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Burnt trees (and marshmallows) – Project #4 Vogrie

On Sunday we went to Vogrie Country Park. Here’s a synopsis of the day from Eluned:

“This rather blustery Sunday saw us at the beautiful Vogrie Country Park near Gorebridge. Greeted at the entrance by the gate-keeper and a heard of doggies we soon found our way to the area of woodland where the ranger, Alan, had marked some trees for removal. We got straight to our destructive work and with many shouts of “timber!” the poor little trees were soon littering the ground awaiting snedding (branch removal) and sawing. We made several habitat-piles for wildlife with the felled trees and collected the rest to be burnt.

After our lovely soupy lunch a small group split off to try to get a fire going to clear some pre-cut rhododendron nearby but the fire struggled to get going with the damp wood. Meanwhile the fire in the woodland was roaring through the felled trees and as always, marshmallows miraculously appeared for toasting. It was a great day out, despite the drizzle, and we all left well smoked and happy.”

Photos by John; full gallery available here.

Details on this weeks project coming soon!

Also a reminder to sign up for the ‘Innovative Learning Week’ project (Wed 19th): Details here.

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Vogrie Country Park this Sunday – Project #4

This Sunday we will be heading to Vogrie Country Park. Here is the message from the project organizers, Cameron & Nina:

“Trees, those pesky little blighters. Always popping up where they aren’t wanted, and not having the common decency to up root and fly away. This however creates a unique opportunity for us to spend a wonderful Sunday at Vogrie Country Park chopping them down! So as always bring along your sturdy footwear and waterproofs (we’ll bring the rest) to the pleasance tool cupboard at 10am this Sunday and join us in tree felling, with maybe a bit of burning and making habitat piles to boot!”

Usual meeting time at 10am at the Tool cupboard outside the CSE gym. Gethering at the pub afterwards from around 5.

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Digging, Bikes and Dogs – Project #3 Craiglockhart

On Sunday we went to Craiglockhart Forest, just south of Morningside. We worked with a member of the cyclist campaign group ‘Spokes‘ to help maintain the foot and cycle paths. Members of the ‘Friends of Craiglockhart Wood and Nature Trail‘, local dog walkers (and their dogs!) greeted us there with enthusiasm. Hopefully the paths are now in noticeably better condition than when we started!

Here are some photos from the days work, but Click here for the full gallery!