BTCV Edinburgh Diary

It's been a while but we're back!

Well, how to sum up the last month in a concise way? We've moved office to an actual building made of bricks which those of you familiar with our old office will know is to be very welcomed. I will publish our new contact details separately.

Project wise, the big news is we've finished Newhaven Church! 18 days of hard work have really paid off and it looks amazing and the Church are overjoyed with their new deck. Everyone involved should be very proud of the work that we've done, it's a testament to what volunteers can achieve! Check out the photos to see the finished article!

We've also been building some more jigsaw shape raised beds (last seen at Gardening Scotland 08) for Strathesk Primary School in Penicuik, erecting a greenhouse and shed for the Orchard Clinic at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and pulling up Himalayan Balsam with the Countryside Ranger Service.

On the Volunteer Officer front it's been all change again as Alaitz has returned to Spain and Ianire has arrived to take up her 4 month post with us. We've also been joined by Vicks and soon David will return from his month away in Slovenia. Alan is dipping his toe in the water of being a VO to see how it suits him. It's great to have a team of good VOs working with me to make our projects run better and make sure I don't forget anything!

We'll be back to regular postings from now on, so keep an eye on us!

Chris

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 08:36 0 comments  

Labels: Hermitage of Braid, Newhaven Church, Royal Edinburgh

For the last couple of weeks we've all become regular churchgoers as our presence at Newhaven Church is almost constant. The results of our commitment are showing as the deck and ramp are looking great and even the picket fence is springing up. Everybody involved should be very proud of the project! We do edge ever closer towards completion as the final deck board was laid today on the ramp so now it's just handrails, planting and extending the fence around the garden (I'm sure we'll be finished in no time at all).

We did manage to squeeze in a different location on the 27th as we headed over to the Hermitage of Braid to clear and re-edge some paths and cutback some vegetation. We even got in some Himalayan Balsam removal, obviously a sign of Summer coming! It was great to see the Blue Tit nest again on the live video link. Last time we visited there were eggs and now there are many hungry mouths to feed, the adult birds are being kept very busy providing food.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 17:25 0 comments  

Labels: Hermitage of Braid, Newhaven Church

The group was at the Hermitage of Braid at the start of the week. We fixed some steps, removed saplings and planted ox-eye daisy.

We were then at Craigmillar on Wednesday, where there have been some problems with motobikes in the park. So we were repairing some of the paths with whindust and doing our usual litter pick.

On Thursday we braved the winds and headed to Easter Craiglockhart. We removed some japanese knotweed and cut back a lot of vegetation from the paths. We also scraped and cleared some of the cobbles, revealing a feature that had been buried under a few years' worth of grass and nettles. We then headed up the hill to clear away vegetation growing up around a set of steps.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 10:11 0 comments  

Labels: Craigmillar, Easter Craiglockhart, Hermitage of Braid

At least for us at BTCV anyway. We had an enjoyable last week of the year.

On Tuesday we went back to Hailesland Child and Family Centre where we had done some work earlier in the year. To finish our job there we had to erect a willow structure and make some steps to go next to the planters we had previously made. The willow structure went up in no time, but we took longer over digging out the area for the steps. We managed to dig out the area and built the structure for the steps. The steps have now been filled with wood chippings and the turf has been put back around them, so our task at Hailesland is complete. Well done to everyone involved. It looks fantastic.

On Wednesday we went out to Livingston to Riverside Primary School. Here we put up another couple of willow structures. We made an arbour around a seating area in the garden and also put in a tunnel heading towards the pond. We finished putting up the structures surprisingly quickly, and ate lots of mince pies and Christmas biscuits to finish the day.

Our final day of the year on Thursday was the "Surprise Christmas Project". We went to the Hermitage of Braid and worked with the rangers to edge some of their flower beds, scrape the paths, cut down and burn some elder trees and cut two tonne bags of holly for a wreath workshop on Saturday. We stopped working early to enjoy mulled wine and Christmas pudding around the fire before going home.

In the evening on Thursday we had our annual Christmas Quiz. We had a good turn out with people from Stirling and Inverness, as well as the Edinburgh rangers, joining us. Thank you to everyone who came, and congratulations to the winners; Charlie's Angels.

Posted by Gemma at 15:33 0 comments  

Labels: Hailesland Family Centre, Hermitage of Braid, Riverside Primary School

Last Tuesday we went to the Hermitage of Braid and spent the morning attacking cherry laurel. The idea was to allow people walking on the path next to the house to be able to see the house, and we cut down a lot of laurel. It all got piled up in a big heap to dry out, then we can have a nice big warm bonfire over the winter.

After lunch we started replacing the fence along the side of the path so that people walking along admiring the house wouldn't fall down the hill and into the burn. It turned out to be a bigger job than we thought because the supports holding the path up were rotten and we had to replace them too.

