Abingdon Green Gym Blog

Blog by Sally, photos by Carolyn, Eleanor and Sally It was a double bubble this week as we returned to the adjacent sites of Abraham Wood (for our published task of small balsam pulling) and Old Berkeley Golf Course (to continue cutting the soft rush in the runnels all for the love of the ivy-leaved crowfoot), both of which are owned by Oxford Preservation Trust.  Twelve Green Gymmers met in Old Berkeley Road and we were joined by Richard, who leads the Chilswell Valley volunteers and has a rather keen interest in the survival of the diminutive ivy-leaved crowfoot, which made us a baker's dozen in total.  The weather was a little inclement to start with, but as the morning went on, the weather brightened for us. We divided into two groups - Eleanor led the main work party in the Wood which was tasked with seeking out small balsam, an invasive non-native plant related to the much larger Himalayan Balsam, but with small orange flowers.  It seeds prolifically and can soon cover the wo

Blog by Eleanor, photos by Kevin and Eleanor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Only eight Green Gymmers turned up for this session, where the tasks were to cut back nettles and overhanging branches, and to search for and uproot Himalayan balsam, an invasive plant, which grows along waterways. As usual on this site, there was litter picking to be done, as people buy food and drink at Tesco, eat it and throw packets, cans and bottles down as they go. A new volunteer, Alec, all the way from the U.S.A. via Didcot, had come to help us. Carolyn and I set off to do litter picking and Kevin took Alec on a tour of the site. The others set about cutting back overhanging branches and vegetation and searching for Himalayan Balsam. We had worked hard at eradicating this over the ye

Blog by Sally.  Photos by Adrian, Eleanor and Sally On Saturday, 1 June, we returned to Abbey Fishponds, a local nature reserve which is now managed by the Earth Trust.  There were 14 of us altogether, led by Adrian, who had received instructions to cut the vegetation from the sides of the pathway and cut the area of grass near the entrance off Radley Road and around the dog waste bins, which we had not managed to finish when we were last here on Easter Saturday.  We assembled at the end of Hadland Road and as Adrian was giving our instructions on the tasks to be done, we spotted a goldfinch fledgling being fed by one of its parents at the top of a tree in one of the gardens.  Before setting off, Eleanor took the opportunity to sell some of her delicious homemade raspberry jam.   We carried the tools to camp, where a number of froglets hopped out of our way. The combination of rain and some sunshine meant everything had grown like topsy!  So much so, that the Council had been out in th