Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Here are some additional photos from last Saturday, 27th September 2014, taken by (and kindly provided by!) Judy Webb:

This Saturday's session was back at Cothill Fen, a favourite site of many a Green Gymmer.  We assembled in the car park and were met by Judy Webb from Natural England, who was supervising our activities on this occasion.  We were pleased to welcome a new member, Jason, joining us for the first time. Having unpacked and readied our tools, the fairly lengthy trek down the footpath to the work site was begun.  Once there, we had to navigate our way across the tussocks through the soggy fen, to establish our encampment.  When we were all present and correct, Judy outlined the morning's tasks and we divided up and set about working.  Prior to our visit, a previous work-party had cut the reeds over a portion of the site and the primary job now was to rake these up and stack them in a single pile, ready to be collected and removed at a later time.  Many of the cut reeds were around the pond area and beyond the electric fence, therefore, the power to this was tem...

It was back to Southern Town Park this Saturday for our familiar autumnal litter-pick and overgrown bramble tidy-up around the field margins.  Meeting at the Football Club car park, we decided to focus our efforts on the Peep-o-Day Lane at the other end of the site, with members various driving around to the the lay-by or walking across the field to the designated work area. Once there and having unloaded our tools, we divided up tasks accordingly and began work.  The weather was grey, but fairly mild, and thankfully free of the heavy rain that had hit Abingdon the previous day. A good turnout ensured that it was soon obvious that we were making headway in our tasks i.e. ridding the park of litter (for now!) and removing brambles around the footpaths and from around trees. We were joined just before break time by our German friends, Bernd and Ursula, who are currently staying in town. They first came along to Green Gym while they were in the UK during spring 2013 and it...

A large group of Green Gymmers along with members of the Abingdon Naturalist's Green Team met opposite the Sophos building, Barton Lane, for this Saturday's Session at Barton Fields.   We were working under the direction of site wardens, David Guyoncourt and Jo Cartmell as usual, with a variety of tasks on the agenda.  These included completing the raking of the recently-cut wildflower meadow, nettle-slashing along the Thames path, litter-picking and the removal of Himalayan Balsam in the willow carr area. We thus divided up into sub-groups and set about our various jobs in earnest.  Having joined the nettle removal team along the river, and having heard that there were water voles in the area, I was somewhat surprised to see one scuttle off towards the water almost straight-away!  Too quick for a photo, sadly!  The nettles by the path have rather taken-over this year due to the weather conditions and have crowded-out many other plants and wild flowers. ...

As usual there were several tasks to be tackled at this large site but fortunately there was a really good turn out of Green Gymmers, including new recruit Janet, who was there for the third time and Nathan with his support worker. Lorretta from Earth Trust was there with her strimmer and she set to work cutting the reed bed. Marjorie told us the other tasks, which included cutting back vegetation overhanging the stream and along the perimeter paths, making a woodchip path from the Hadland Road entrance to the bridge and litter picking. We selected our tools and split up to go to our chosen tasks. Fortunately, the weather was warm and sunny, which made the work much more enjoyable. We stopped at 11 o'clock for our break, which was extra special as Sally had provided some cakes to celebrate James' return to leading a session after a few months off. Then it was back to work and by the end of the session the path was finished, the stream was much clearer, the cut reeds were piled...

Having been at the town end of the Ock Valley Walk on the previous Saturday, it was time for a session at the Tesco End.  As might be expected, there was plenty of litter to pick and an overwhelming amount of Himalayan Balsam to attempt to clear. Early on, it was apparent that the Balsam growth was rather too much to deal with, but specific areas were targeted around the river banks, and we did the best that we could.  The majority of the group however, kept themselves busy litter-picking.  There was no shortage of waste in the vicinity, with the usual remains of impromptu summer parties to deal with i.e. many cans and bottles! A number of sacks were quickly filled with both recyclables and non-recyclables, although due to the heavy vegetation, it is likely that there was much more hidden within the undergrowth!  A session later in the year might be required for this. With a good turn-out, a successful morning was spent here, with us leaving the path looking a lo...