We got a short section of fence completed, but went back on Thursday to complete it.

On Wednesday the group went to Meadows Yard out by the sea. They finished off a new pond that was being made there by covering the liner at the edges, and cut back vegetation around the site.

As well as finishing the fence on Thursday we had another tackle at the Himalayan balsam along the Braidburn. It seems never ending but we won't let it beat us.

Posted by Gemma at 14:44 0 comments  

Labels: Hermitage of Braid, Meadows Yard

Last Tuesday we were at Craigmillar castle i led a group of four volunteers which consisted in Dave cat and Chris and myself Ronnie doing some path reconstruction in preparation for Scotland in bloom coming to view it.Kenny Gemma and Fatima led the other volunteers and done some vegetation cutback general ground maintenance and a litter pick we all had a good day the weather brightened up as the day progressed.
Wednesday at hermitage it rained so we all got soaked but we stuck to the task like the true btcv environmentalists and completed the bat and bird boxes.after dinner those who were willing to brave the elements ventured out into the wilderness to do some vegetation cutback.
Thursday it was still raining and the hardy btcv adventurers ventured out onto the unknown area known only as the dark side of Corstorphine where we took up arms against the mighty Himalayan triffids the battle raged on for several hours and there were many casualties but btcv were victorious our flanking force were on the other side of the hill installing a few seats.after the battle we returned to headquarters and prepared for our next mission more to come

Posted by ronnie at 13:54 0 comments  

Labels: Corstorphine Hill, Craigmillar, Hermitage of Braid

Hi there! This is Leticia, and because today is my last day with BTCV I'll write this post to tell you what we did last week.
On tuesday we went to the Hermitage of Braid. Our job there was cut down the big branches of the trees that are next to the road, because some of them were touching the top of the vehicles. We met there a lot of kids, in an school trip. They were having fun, as we did, and hopefully the weather wasn't to bad, just a soft rain during about half an hour, but that was nothing now that I know the Scottish weather, the one that you are so proud of.
On wednesday we worked with the rangers again, but this time we went to Cramond beach. It's there a beautiful sp. of rose, wich is not autochthonous, and because it's invasive the other plants can't grow up next to it. So we had to remove this rose from the beach. It seemed to be easy, but we didn't realise that it was a hard work, until we started to pull out the plants, and discovered the long roots that they had under the sand. Some of theme were longer than 3m, or 10 feet sorry, hahaha! The weather was windy but nice, and at lunch time we went to the island. Fraser tried to have his bath but it wasn't enough water for him. Next time!
On thursday we went back to Pentlands, to the car park were we had been the week before. This time we coulndn't start a fire, so we lift all the branches in packets for the next time. It was more luck for the drain that now is unblocked. It was Kenny's birthday, and he brougth a very nice muffins for all of us, uummmm!
Now is time for me to say good bye. I'm willing to go back home, because I miss my family and friends, but I know I'll miss you. It's been very nice to meet you and work with you. I think you are doing a great job and I hope we'll keep in touch.
Thanks for everything, a big hug and a lot of kisses for all of you!
Leticia.

Posted by Anonymous at 13:20 0 comments  

Labels: Cramond, Hermitage of Braid, Pentlands

It may sound glamorous, but lifting crowns has nothing to do with royalty. We spent the last week removing the lower branches on trees in various parts of Edinburgh.

Lots of trees were planted for the millennium, and they are now big enough to need a bit of attention. Unfortunately it's difficult to get between them, so we have been learning how to cut lower branches off trees with minimal impact on the trees, and helping to clear out the undergrowth between them.

On Tuesday we were up on the Pentlands, in a car park miles from anywhere. On the way we got caught behind a herd of cows being moved to a new field a few kilometres down the road. It really made a mess of our nice clean van... As the car park is so isolated people seem to like dumping things there, so we cut back the vegetation to make it visible from the road and hopefully discourage them. It rained quite heavily in the morning, so we had a bit of trouble starting a fire to burn the branches, but we persisted and had roaring flames by the early afternoon so we could sit and appreciate our hard work. We'll be going back there in a couple of weeks to finish trimming and unblock a drain.

On Wednesday we were out at the Hermitage of Braid doing a similar task to make a bridge clearer, and on Thursday we were at a school in Duddingston helping with their trees. It's amazing how much you can get cleared with so many people, and last week our minibus was overflowing. We had to ask several people to make their own ways to the sites, as the good weather seems to have brought more people out with us.

Sadly this is Leticia's last week with us as she is going back to Spain next week. It's been wonderful working with her, and I hope she enjoyed her time here. We will have a new Spanish VO, Fatima, starting with us in two weeks time.

Posted by Gemma at 11:06 0 comments  

Labels: Duddingston, Hermitage of Braid, Pentlands