Creative recycling

by 'C':

“Perfect Green-Gymmers’ weather” this morning.  Note our session leader on the right, in her shirtsleeves:

It may have been the bright weather which led us to make an unusually bright start to the session the moment most of us had arrived, rather than waiting for the hour of 10 to strike.  Indeed it was such a prompt start that the first pass-by of wheelbarrows had happened while some of us were still getting our kit sorted:

The main task – as usual at this site – was removing excess watercress, so that the water channels run freely.  With 14 of us on site, we managed to work a whole stretch, from road- to footbridge:

Not that the water flowed very fast, even where channels were cleared.  The site warden told us that the water level in the stream is “almost dangerously low. ” (Or was it “disastrously low”?)

Extracted watercress (of a length which caused several volunteers to liken it to “spaghetti”) was removed to the nearest compost heap.  The heaps too were under active management.  Here the duty officer, compost-heap is trampling one down to an even level:

The secondary task was recycling willow rods into makings for a model dragonfly:

Very versatile stuff is willow – and we like processing ‘risings’ into usable materials, for any purpose that’s legal and decent.  We were glad to hear that all the willow bundles harvested last time we were on site here, have found good homes.

The local robin also clearly believes in making the most of by-products from Green-Gym.  He patrolled the areas around our wheelbarrowing, snapping up any tasty bits from the heaps of vegetation.  Thus, Robin met robin (“We make a good team”):

Among the litter we (sadly) expect to find on sites, including portable Faraday cages, was one piece which made me smile.   

In the undergrowth: a mug discarded by a worker (not one of ours) on a previous occasion.  It had emblazoned on the back, a neat health & safety message, ‘Maintain a clean and tidy work environment’:

We did: the mug was taken home, scrubbed clean, and re-used.