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Wednesday 6th
September 2007 In the morning, we worked in the river adjacent to Pets Corner. We removed sections of a tree that had previously been 'beached' near Pets Corner from a dead fall. 'Hooligans' had taken the trouble to dump these back in the river, causing a blockage of rubbish at the weir. They had also dislodged some of the stone capping from the weir and (for the second time this year) we retrieved 14-15 of these heavy shaped capping stones so that they could be possibly used to repair the weir later. Other pieces of rubbish (old wheel, traffic cone, etc) were also removed. In the afternoon, we moved up to the area of the river near the mill. A section of the fence had been repaired a few weeks ago. Again presumably due to vandalism, some of the repaired section had been taken down and thrown in the river. We retrieved the section and (hopefully) improved the original repair. We also took out a huge piece of wood that had been brought down the river during the last flooding (a regular occurrence). Finally we removed some build up of rubbish (wooden pallet) and branches and then completed our river cleaning on smaller pieces of build up as we moved downstream back to Millfield House. |
Wednesday 5th
September 2007 In the evening (7:30pm-9:00pm) the rangers and four volunteers conducted a "dummy run" of the Bat Walk (see Events). We saw several bats flying around field near the pavillion, and we heard lots of bats calls using the rangers bat detectors although it was too dark down by the dene to see them. |
Saturday 1st September
2007 A lovely morning - sunny and bright. Work today was around St Mary's Chapel. This is a romantic spot and often a venue for wedding photos. We trimmed the ivy from the gates and tidied overgrown branches and weeds. Although a roofless ruin The Chapel is still used as a place of contemplation and local people maintain vases of fresh flowers inside the building. After this, we went to St. Mary's Well and cleared back the undergrowth as well as dredging out the well itself and making sure the water was draining properly. |
Monday 6th August
2007 A large tree had become wedged near the weir in the river just behind Pets Corner. This was blocking the weir and also causing a build up of rubbish behind it. In order to shift the position ropes were tied around the tree and then we all heaved so that gradually and bit by bit we were able to pull it onto the river bank. This was extremely hard work as some branches became stuck in the mud and impeded progress. At this spot the mud on the riverbank is deep, very soft and foul smelling. it is also rather slippy - so care has to be taken! |
Sunday 5th August
2007 'People Counting Day' at Jesmond Dene. For several days this week lots of us including the rangers, managers and volunteers have been 'counting' to see how well the Dene is used. This is to collect information in order to show how much the green spaces of the Ouseburn Parks are used. The excercise will be repeated again in February. |
Thursday 26th July
2007 ragwort picking again at Havannah. At least we can begin to see that our hard work is making a difference. Althought there always seems to be just as much around every bend! |
Friday 25th May
2007 Split into two groups today. One group carried on with mending fences (this time beside the steps just after Millfield House) and the other group lopped back overhanging branches from some of the upper paths; and then cleared away mud and leaves using spades and brushes. It does look so much better though! |
Saturday 17th March
2007 Lovely bright morning but a definite chill in the air!. Our work was focussed in Armstrong Park. We split into two groups and cleared the paths of mud and leaves - some of us brushed and some used spades. We also tidied up several flights of stairs which had become encased in mud, soil and leaf litter. In addition, the drain at 'King John's Well' had become blocked, so this was cleared too. On the higher path, there was a lot of standing water which indicated poor drainage, so a lot of time was spent sorting this out. Then, just before leaving we went into the 'cattle run'. This had obviously been the venue of a drinking party. Unfortunately, not only had they left dozens and dozens of glass bottles, they had also deliberately smashed a number of these which meant the ground was covered with broken glass - leaving a terrible hazard to both children and pet dogs. |
Wednesday 14th March
2007 A fairly cloudy, grey day, but, a good morning for litter picking. Bags and bags of it. Luckily the park keepers were there with their truck, so we could load it up with full bags of rubbish and they were able to take it down to the skip - this saved us time and effort carrying fairly heavy loads. Afterwards, we did some work at the weir in the river just behind Pets Corner. This had become blocked with rubbish and broken branches which had been swept down the Ouseburn - we removed a broken fence, several large branches and filled yet more bags with rubbish. |
Wednesday 24th January
2007 A fairly cold, damp day, and all of our work was focused on water! That is, clearing out ponds and taking out some debris from the river. The first pond is very near the 'Fisherman's Lodge'and has been cleared out several times. Lots of trees overhang the water and drop their leaves during autumn and winter. These leaves have to be removed because they rot and as they decay the pond looks milky and opaque, as well as emitting a horrible smell. The second pond was on one of the higher paths and suffers from the same problem. Nets are used to take off the surface leaves as well as scooping up the detritus from the bottom. This is piled into plastic buckets which are then removed. Both ponds look very muddy and dirty in the first instance because our work churns up the mud and silt. Once this has settled after about half a day, they will look much more pleasant. |
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