Wed 26th Aug 2020 - GG Walk from the Causeway, Freshwater.

Terry's Photographs.

A quick Team GG briefing before we start.

Gizmo is ready for the off.

Bob's Photographs.

I am sure that most of you are very aware of what the Causeway looks like but I have included the photos above just to show how much bird life is there right now..! Many more swans than I have ever seen in previous years and whole flocks of Canadian geese.

I expect you are wondering why Team GG is wandering around West Wight on a Wednesday morning rather than getting on with our usual work..? In spite of Mark's best efforts, the two "possibles" he had lined up for us this week fell through at the last minute so will be moved to the right on the schedule. Rather than just having another virtual GG session on Zoom, he decided that we should all get some fresh air by taking a stroll along the old railway line / cycle track between Freshwater and Yarmouth. The gale force winds and torrential rain from yesterday had abated somewhat and left us with a pleasant day for taking some long overdue exercise. About ten of us set off from the Causeway bridge heading north towards Yarmouth whilst taking time to admire the wonderful views across the Yar estuary. Because of prior commitments, I had to leave the group as they were heading up into Mill Copse but hopefully someone will take over the narrative from that point. It is amazing just how many people use this bridleway, walkers, joggers, dog walkers, cyclists, runners and even someone riding a horse, you hardly get more than ten paces before there is the "ting" of a cycle bell from behind as someone wants to overtake😏 ( but nice to see the great outdoors being used). A very pleasant way to spend a morning and great to catch up with a few GGmers who haven't been making it along to our Zoom sessions.

Many thanks to Terry for sending in his photographs.

Wed 19th Aug 2020 - GG Virtual Session # 019.

 The numbers were down a bit for this weeks meeting...

The glib comment that I made at the end of last week's blog, regarding the weather, appears to have come true..... weeks and weeks of glorious weather when we had to use Zoom meetings and when we get a regular outdoor session programmed in...the heavens open 😡. Mark had cancelled the session due to the forecasted rain hence some of the "tropical" characters pictured above (trying to convince him that it was sunny where we were..lol).

Once again, as a group, we experienced some technical issues regarding Zoom and connectivity but with the aid of mime and hastily scribbled notes displayed via the camera, we all managed to converse eventually. It is somewhat reassuring that even the BBC seems to have technical issues when trying to do virtual interviews 😀.

Our general chit-chat started with the ongoing St Mary's Roundabout "Improvement" (?) Scheme progress. They have now installed the traffic lights at the new junction from Forest Road to "the motorway".

So far I have managed to count a total of TWENTY THREE traffic light units at this junction alone - does Forest Road now refer to the number of lights rather than trees...???? My guess-timation is that, on completion,  there will be in excess of 50 lights in 500 yards of road...amazing.

For those of you who have been having to follow the diversion around Newport to get to Yarmouth, this new junction is SUPPOSED to be open this coming Friday (21st Aug)for both east and west bound traffic.

We then moved on to the next week's proposed project, the pond liner at the East Cowes school. There are various uncertainties with regard to site access and materials arriving on time so please look out for an e-mail at a later date. It sounds to be an interesting project and will be nice to be out and about again on a Wednesday morning. This topic then lead to discussion about various types of river and pond fish and then expanded into reintroducing various birds and animals into the wild.

As mentioned above, next Wednesday's session has yet to have the details finalised so please keep an eye on your e-mails for further information. Stay safe and keep enjoying the reduced price meals....👍🍔.

Wed 12th Aug 2020 - GG Virtual Session # 018.

 This week's "Wednesday Morning" crowd....

Do you remember how wide the topics of conversation were at GG tea breaks..? That is very much like things are on our Wednesday morning Zoom sessions 😏. It is amazing just how many different subjects get discussed in just over half an hour. This week included....

An update on the St Mary's Roundabout project, Viv saying she had went to a balsam pulling session yesterday but the noon day high temps defeated them, visitor numbers across towns on the Island, Northwood Park weekend market, quite a long chat about Gurnard and thoughts about the best swimming beaches..!

Mark then gave us a quick update on the way ahead for GG sessions over then next couple of weeks. Next week we HOPE to be All Saints' Church, Freshwater - (watch out for an e-mail) and the following week takes us to a new pond project at Queensgate School in Whippingham. Those of us who have been around GG for a while will remember putting in a pond at the old school that was on this site...apparently they now have a new school building and the contractors were kind enough to dig the pond shape which we now have to line-out and establish. This job depends on the materials being delivered so, once again, watch your e-mails for updates.

What is the betting that after all these Zoom sessions we have had during all this excellent weather will deteriorate into squally showers when we get back out and about again 💦💨.

Wed 5th Aug 2020 - GG Virtual Session # 017.

Team GG Zoomers for this week....

This week we had 10 GG members attending the Wednesday morning session...well done to all those who managed to get along. Viv decided that she was going to give us a mini quiz by asking for ideas as to what we thought an old English word was that she was trying to translate from a hand-written manuscript. After a bit of head scratching, Mark came up with the fact that an "s" was often shown in old text as an "f"... so the word was "assigns"...! Easy peasy (when you know how 😏). The next topic of conversation was hedgehogs as Bob had found a Kamikaze one sitting in the road outside his house. It was rescued and re-homed in his (spacious) garden so well done Bob 👍. He did mention making horseradish sauce from the roots of the plant...apparently you don't need a lot of root in the mix before your mouth turns numb..!

There was quite a lot of discussion about possible future venues for real (outside) GG sessions but nothing  programmed in as yet. Come September, the chances of us returning to some sort of normality are on the increase so fingers crossed (although the possibility of working at a couple of West Wight churchyards might arise before then)

Mark mentioned that he had recently been out to the West Wight Community and Leisure Centre and took the opportunity to look at the crab apple tree we planted there in memory of Carole Walker. Apparently it is doing fine..see attached photo.