Wed 27th Sept 2023 - Munsley Bog, Godshill. GG # 953.

 Terry's Photographs.

The cows in the adjacent field seem to like the new hedge..!

Many thanks to Terry for his excellent photographs.

This session remained dry although the weather warnings were looking quite menacing...

I saw this on the Island Echo web site recently....wonder how it will impact on the work we do there..?

Wed 20th Sept 2023 - West Green Woodlands, St Helens. GG # 952.

 Mark's Photographs.

Mark's Editorial.

The site was a new one for us, the area of woodland which is known as West Green and includes the rather lovely Horseshoe Trail. St Helens Primary School have, last winter, been planting some trees here and we were asked to clear some more bramble for further planting. The brambles were quite long in the tooth and as you can see it wasn't easy. But we cleared several areas and created excellent habitat both for insects like butterflies in the new microclimates resulting from this, and for plants and wildflowers potentially. 

A successful morning!

Many thanks to Mark for his photographs and editorial. 

Wed 13th Sept 2023 - Newclose Cricket Ground, Shide. GG # 951.

 Terry's Photographs.

Taken From Mark's Email.

Hi Everyone,

20 years ago a project was started on the IOW which followed an initiative by TCV ( The Conservation Volunteers ... formerly BTCV British Trust for Conservation Volunteers). All explained on our lovely website of course (thank you Sue).

Our sessions have been recorded online by Bob on the IWGG blog (thanks Bob!) and at 50 or so GGs per year have got to an amazing 950 sessions now! It would have been 1000 had it not been for that pesky Covid lockdown. Remember these?.. we had about 50 of them when we weren't allowed to meet up! 

Anyway, this week we will have cake (thanks Gwen - that's Geoff's wife) to celebrate. Also I think it'll likely be the last of our balsam pulling sessions for the year, which is worth celebrating as well. Although I know how much you enjoy them. 😉

So yes. Newclose Cricket Club please this week, in their woodland. This time we'll head south and head towards the Newport end of the site to tackle the stands of Balsam there. parking in their car park as usual. Bring a stick or hoe to help and long sleeves to guard against the nettles.

Many thanks to Terry for the photographs, Gwen for the stunning cake, the cricket club for the refreshments and to Mark for keeping us entertained on Wednesday mornings for the last TWENTY YEARS....! 

Wed 6th Sept 2023 - Appley Park, Ryde. GG # 950.

 Terry's Photographs.

This week Team GG were back at Appley Park, a site they have visited several times before but not recently. This time the task was to rake up previously cut grass plus trimming back some of the shrubs. The weather was gloriously sunny...in fact so hot there was a weather warning issued for the remainder of the week....

Well done to all those who attended the session and thanks to Terry for taking the photographs.