A warmer morning than expected today, which was a very pleasant surprise. We had a long list of jobs so plenty of choice for everyone. Ken & David continued painting the sheds with preservative. We borrowed Barry's leaf blower to help clear leaves off the main path, we also tried running the large mower over it with the collecting bag on the back. What worked best was using the blower to blow them to the side then using rakes to rake them into piles and taking them away in barrows to dump them on habitats well away from the path. We had the mowers and strimmer in the B&B area cutting the grass which was raked up and disposed of. Ivor set about tidying up the path edges, getting rid of overhanging nettles etc. Duck weed was cleared from the pond, we found that using the leaf blower to blow the weed across to the edge so we could get it out with nets worked a treat. We finished off pegging down logs that had been put down for edging a few weeks ago. Also, Christine and Mo planted out several young blackthorn & hawthorns along the school fence, replacing ones that had died.
We had a lovely selection of cakes today, from Mark, which Carol had bought on his behalf from Marks (M&S)! Unfortunately, Mark was not here today - working over at Carlton Marshes for SWT, proper work with no cake! :-) The cakes were excellent but you would expect that from Marks.
No David today so John did the "listen up". Firstly he passed around the "proof" of the 2018 calendar which seemed to be a big hit with everyone that got to see it, it will be on sale soon. He thanked Mark for the cakes and welcomed Ken back to the group. John mentioned the First Aid talk last Thursday and what a success it had been. He followed that with the "listen up" that David had given after last week's talk - "David had met with Waveney Norse last Monday to look at our black poplar and a few elms, these will need to be "topped", there was also a tree in the "wild wood" that will need to be cut down. The annual tree inspection with Waveney Norse will be on Monday Oct 9th, meeting at 9am at the main gate and walking around Gunton Wood, Foxburrow Wood and the green space inbetween. As payment for the hire of the church annexe for last week's talk we have agreed to do some tidying up of trees overhanging the churchyard with our chainsaw, on a Saturday morning. We are looking into the possibility of buying a new hedge trimmer and leaf blower, possibly rechargeable." John went on to talk about the Bingo evening and how well it had gone yet again. Raising £206 towards GWCP, the raffle alone raised around £175, another great evening, it always is a big hit. The work on the main path was also mentioned, with a request for "banksmen" to help as the work is in progress. It was suggested that we put up notices asking dog walkers if they could put their dogs on leads when in the area of the work and heavy machinery.