentable scene as we leave.

 "Where does all that rubbish go" I hear you ask...

into the compost heap of course! 

Bob's Photograph.

No, not a meeting of the Gilets Jaunes - just GG taking their 

tea break in the restaurant at The Riverside..!

This week, Team GG returned to The Riverside to continue our gardening duties around the site. As per usual, parking was a bit of a problem but everyone eventually found a slot although some had to pay for the local car park. It would be easier to say what we DIDN'T tackle during this session.. as people were deployed across the whole area to give the pathways, car parks and flowerbeds a really good makeover. Some of the areas would have been easier to access if people attending the facility had taken notice of the carefully placed traffic cones 😏 This was a well attended session and the catering staff had a job on their hands when we all turned of for tea & coffee plus sausage or bacon rolls - they were very well received, thank you..! Although it was a bit chilly first thing, the sun was soon peeking through the clouds and the layers of clothing were diminishing fast.

Many thanks to Terry for the photographs and to the staff at the Riverside for taking care of us at tea break time.

A note (or two) from Mark.

Hi Everyone

A quick note to relay the conversation I had with Laura at The Riverside, she was thrilled to see how good it all looked after all the work we did this morning. A huge well done to everyone. 

I've had this too from Karen from last week's session for the IW Veterans and forces Breakfast Club allotment.

Hi Mark,

I will check the photos out thank you.

Thank you personally and please thank all your team for all their great effort yesterday, the transformation is amazing and has now helped us a great deal towards the next stage of developing this site. I felt I should have said something to everyone but I am not one for speaking in front of a lot of people. I did manage to speak to a few individuals and thank them.

We will keep in touch and when it is finished you will have to come back and see it .

Thank you once again

Regards Karen 

thumbs up!

many thanks

Mark

Historical Note.

For those of you that were not around on the Island before The Riverside was built, I have included the map above. The three circles to just the lower right of centre were the gas storage tanks that were on the site originally. I seem to remember it was a costly job de-commissioning the tanks, removing them and then decontaminating the whole area.

And...finally...a photo from Alex...

Alex found this nice composite shot with the old map from above...overlaying a present day aerial shot. Look carefully and you can see the Riverside, car park etc "through" the top layer. Nice one Alex...👍