Saturday on 5th June dawned fine and bright and indeed very warm. The Denburn diggers were slightly depleted due to holidays etc but still 9 or 10 of us got to work.
The benches were cleaned again and the overgrowth around them cut back. We pulled some of the vast quantity of “sticky-willy” out from path edges and planted areas where it was choking off everything; nettles, cow parsley and overhanging shrubs were cut back from the path edges (in some places the paths had almost disappeared under the sudden growth spurt with the warmer weather); and weeded the planted areas. We could have done more but for some of our number having to fish the stones out of the burn where young vandals had chucked them and re-instate them where they belonged and others had to tidy up a tree that had also been vandalised and was partially blocking the track. On the plus side we didn’t find much litter – perhaps it had been cleared earlier by a kind-hearted local or perhaps it was hiding under the sticky-willy, I hope it was the former. And the young ash tree that got ash die back a couple of years ago and was chopped down, then regrew and was chopped again, is regrowing again – plenty life in it yet it seems.
It was lovely to see the wide range of geraniums all in flower, I counted 5 different colours not including the wild herb robert and while the wild garlic is going over, 3 cornered leeks with their similar white flowers are brightening up some of the shady areas. While we got hot working, none of us followed the example of a local dog who decided a long soak in the burn was the best way to cool off.
Come and join us at 10am on Saturday July 3rd for our next green gym – we certainly had a pretty good workout today. Bring your own flask of tea/coffee for our mid time break – biscuits provided.
Crail Preservation Society 