Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Here's a few more photos from Saturday's session at Barton Fields thanks to Graham Bateman of the Abingdon Naturalists' Society Green Team:

For the final session of August 2021 (and therefore our summer programme), we attended the annual Barton Fields hay rake of the wildflower meadow. Those long-term members among us have been making the yearly pilgrimage to this popular site on the edge of Abingdon for well over a decade now. Usually we would be working under the supervision of warden David Guyoncourt, however David was away this time and it fell to his deputy, Graham to take charge, alongside Green Gym session leader Sally. The site is managed by the Abingdon Naturalists' Society 'Green Team', with several of their members in attendance. Also helping out this time were some scouts from the 2nd Abingdon group. Most of the hay had already been cut during the week (by tractor mower!) and the Green Team had already been busy raking the day before. There was still much hay to be raked and stacked though, and a small amount still to be cut, which was taken care of by Jim and his trusty scythe. The rest of us split...

A bit late with this report and sadly no photos, but here we go... It was a last-minute decision by Carolyn and myself as to whether or not the weather would hold for the annual Green Gym picnic at Jarn Mound. The forecast on Friday didn't hold out much hope with a swath of rain clouds moving across Oxfordshire at lunch time on Saturday. So we reverted to plan "B" but there was no plan B so we invited all who were coming round to Hendred Way, much to the relief (I think) to everybody. No worries of what to serve as they all brought a lovely spread of food and drink. Before we tucked into the choice of homemade fare, I made a quick announcement to thank James who would be stepping down from his devoted duties of programme organiser and leader. To show our appreciation we presented him with a book token and signed card (and told him to clear his desk by Monday!). As well as James's leaving, It was chance to remind everybody that Carolyn and I as Secretary and Chai...

As the season changes, so our new programme for autumn/winter 2021 has been published. See below or click  HERE  for a pdf version (opens in new window).

An Abingdon outing for the Green Gym this Saturday, following several weeks of sessions out in the surrounding countryside and villages. The Tesco End of the Ock Valley Walk was the venue for a late season Himalayan Balsam pull and a spot of litter picking, led on this occasion by Eleanor D. Sixteen of us were in attendance (if my maths was correct), including new member Richard. After assembling in the car park and perilously navigating the supermarket access road via its somewhat poorly observed pedestrian crossings, we set up base camp in the trees beside the path. While the area appeared to be relatively litter-free (or perhaps it was largely concealed within the surrounding undergrowth?), the balsam was in abundance. Despite an impromptu evening session or two here recently, there was more than enough to get stuck into for this occasion, if not all eternity! It was frustrating that our enforced Covid break last year had wiped out our year-on-year progress in taming this invasive n...

A slightly smaller than usual group of Green Gymmers assembled at the Elizabeth Daryush Memorial Garden, Boars Hill at the weekend. We were led by chairman Kevin, but without a representative from the Oxford Preservation Trust who we work for at this site. Having parked up along the Ridgeway or adjacent roads, Kevin outlined the morning's tasks which were essentially to perform a tidy-up of the paths and the pond area, including around the bird feeders. This involved the removal of nettles, brambles etc that were spilling over the thoroughfares and obscuring the signage. We set up base camp by the pond and picked up slashers, loppers, pitchforks and rakes and got down to business. Adrian had brought his scythe, which enabled the Ridgeway entrance to the gardens to be cleared quickly with a few of us busy raking up the cut vegetation. Eleanor liberated the main notice board from some overgrown holly within the same area, but left some ivy circling up the leg of the structure since i...