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Showing posts from March, 2020

Updates from Roger and Barbara

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Today we have contributions from Roger and Barbara: Hi all Abingdon Green Gymmers. Hope you are staying well. I am working from home full-time now, but am lucky enough to have a workstation with a garden view, although it's a constant reminder of what needs to be done! I have offered to be "redeployed" by the council in the near future; hopefully to some active, practical community work. Please let me know if any of you needs any assistance. Take care, Roger Hello Everyone I hope you are all staying well.  I’ve been trying to keep myself sane by taking pictures of wildlife when going out for my daily exercise – so far I’ve got a Little Egret at Abbey Fishponds, a Dunnock perched in a tree in Barton Fields, a heron at Abbey Meadows and a Great Crested Grebe on Thrupp Lake (at least I think it was – it was a bit far away!).  Also the cowslips are coming out on Barton Fields. Best wishes,  Barbara.

The next instalment...

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Today we have a fantastic round of contributions from Henry and Helen, Ursula and Sally: It’s been an interesting few weeks (putting it mildly) but we have both now settled in to working from home which looks like it will be an arrangement for many weeks to come. We had a couple of days of holiday to use up before the end of March and, with our green fingers itching, we spent our days out doing a ‘mini Green Gym’ in our garden. After a very soggy February and March, the recent sunny weather meant that the ground was dry enough for Henry to do the inaugural lawn cut for 2020. This also included some much-needed raking where the moss had taken hold. At the back of the garden, the border which we had painstakingly created last summer was beginning to show the first signs of spring growth with the clematis starting its climb of the trellis, the hydrangea sprouting strongly and the tulip bulbs poking their way through. Helen busily spent Thursday afternoon planting in some s

Updates from Victor, Andrew and Joanna and James

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Our first update today comes from Victor, who is at home in Madrid: Although I'm working from home, we are spending lots of time together learning to paint, cooking, playing guitar (well, we are 3 and 0 years old,... so you can imagine what we are learning :)),... For me it's the first time going through something similar and it's being a very weird time. And it's very nice to keep connected with the people you love. This is why I wanted to contribute with some words (that hopefully you can understand ;)) Furthermore we though you were the best people to ask for advice.  During this lockdown time, we've been trying to figure it out what we are doing wrong with our plants but we have not been able to understand it so maybe you can help us with some advice. I will show you two pictures one from my artists in action and the other from the Spanish "green gymmers" trying to solve our problem. See you! -Victor Meanw

Updates from Rosie, Margaret, Kevin and Eleanor

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A few more contributions from Green Gym members on what would usually be our work day: How's everyone doing? Saturday morning does not seem right without you and for some ridiculous reason I set my alarm this morning, never do that on a Saturday but most of this week I haven't had a clue which day it is! Anyway I've learnt new skills this week, had to download and connect for a meeting on Zoom, are you impressed?  Quite a challenge for me but it was great to see friends and have a good natter. I'm sure lots of you have been doing things like that. Now my kids are wanting to use the Houseparty App!... how easily we can all be connected these day, it's wonderful particularly for those of us living alone. These are photos of the care home where I work and have been this week. So far we have managed to keep our 'family' there safe but a number of staff are off, including my jobshare, so I will be at Framland extra hours over the next two

Further tales from isolation...

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Today we have updates from Dieuwke and Kevin: Yesterday we were joined by our neighbours on both sides for a cuppa at the bottom of the garden. We were able to chat across the fence & watch the two little girls next door (4 and 1) play in the sunshine. They had such fun - it was lovely. Our other neighbour is building a workshop on his side of the fence and we were able to admire that. We are so lucky a)to have a garden b)to have brilliant neighbours. I have been told by the Cinnamon trust that I am now a key worker!  I apparently qualify for this because I am a volunteer dog-walker for an elderly, housebound couple. My walks with the dog do not count towards my once-a-day exercise allowance. (so any of you might consider volunteering?). -Dieuwke Normally we would write a letter to the Times confirming  the first sighting of spring hedgehogs! We have been feeding them, they scoff a saucer full of hedgehog food each night. -Kevin

Updates from some of our members during the lockdown...

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Hello Folks Who’da thought it?   A Saturday morning without loppers or bowsaws, and not wearing our eye-catching green T-Shirts and fleeces. I suppose we could always wear them around the house and eat biscuits at 11.00 but it would not be the same would it? It looks like Green Gym sessions will be off the agenda for some time although, as far as I am aware, the Prime Minister has not specifically told Green Gym to close the shop and put our loppers into cold storage. So, what do we do to keep ourselves moderately green until that nasty Mr Coron O’Virus departs our shores? We thought that some sharing of ideas and tips among the Gymmers might be useful and it would enable us to keep in touch with each other, hence this idea of using the blog for the purpose. Apart from news and tips, we could use this for sharing photos, poems, and making comments and asking questions for example.   We hope that you like the idea, and that you will submit your own contributions so that we can u

Ock Valley Walk, Town End, 14th March 2020

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We didn’t know it at the time, but today’s session was our last until the Covid-19 crisis has passed and we’re able to get together again for future sessions. In which case, it’s great that so many of us turned up at the Town End of the Ock Path – 20 of us, including  new members Olivia and Wendy and members from AbiBinIt! litter picking group. Eleanor led the session and we gathered our tools and made our way along the path to set up base camp where, after sessions without it, we proudly set up the picnic table which had been missing for a while. Eleanor gave us our tasks which included tree planting, clearing fallen wood into habitat piles, cutting back brambles and litter picking. The morning started off bright enough. There was some talk of rain, and perhaps a few drops fell, but it never really came to anything. While some of us set off to litter pick, and others to clear fallen wood, we set about planting sixteen trees, which we did spread out over the patch of land bet