The IoW GG Official Blog is 10 years old!

Around the middle of 2006, Green Gym held a session at what used to be called Barton Middle School in Newport. During the tea break, I mentioned to Mark that it might be a nice idea if we could somehow record the work we did each week so others might be able to view it. His reply was along the lines of…."Well, if you think it can be done then feel free to have a go" - little did I know what that was going to involve! Bearing in mind that Twitter and Facebook were unheard of back then, access to what has now become "social media" was very limited. One of the few alternatives available was the Google Blogging site so, with some trepidation (and lots of errors), I managed to download the software, establish an account and published the first ever blog, the content of which is shown below…

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

"FROM LITTLE ACORNS...."

This is the first entry on the Isle of Wight Green Gym blog site!

This is an "unofficial" site - run by Green Gymers - for their own use. The official site can be accessed on www.footprint-trust.co.uk - then go to the Green Gym pages.

We hope to make this a diary of our work at the numerous sites we attend on the Isle of Wight. Any articles, pictures or almost anything can be forwarded to Bob the Blog - who will endevour to get them published on this site. So come on you guys....send in the information.....NOW..!

Posted by Bob the Blog at 10:26 AM  

Not exactly a memorable world event but, ten years on, we are still publishing a weekly blog page that strives to showcase the work that Team Green Gym do on a Wednesday morning. 

Over the years, people have mentioned various reasons why they log into the blog, which includes - to show their "nearest and dearest" what they have been doing, if unable to attend sessions then to catch up with what has been going on, to see what GG does before coming along to volunteer or….. just to look at what we manage to achieve in just 3 hours a week! 

By having a Blog account, you can access all sorts of statistics about the "audience". To date we have had just short of 500,000 page views from countries as far afield as the USA and China. Quite amazing when you consider that we are a just small group of volunteers, working on a small island off the south coast of England - such is the power of social media. We are all world famous celebrities!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who have contributed to the blog over the years. Without all the wonderful photographs and informative articles that have been submitted, the 570 blogs that I have written would have been far more boring than they already are. I can assure you trying to find interesting words to describe Pulling Pesky Plants for the umpteenth time is NOT for the faint hearted…! 

Please note that, as mentioned in the first ever blog, it is YOUR blog and to that end I am happy to include anything that you might send me (subject to it not being too rude!). If anyone has ideas how we might improve the content or change the format then please have a word with me, on a Wednesday, preferably over a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Well, that is enough of me rambling on, all that is left to say is…. "Bring on the next ten years". I just hope that Bob the Blog will still be turning up at GG on a Wednesday and manage to battle through the ever complex technology to bring you a weekly blog update on our amazing Green Gym sessions. Perhaps by then we will have robots to do the work and holograms to show what they did???

Wed 9th Nov 2016 - One Horse Field, Totland. GG # 660.

Terry's Photographs.

The introduction...

One pre-cut area.

The pre-session brief.

Barrows at the ready.

The "splinter group" at work.

The main work force.

Such a neat line…!

Off to the compost heap.

Such good exercise.

What a difference…!

One of the many compost heaps.

Two views of the finished job.

It has been some time since we last visited this site (I think Mark mentioned 2013?). Being at the western end of the Island and being rather exposed, it is usually windy. Today was no different with gusts in excess of 40mph during the morning. Fortunately, the overnight rain had died out so we all managed to stay dry - definitely a bonus. Well, what can I say about this session??? Once again, certain areas had been mechanically flailed and our task was to rake-up and remove the trimmings. We seem to be doing quite a lot of this recently… One small "splinter group" went off to cut back brambles and blackthorn along one of the pathways - let's hope that the name wasn't too close to the truth with all those prickles! As per usual for a GG session, a comprehensive litter pick was carried out across a wide area. The cleared area should encourage the wild flowers for next year - making the area meadow like. We have a return visit here in a couple of week's time so fingers crossed for the weather (perhaps a little less wind?)

Many thanks to Terry for taking the photographs this week.

Wed 2nd Nov 2016 - Play Lane Millennium Green, Ryde. GG # 659.

Terry's Photographs.

Before.

The butterfly meadow - looking rather over-grown.

A stone carving of the oak...

and the real life version!

Scythes were the tool of choice today.

Just look at that dog's devoted look.

Clearing away the cut material.

Everyone hard at work.

Everything looking much neater.

The information centre.

After.

 One of the bridges after a make-over.

With this being our first session in November, the good weather was still holding and we had yet another sunny morning…! This time we were asked to focus our attention on the "butterfly meadow" and to the area by the main entrance. Both had become rather overgrown from the summer season so it was time for a good workout with the GG scythes. The brambles that we had chopped back during previous sessions hadn't grown back too vigorously - so it looks as though we are winning the battle there..! Once again we were sharing the area with the Army cadets who were "on manoeuvres" throughout the morning. A quick look at the before and after photographs above will give a good impression of what was achieved.

Many thanks to Terry for the photographs this week.

Wed 26th Oct 2016 - Pan Mill Meadows, Newport. GG # 658.

Sue's Photographs.

It all looks rather daunting….

So much to rake up….bag….and then dispose of.

Lots of GGmers to share the task.

Yes, we found (yet another) shopping cart.

Down on the compost heap...

Looking much clearer.

Each week, as I write this blog, it gets even more difficult to come up with something original to write. This week it could be all summed up by a single word "raking". To pad it out a bit, I suppose an explanation of why we do it would fill in a few lines..! When we started working on this site, many years ago (18/10/2006 - ten years ago!), it was very overgrown with dense undergrowth. Eventually it was cleared and established as a meadow and… to keep it thus, it is cut at the end of the growing season each year. To stop the cuttings composting the ground (which encourages the grass and weeds to grow next year) we rake everything up thereby giving the meadow flowers a fighting chance. As can be seen from the photographs above, such endeavours gives everyone involved a really good work-out! If you are wondering why there is an uncut area left, it is because there were a couple of wasp nests in that bit! As per usual at GG sessions, the whole area was given a good "litter pick" which revealed the ubiquitous shopping trolley, car tyre, traffic cone, bags of cans and bottles etc. The run of good autumn weather continues with some sun and a balmy 15C for us to enjoy. A really good turnout for what might be considered one of our less exciting, but very necessary, tasks.

Phew, once again I have managed to write a few lines to accompany Sue's excellent photographs, thanks Sue.