This Sunday we went to Aberlady, which is absolutely stunning, to clear out the invasive sea buckthorn from the dunes.
We were all a little worried when we saw the amount of sea buckthorn around where we had parked, but the area we had to clear had a more manageable amount of sea buckthorn. Once we got over there, we split up into the clearers and the “pyromaniacs,” who managed the bonfire we were burning the sea buckthorn in. The sea buckthorn made some interesting green smoke which made us all wonder about pollution from it.
Lunch was interesting in the sand, so many of us had crunchy sandwiches! Finding a good stick to toast marshmallows without burning yourself could be difficult, particularly if you had a peanut butter, jam, and marshmallow birthday sandwich to toast!
Some of us went swimming afterwards, and I’m still a bit shocked that stripping down to your underwear on a public beach is legal here! It was extremely cold, so we all ran back to the bonfire barefoot and stood in front of the fire in our underwear for about an hour. It was said to be an odd look to come over the dunes and see about ten people in front of the fire in their underwear!
When we finally dried off, we cut down a few more sea buckthorns and burnt them before playing a few games, Chain Tag and Ratchet Screwdriver. Afterwards, we split up for the ride home and went for drinks at the Auld Hoose, always fun!
Thank you guys for a wonderful birthday!
Pics and prose by Lizzie Rhoades
Bonus material (by Cameron ‘Prez’ Fox-Clarke)
