Wed 28th Aug 2019 - Bouldner Forest, Yarmouth. GG # ??? (see text below!)

Bob's Photographs.

Where we were and what we were doing.

Amazing views to the west.

A well earned rest period....

As you can see from the above, our resident photographer was not with us for this session so you will have to contend with my (rather poor) phone images. Today we were maintaining the Bouldner heathland area by cutting back any unwanted growth. This is of particular value to the nightjars that apparently are happy to call this place home. Unusually for this site, we did not have a bonfire to dispose of the arisings, so everything was placed in neat piles ready for disposal at some later date. Although there were a few spots of rain, it was a dry session - cloudy with some sunny spells...nice..😊

Now on to an admin error. Mark handed out the next month's program today and I noticed that he has the next session down as the 800th IoW Green Gym session. My numbering system has that down as being THIS week...ops...!!! Back tracking through my records shows that I allocated a number to this cancelled session......Mark didn't...hence the discrepancy..!

Wed 28th Feb 2018 - Session CANCELLED - due to "The Beast from the East"! GG # 724.

So that we are all "singing from the same hymn sheet", I have not allocated a GG number to this week so all will be realigned come the 800th session. Sorry folks, I promise to try harder in the future 😏

Wed 21st Aug 2019 - St Mary's RC Primary School, Ryde. GG # 799.

Terry's Photographs.

Tea break and a chance to look at the new IoW GG leaflet,

a copy of which is at the end of this blog page...enjoy!

We always try and arrange our visit to this venue during the school holidays...this time was no exception. As can been seen from the photos above, we tackled a wide range of jobs across the majority of the school grounds - opening up the areas so the children can have access once they return from their summer holidays. The showery rain and high winds from last week have finally left us (typical Cowes Week!) and today's session was warm with bright sunshine. It was a bit disappointing to see some of the areas that we had worked on before becoming so overgrown, perhaps we can squeeze in a return visit to restore them to their former glory?

This was the last session for one of the team, Terry (Camper Van Terry....NOT photographer Terry) , who is going off to do "missionary work on North Island" 😊. We wish him and his good lady every happiness and a big thanks for all the yummy cake that you brought along for the final tea break...!

Many thanks to Terry for the photographs and to Sue for working so hard on the new IoW GG leaflet shown below. Have a word with Mark if you would like "real" paper copies.

Wed 14th Aug 2019 - Arreton Down SSSI. GG # 798.

Terry's Photographs.

Twelve of us braved the elements today on Arreton Down.  The Downs could well be in the running for one of our favourite venues as on a good day the views are spectacular and the chalk downland is covered in wild flowers and insects.  However, today we were subject to both wind and rain and the views were limited.  We were helping HIWWT in their maintenance of the downland, cutting back all deciduous regrowth so that the land is kept as open grassland and the scrub does not encroach.  Later in the year, a local farmer will overwinter his cows on the downland, which will also help its management.  Some wildflowers were to be seen – knapweed, scabious and harebell in particular.

Many thanks to Alison for the editorial and Terry for the photographs.

Wed 7th August 2019 - Millennium Green, Ryde. GG # 797.

Alison's Photographs.

Early in the morning Ryde had received some nasty short sharp showers – fortunately for us they had all blown through by the time we met at Millennium Green for our annual tidy up.  We had a litter pick over the whole site as we were working, finding some litter wedged underneath the decking by the pond.  The pond is very dry at the moment and full of grass, however the marsh ragwort around the edges is in full bloom.  Bramble was cut back from encroaching on the meadow, currently showing knapweed and fleabane.  Bramble and other plant growth were cut back from the paths and in a few places limestone chippings were laid to improve the surface.

A big thanks to Alison for both the photographs AND the editorial...!