Volunteers: 21
On such a beautiful, sunny Autumn day we started as a small group and decided to work together on the wildflower plot in the West Meadows. Under Sarah’s watchful eye, Tammy, Joe, Aurelie and Alec planted some new seeds with help from Bob and …. clearing the patches. Sarah was kept busy advising the rest of us on what to do and identifying plants with Ann and her 2 sons.
The seeds were quickly planted with all hands on deck and we finished up the morning clearing the wildflower plot of overgrown grasses, ready for the new wildflowers to sprout up. We managed to collect over 7 full bags of overgrown grass and vetch with the help of Thomas who came to assist us.
While most of the group worked in the wildflower plot, Heather and Tanya (joined by Jimmy the Park Ranger and Mike) cleaned up the Helen Acquroff fountain around the base, extracting a lot of weeds and grass, which we recycled on bare patches. They then did a lot more path edging, again using the grass to make good the bare ground: result much more tidy.
Neil was happy to take on the sole job of taking down the fence and stakes for a small tree that was ready to stand on its own, along in Bruntsfield Links.
Felicity and Iva, from Wrights House joined us for a coffee break at 11.15am and into the afternoon. Thanks as always to Amanda and the team at the Pavilion Café for our £1 coffees. Coffee was made extra delightful with a big box of chocolates that Heather had kindly brought along and forced us all to finish – it didn’t take too much force.
With the wildflower plot replanted and cleaned up, we lost a
couple of volunteers at the lunch break.
Tammy, Alec and the Wrights Houses group headed to the Croquet Club to pick up a LOT of fallen leaves. As you can see
by the photos, this was a big job, but we managed to have some fun with it too. While we managed to clear about 20 bags full of leaves, we run out of time to clear the entire area – a job that no doubt will be ongoing.
Tammy, Alec and the Wrights Houses group headed to the Croquet Club to pick up a LOT of fallen leaves. As you can see
by the photos, this was a big job, but we managed to have some fun with it too. While we managed to clear about 20 bags full of leaves, we run out of time to clear the entire area – a job that no doubt will be ongoing.
One particular passer-by must have thought we were doing a great job, as he took several photos of us when he thought we weren’t looking. Hopefully we managed to get the FoMBL logo into one or two of his shots.
Heather and Tanya continued working near the Café with Jimmy and Neil and were joined by a small boy called Spiky (apparently according to his Dad named after Spike Milligan). He was very helpful in stamping on the recycled grass to make sure it was well grounded. Two little girls joined in, finding a beautiful long worm, which they made sure was rescued and put safely under the recycled grass. Their Dad was coaching junior football, so Heather gave him a leaflet and a newsletter, drawing attention to the lost football cup.
As always, we had a great time and luckily had a lovely day to spend outdoors.
The next FoMBL Working Party (and likely the last one for 2016) will be on Saturday 26 November when we will be planting a couple of thousand bulbs near the Wrights Houses.
Tammy Rudduck
