BTCV Edinburgh Diary

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 spent the whole week at newhaven church. We painted the hand rails, cemented posts, constructed joists for the the ramp, laid the first section of decking, broke lots of stones, Nicky had lots of frustration trying to break one very tough rock whitch eventualy turned into a very nice looking bear, put up fenceing on the main part of the decking whitch we attached rope to for climbing plants.
So all in all a very productive week and things are shapeing up really nicely
p.s thanks to chris and the cafe for the lovely cakes.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 11:23 0 comments  

Labels: Newhaven Church

Last week was unfortunately Anna's last week as a VO with us before she heads off to Iceland for 4 months to move rocks around.

Anna has been a great VO and I would like to thank her for her enthusiasm and commitment to the role, not even letting a broken finger suffered in the line of duty slow her down. I know she will be missed greatly as will her eclectic CDs, delicious cakes and games.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 11:15 0 comments  

Labels: Announcements

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

We were back at Newhaven Church on Tueday and Thursday this week. The holes for the posts were dug on Tuesday, and the big frame finished off. On Thursday we started positioning the posts. There was a lot of head-scratching and tweaking, checking and double-checking before we started adding the cement! We also got the smaller frame built and positioned.

On Wednesday we were at Broughton Primary School, building a couple of classic BTCV, shabby-chic raised beds for the kids to grow things in. We also helped out with weeding some of the other planters in the playground. The kids were very interested in what we were up to, and we hope they get a lot of enjoyment out of them.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 21:11 0 comments  

Labels: Broughton Primary, Newhaven Church

We carried on at Newhaven Church on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We didn't have too many more obstacles, only a couple more giant rocks to get past. The ground is now level to within nanometres (until the plan changes again...), so we've started to dig the post holes and build some of the frames.

On Thursday we were at Portobello Community Orchard. We were clearing the ground along the south side of the orchard, ready for the community group to plant some espaliers. A couple of determined sorts had a go at removing some of the smaller tree stumps around the orchard, with varying degrees of success.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 21:13 0 comments  

Labels: Newhaven Church, Portobello Community Orchard

The group started quite a big project at Newhaven Church this week. We are putting in some decking and a ramp for use by the Church cafe (we can strongly recommend their coffee cake). So on Tuesday we removed the turf and started digging. It all went pretty well until the end of the day when Kate found an old gas pipe...

So on Wednesday we were back at the church and a man from the gas board was going to come to verify that the pipe was indeed dead. However during the tool talk we got a slight whiff of gas; it was probably from the gasworks over the back wall but we decided it best to leave. So after a quick changeover of tools, lunchtime saw us at Corstorphine Hill playing a few games of Tunnel-Tig to keep warm in the mist. We then spent the afternoon removing some old rickety fencing and clearing a lot of litter.

The pipe turned out to be completely dead, no one was ever in any danger, so we were back at the church to continue excavations on Thursday. There was some slight confusion over levels and a lot of huge rocks had to be shifted, but we made good progress.

Posted by BTCV Edinburgh at 09:19 0 comments  

Labels: Newhaven Church