3 volunteers working hard….

Monday  June 11th 2018

Arrived school by 8.15am and began work by refilling bird feeders around school wildlife area…

Colin arrived 10 minutes later…he watered all the pots at front of school plus the seat planter by classrooms then he connected hosepipe and refilled water butts plus he and I watered planted pots by shed and the planted roses and honeysuckles around our storage shed…

Soon after Chris arrived with 8 metres of wood he’d been to Southern Timber at Ipplepen to buy for school wildlife area seat repairs….Colin & Chris spent morning working on broken seats by willow dome..

Jean spent rest of morning pulling out huge amounts of hogweed plus I also scattered and watered in lots of wildflower seeds on areas I cleared last Thursday.

Lovely sunny morning with lots of bird and insect life all around!

 

Advertisements

4 hours weeding etc!

Thursday June 7th 2018

NB Monday’s work session was cancelled as I was on a coach trip!

This morning just me working in our school wildlife area project site as Rose had an appointment..

I arrived at 8am and after re filling the bird feeders worked until 12.15pm weeding out lots of unwanted hogweeds and nettles from  the large grassy area between the two main paths.

We seem to have more hogweeds each year so am making an effort to weed them out before they flower and then spread even more seed everywhere!

Weeding work resulted in 6 huge wheelbarrow loads of hogweeds and nettles being added to our compost bins in the copse by the wildlife pond..

Still more hogweeds need weeding out then I hope to scatter some more native UK wildflower seeds around the cleared areas!

Lots of bird life seen and heard this morning plus rich diversity of native wildflowers and insect life…

Last night I went to an event to collect a cheque for our IWAP from Paul & Nicola Burgess ie during their recent mayoral year P&N together with their friends and supporters organised a variety of fundraising events…they raised over £15k and last night cheques were awarded to lots of deserving local individuals and groups.

 

 

Quick work seesion this morning…

Thursday May 31st 2018

Very quick visit to our project site this morning ie just me as Rose alas unable to help me this morning…

Weather very damp and overcast with foliage overhanging pathways in school wildlife area so not pleasant working conditions nevertheless I managed to refill all the bird feeders and was back home in less than an hour!

Several blackbirds around plus also saw a grey squirrel

Wildflowers seen included red campion, flag iris, cranesbills , white bladder campion, ragged robin, herb Robert , stitchwort, foxgloves , gladioli , buttercups ,wild rose and guelder blossom ,spindleberry flowers , medlar & apple blossom ,cow parsley etc

 

 

Feeding birds,weeding and planting

Thursday May 24th 2018

Another lovely sunny morning for our work session today

On arrival in the school wildlife area I planted the ragged robin, selfheal and foxglove plants I’d brought from home ie I added them to the other wildflowers in the raised bed by the willow dome…

Rose arrived to help me with refilling the bird feeders -she also watered the raised bed, the planted pots by the shed and an apple tree which seemed in need of water…

We noticed that as well as the wild roses in bloom the medlar tree also has lots of flowers…

Next we collected tools etc and headed off to the front of school where we did more weeding & watering plus Rose planted the 5 fuschias which I’d bought .

Watering,feeding birds,composting,weeding and seat repairs

Monday May 21st 2018

Colin,Chris and I all working in school wildlife area today on a warm and sunny May morning…

I arrived first and had just finished refilling the bird feeders when Colin arrived to help..

Colin took watering cans down to water the recently planted part of the willow dome…thankfully at last the repairs are working ie filling in the gaps with new willow!

Next Colin took 9 black sacks of leaves and unwanted weeds from near the shed down to add to our compost area in the copse by the pond..

Meanwhile I was busy sweeping the pond boardwalk after sorting the bird food in the shed ready for our next work session..later I weeded out lots more unwanted hogweed ie growing near to where the men were working..

Chris had arrived with tools from home to repair the first of the broken benches by the willow dome …with Colin’s help the first seat has been repaired..

Hover we urgently need ASAP more 6×2 planks of wood so more of the seats can be repaired by our volunteers!

Lots of bird’s seen and heard also butterflies,bees in abundance this morning..

Apple  and wild rose blossom plus a variety of wildflowers also now in bloom…

Weeding plus feeding birds

Thursday May 18th 2018

Another lovely sunny morning for our work session this morning …

Just as I finished mixing bird seed,suet pellets and sunflower seeds ready for refilling the bird feeders Rose arrived to help me…

After sorting the bird feeders we gathered wheelbarrow,tools and garden waste bags and went off to tackle some weeding on the planted beds at the front of school…

NB it will take several work sessions to tidy up all 5 beds plus the planters and pots…however thankfully amongst the unwanted grass and perennial weeds there are some lovely flowers ie cranesbills,perennial cornflowers,marigolds,lavenders,iris,perennial wallflowers etc

Back next to the school wildlife area for our well deserved coffee break …sitting in lovely surroundings with birdsong all around plus butterflies and bumblebees nearby…

Feeding birds and weeding…

Monday May 14th 2018

First job on arrival at school was refilling al the bird feeders…

When Colin arrived to help he reconnected the hosepipe so he could refill the watering cans …I helped by watering all the planted pots nearby….

We went off next to weed out more hogweeds and alexanders in the far copse …Chris arrived to help us as well…

Because it’s SATS week for year 6 classes we were careful to be very quiet whilst working as Y6 classrooms overlook the school wildlife area!

After a coffee and catch up we left our project site earlier than usual and headed off for our homes around 10.30 am…