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With the season of cold and darkness and exams fast approaching, I would like to warm your hearts and soothe your essay-crazed minds with a tale of our adventures back in the warm and golden days of September.
On a fine Sunday morning, we embarked on a strenuous twenty-minute bus journey, bearing assorted tools and copious amounts of food. Our destination was the Hermitage of Braid, a lovely nature reserve tucked away between Braid Hills and the architectural beauty of King’s Buildings. Our task for the day was to rake the freshly cut wildflower meadow to allow next year’s wildflowers to grow. Since there were about 30 of us, this went a lot faster than expected and we completed the first round of raking in less than an hour. Several members of the committee began constructing a pyre for me which I find a bit excessive as they had only endured two weeks of my presidency at this point. I prefer to think of the pyre as a custom-made nest of hay. The concept of curling up in a hay pile found widespread approval and soon about a dozen people had found a nest of their own.

Lunch, as usual, was comprised of the constitutional sandwich and plenty of biscuits. Just as we began thinking about starting a round of traditional Dirties games, it began to rain and we sought shelter under the nearby trees (except Dan, who decided the river would be a better place to stand in). The rain eased up a bit and we proceeded to play ratchet screwdriver and bulldog on the soggy meadow for about an hour. We’d mostly finished our work at this point anyway, so it was a guilt-free hour of games.

The rest of the afternoon passed with a variety of activities, ranging from tidying the rest of the meadow while naming all our rakes to rolling down the hill, wheelbarrow-racing up the hill, chasing each other around the hill or simply enjoying the sun while sitting in a pile of hay at the foot of the hill. As you can see, the hill featured prominently in the day’s activities. Also on the hill, Cameron and I sock-wrestled (I won. Or did he let me win? We’ll never know). There is also photographic evidence of wheelbarrow races in actual wheelbarrows, but I’m not sure at what point during the day this happened as I somehow managed to miss it. It looks really fun though!

We collected our newly named rakes and began the journey home once the meadow was fully raked and everyone had reached just the right level of happiness combined with exhaustion from all the raking, running, racing and rolling.
Emma Grafalaf/Grafalafel/Grafalo/any other humorous permutation of my surname

Here is a very carefully penned and highly informative summary of Sundays project at Bridgend Inspiring Growth, a site we have been visiting for a while and which is now part of our collaboration with the RSPB:

Another sunday, another project for the Dirty Weekenders, This time down Dalkeith road, to help the Bridgenders, We met Amber from the RSPB, Had some cups of tea, Then threw non-native species into (figurative) blenders

Lunch was comprised of tasty bread and tomato soup, Ratchet-screwdriver made an odd sight of our group, Wild flowers were sowed, Between the park and the road, Taking litter to the dump left us spelling of poop

Yours faithfully, Will (projects)

 

This project was one of the ones in collaboration with the RSPB and a local community trying to make a good outdoor space and indoor learning environment with an old farmhouse and gardens. After meeting at the usual place we set off, snaking along the road by foot. It was time for tea before work, because tea is very important! We split into different teams to do different jobs. The cool group (aka my group) were digging up weeds and grass next to a path going towards Craigmillar Park.

It took all day and a lot of shovelling and wheelbarrowing…. But at the end of it we planted wildflower seeds so hopefully in spring there will be a lovely show of colour! Lunch was a tasty soup supplied by the community and bread supplied by our resident expert baker, Rudi. And lots of biscuits, don’t forget the biscuits!After lunch we played ratchet screwdriver, which was great apart from sitting on the wet ground.

Other tasks included sorting out some rocks and pebbles in the garden and weeding areas in order to clear them for whatever may be planted there in the future.

Perhaps we will be the ones planting things there in the future. I certainly hope to come back. S x

CALDERS COMMUNITY GARDEN, WHAT A COOL PLACE. LOTS OF KIDS RUNNING AROUND AND CATCHING BUGS AND GENERALLY HAVING A GOOD TIME. IT TOOK ABOUT AN HOUR TO GET THERE BETWEEN THE WALK AND THE BUS, SO I GOT TO SEE A PART OF EDINBURGH I HADN’T BEEN TO BEFORE. WE HAD A FEW DIFFERENT PROJECTS TO WORK ON. I STARTED OUT DIGGING A HOLE. NOT JUST ANY HOLE. THIS HOLE HAD A GREAT DESTINY, IT WOULD ONE DAY BE A THREE-TIERED POND FOR BUGS AND ANIMALS TO CHILL OUT IN. I’M KIND OF A FAN OF DIGGING HOLES, ANY SORT OF REPETITIVE MANUAL LABOUR REALLY, AS IT GIVES ME TIME TO THINK. SINCE THIS WAS A GROUP ACTIVITY IT WAS ALSO TIME TO TALK AND GET TO KNOW THE GROUP OF PEOPLE I’D JUST MET THE DAY BEFORE. WORKING TOGETHER ON A PROJECT IS A GREAT WAY TO FEEL CLOSE WITH A GROUP OF NEW PEOPLE AND I QUICKLY BECAME COMFORTABLE. IT’S A VERY WELCOMING ENVIRONMENT AND I’M REALLY GLAD I DECIDED TO TRY IT OUT.

FREE FOOD IS ANOTHER THING THAT BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER. THE LUNCH WAS GOOD, WE IMRPOVISED THE USUAL SANDWICHES AND THERE WAS ALSO SOME CURRY OR STEW OR SOMETHING WITH SOME REALLY GOOD BREAD. AFTER LUNCH I TOOK A BREAK FROM THE HOLE AND DID WILLOW WEAVING. THAT WAS PRETTY COOL, YOU FEEL LIKE A FORCE OF NATURE BY BENDING AND TYING THE TREES. PLUS THE END RESULT WAS REALLY PRETTY. WE FORMED AN UNRULY HALF-RING OF WILD WILLOWS INTO AN INTRICATE, ALMOST ORNATE CIRCLE WITH TWO BEAUTIFUL GATES. BY THE TIME WE WERE DONE I WENT BACK TO CHECK ON THE HOLE, AND IT HAD ABOUT DOUBLED IN SIZE SINCE I LEFT. WOW!

I LOVE THESE PEOPLE.