Ock Valley Walk, Town End, 6th April 2013

By Andrew -
A large number of Green Gymmers gathered by the bridge over the weir on a bright, sunny morning for our second session in five weeks at this site. Our tasks were to finish renewing the woodchip path, which we had started at the beginning of March, cut back sprouting brambles, tidy up fallen wood and pick up litter. When Samantha joined us with baby Charlotte, our ages ranged from 7 months to 85 years old, a pretty impressive spread.

The path needed "roughing up" for the woodchip to bed down better, which made the task somewhat longer, but was worth the trouble in the end. There was a large amount of scattered woodchip, in some places up to a foot deep, left by the Council's contractors after their last assault on the trees and this needed shovelling into a pile. The brambles also seem to be spreading and we need to keep them under control.

The gallant litter pickers cleared as far as the Drayton Road, where we left the bags for collection. There was perhaps slightly less litter than usual. However, I fear that this was almost certainly as a result of the recent cold weather rather than people becoming less anti social. We concluded that the litter bugs' tipple of choice was definitely Strongbow cider.

At coffee break time we were joined by Roland, a friend of a former Green Gymmer and Paddy the dog, so we were careful to keep the biscuits out of the way. We also had good news of our successful application for a County Council grant, which will enable us to buy more tools, replace broken ones and maybe even pay for some members to go on courses. We carried on after the break, with some people changing tasks and were very satisfied with our morning's work.
-Eleanor

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