Fruits of Autumn

Photoreportage compiled from action-shots taken by the Session Leader:

There is no doubting the colours of autumn now, despite a rearguard action from the summer sun yesterday afternoon:

Evening before Green Gym: gentler clime, and gentler surroundings

That brave solar show took late-afternoon temperatures up to a balmy [or barmy? – Ed.] 24 C.  This morning dawned mild enough, but decidedly grey, with a fine spray of rain on a brisk wind.  Fortunately, it brightened up considerably once it had realised that today was a Green-Gym day.

This was what we were aiming for today, on the slopes of the Chilterns:

A wilder landscape, but even so: scrub kept in its place; and nice clean lines for pathways and fence-lines

To get to that desired point required a considerable of input of Green-Gym power, using all means at volunteers’ disposal:

Autumn fruits were all around.  Down in the Thames valley, blackberries (most of them anyway) are done for this year.  Here, at a slightly higher altitude, and in a much more exposed location at the top of the Chilterns scarp, blackberries &c are still going:

Not that fruits fresh-picked from the forest were on the menu at tea-break:

"Strawberries because summer is fast disappearing, and mince pies because Christmas is round the corner" - from the birthday boy, because that was what he always did in the office (many happy returns!)

As always, by session end you could see where Green-Gymmers had been at work:

At the start of play

At close of play

Before

Just finishing off

Landscape awaiting attention

Proud workers