BTCV Edinburgh Diary

Today was Ronnie's last day with BTCV as he moves on to begin a course in social care at a local college and then to begin working as a carer.

Ronnie has been volunteering with us for two years with the last 12 months spent as a Volunteer Officer. Ronnie has been a great asset to BTCV Edinburgh and I know he will be missed greatly.

I would like to thank Ronnie for all his hard work and great commitment to BTCV and wish him all the best for the future. This blog will certainly miss his tales of The Hardy BTCV Adventurers. Hopefully we'll be seeing him now and again if he gets a day off!

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 17:10 0 comments  

Labels: Announcements

Tuesday 17th
Today Chris led The Hardy BTCV Adventures along the notorious Rocheid Path. The slopes of Rocheid were a challenge but with good weather conditions the group started to dig out and prepare the existing path so that over the following days work could begin on installing new edging. Gemma(using her climbing experience)ventured down the north face with a couple of volunteers and started to prepare the lowlands this was so planting could begin over the coming days.

Wednesday 18th
Day two of the assault on Rocheid, Ronnie joined the group today this was to be his last adventure with BTCV for the time being so he led half the volunteers and Chris led the other half and work commenced. In great conditions they worked from opposite ends of the notorious Devil's Path on Rocheid, installing the new edging along it so that local travellers could use the path safely.

Thursday 19th
Day three and the Hardy BTCV Adventurers once again made there way along the Devil's Path at Rocheid, under a blistering sun the two teams worked tirelessly to install the new edging along the paths outer edge. Ronnie would like to take this opportunity(as you know i am moving on) to say a big THANK YOU to all the volunteers and staff at BTCV for giving me the opportunity to work with and get to now all of you it's been a pleasure, THANK YOU!!. Until we meet again.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 11:37 0 comments  

Labels: Rocheid Path

Last week we were working with trees all week. On Tuesday we were planting trees at Blackness. A hedge was planted a few years ago around the community garden, so we were replacing the trees that had not survived. Many of them were eaten by rabbits so we put tree guards around them and hope they should make a good hedge in time. We enjoyed lunch on the metre strip of grass between the beach and the snow with a good view over the Forth Bridges.

On Wednesday we had a more destructive day at Drum Brae. We were lifting the crowns of trees in a Millennium woodland, helped by Edinburgh Natural History Society. At lunch time a chipper came and we spread the chips out as paths through the woodland. When we were not hard at work we enjoyed sledging. A ramp had already been built and we all took turns on some plastic bags that worked well as sledges. See some photos here.

On Thursday we did a similar task at Hawkhill Woods. It snowed during the day, but we didn't have to remove the branches; we left them instead as habitat piles.

Now the weather has warmed up so we can get on with our new construction projects. We'll keep you up to date with how things go.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 11:03 0 comments  

Labels: Blackness Community Park, Drum Brae Woods, Hawkhill Woods

This Week, Tuesday 3rd

Today we were up on the high plains of Corstorphine Hill.The group was split into two elite teams,the first one led by Chris were sent on a daring mission to dismantle mountain bike tracks built by local youths and to reestablish the original path system, the second team led by Ronnie was sent to do some general path maintenance, The Hardy BTCV Adventurers braved the elements as it was cold and wet day but were successful in their task.

Wed 4th

The Hardy BTCV Adventurers were given a new objective today and were sent to The Mighty River Almond the group led by Chris set about the task of removing the now collapsing chestnut pale fence and replace a section with a new timber handrail. We were also coppicing the over whelming Ash Trees the group armed themselves with loppers and bow saws and and the battle begun it was an almighty war but The Hardy BTCV Adventurers were Victorious. Lunch on the beach was also rather pleasant.

Thurs 5th

The final mission for The Hardy BTCV Adventurers this week was to Burdiehouse Burn LNR, it was a cold start to the morning fighting the sub zero temperatures the group led by Chris started to dismantle a fence that needed replacing, this took the best part of the morning , just before dinner as we started to put in new posts, Anna our new VO slipped and injured herself it was only a small graze but she required hospital treatment so Jess, the ranger took her. The group stopped for lunch and feasted on cakes Jess brought and after lunch we finished the new fence.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 11:03 1 comments  

Labels: Burdiehouse Burn, Corstorphine Hill, River Almond

We spent the week at the North Edinburgh Cyclepaths chopping back brambles and snowberry, and removing saplings from along the paths. On Tuesday we had a cage at Five Ways; however we were working mostly on the path along the bottom of Warriston Cemetary which was quite a distance away. Luckily we were able to use the Kangoo to transport the full white bags up the path. They tried to take the cage away at lunchtime but Chris used his powers of persuasion to get them to come back later.

There was no cage on Wednesday so we stashed huge quantities of brambles behind one of the railway pillars, while another group worked on the ash and sycamore saplings. The brambles hadn't been cleared for at least 24 years - we figured this out Time-Team-style by examining the old Pepsi cans (in 1985 you could win a Duran Duran poster!)

We had a cage again on Thursday, which we blocked in with the Kangoo just to be on the safe side. There were more saplings cut down, and a large area of bramble removal was finished off with some rather ingenious use of ropes. It was a long walk on a rocky path with heavy wheelbarrows from where we were working to the cage but we managed to fill it to the top.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 14:41 0 comments  

Labels: North Edinburgh Cycle Paths