BTCV blogs

Hi folks,

great to back, now attached to the Mothership and all the other little BTCV Scotland shiplets (hellloooo everyone!).

It's been a busy few weeks (didn't you just know I was gonna say that), especially for the Green Gym. We have been having a very productive season at the allotment (anyone for lettuce?) and so decided to celebrate our hard work with a BBQ. We had an open day where the public could come along and see us at work. The day started gloriously with lots of sunshine (you just know where this is going) and we worked hard clearing weeds and eating strawberries. Then time for our barbie...

Hi all,

Diversity has certainly been on our minds here at BTCV Aberdeen lately, both with projects and with some local wildlife.

We recently had a moth workshop for the Green Gymers given at our offices by a local entomologist. We set up a trap the night before (no moths were harmed in the making of this project) and then had a show and tell the next day.

A glorious day to you all,

At the beginning of spring, in the spirit of optimism, we planted seeds for many crops for our wonderful organic allotment. To our delight, many of these crops appeared to germinate. So far, so good...

Come sowing time, we transplanted them to the allotment with military precision - this is an allotment, you may remember, that was planned in cyberspace using companion planting and crop rotation. Seed beds were weeded, crops were labelled and all was good. We prayed to the sun Gods (no problem in Aberdeen for the rain Gods) and waited.

On Monday the Green Gym returned to the allotment to harvest the fruits of our labour. This proved rather difficult as many weeds had achieved triffid status in our absence and the labelling of each bed had disappeared or been mixed up (I think the allotment gremlins were having a laugh at our expense). Trying to decide what crop was where looked like it might be the subject of an "answers on a postcard" competition.

However, we set to work to remove the weeds (no mean task), and soon, like the city of Atlantis, beneath the ruins we discovered our harvest. We found lettuce galore, rocket (is that a sort of lettuce?), and lollo rosso (is that a fancy lettuce?). I know it's easy to grow, but surely we didn't plant THAT much lettuce. We also found some monster radishes (does that go with lettuce) and a burdgeoning bumper crop of strawberries (quite sure that has nothing to do with lettuce, unless you are very strange).

Thanks to everyone who helped restore order to the allotment, including my other half who was dragged out after work. We look forward to discovering more organic delights in the near future (I have a feeling there may be more lettuce lurking under there somewhere).

Hi all,

It's been a while since we last brought you an exciting instalment in the adventures of Aberdeen BTCV, but, before we do, a call to arms....and legs, and hands and all your other bits.

Our Wednesday project is desperately in need of some volunteers to help us move forward with our many projects (see programme). We may not be able to promise sunshine every week, but can definitely promise coffee/tea and biscuits (there were snickers and mars bars last week!!!), and the chat is always (ok, mostly) good. So, if you are sitting at home, bored with the antics of politicians and BB10 housemates, come join us and make a difference to your environment!

Last week we were lucky enough to carry out a residential project at Delgatie Castle, improving the Three Island Pond. Joan, thank you for taking such excellent care of us - the minibus was noticeably heavier on the way home due to a few extra pounds all round! We will be able to bring you more about this project soon when the pictures have been censored.

You may have noticed the weather has been a bit erratic of late (yes, erratic), so we were very fortunate yesterday to have some favourable weather for our Green Gym's healthy walk. We headed to Hazelhead Woods for a very enjoyable time. Not only does it have some beautiful blooms, sculpture and play areas; deeper in to the woods are some lovely walks which we will be using for our John Muir award (more of that in the coming weeks).







Of course, the only way to finish off such a great day...is an ice cream!






Finally, you may remember the sad passing of The Landy some time ago. Well, the time has come to introduce the new vehicular member of our crew - The Minibus. After overcoming the shock of not having to hold the indicators down and the existence of SIX gears (didn't know that was possible!), I fully inducted The Minibus when it obligingly stalled en route to task (YEAH!!!)





In the words of Little Stevie, "Isn't she lovely...."

Have a good week, Y'all.