The nice weather led to a high turnout in volunteers. The volunteers undertook duties around the Small Lyme walk. Some volunteers continued work on the small Lyme Walk where they were weeding and spreading wood chip. Some volunteers worked on removing leaves from paths. Some volunteers had brought in plants to plant into the immediate area outside the meeting room. Inside the meeting room the trustee meeting was being held. This was a meeting to explain any progress with current objectives of the charity. I and five others attended the meeting which we used as a good opportunity to update one another on the Dragon trail, the funding for the trail, progress with applying for grants, progress with Monks Well, and any other matters of importance.

The friends and I decided to make some changes to our little woodland. Originally we had a stick border. We used bundles of sticks to frame the borders of the paths throughout the woodland. Over the last two weeks we had decided to use thicker pieces of timber with a range of diameter from 75mm to 150mm. The benefit of these larger logs are that they are less likely to move out into the pathway and cause injury. They also take a lot longer time to break down and rot. In doing so they will provide homes for detritivores, bugs, beetles, and insects. I delivered eight logs that volunteers and I had processed on behalf of the East Lancashire Wildlife Trust volunteer session yesterday. I dug out earth to seat the logs on the edge of the path and also to lower the chances of a log rolling out into where people walk.

East Lancashire wildlife trust have collaborated with Burnley borough council to deliver sessions that would teach people in the basic skills of arboriculture, horticulture, ecology, and gardening. Today we taught the volunteers on how to safely coppice trees. First I went over an induction with the volunteers on the safe usage of the saws we had provided and the techniques we would be using. I then showed volunteers on safe coppicing methods to minimise the risk of injury to themselves and the public. We then went over methods on how to safely delimb a tree and section the trunk. After showing them a demonstration I allowed the volunteers to work on trees themselves with supervision. We selected trees that were dead or may become a danger to the general public. We took 6 foot trunk sections back to the work van to store so that I could use them with the Friends of Clifton Farm volunteer session the following day. Each volunteer worked on a tree and gained useful knowledge in safe tree processing practices. The volunteers greatly enjoyed the session and felt more confident in performing tree work on their own.

Neil and I met at 9am to continue out work in Thompson Park. Our winter will be mainly based completing the path edging around the entire park. Today was no different. We began by cutting the edges of the grass lawns with a half moon. Neil used a turfing iron to lift and separate the cut sections from the grass. We brushed along the edges as we went. In three hours Neil and I managed to complete another section. This leaves just one short section to complete before we have successfully edged all the paths that surround the Italian Garden. Then to move onto the rest of the park!

The weather has been warm and mild for this last week in the middle of September. As a result less volunteers than our usual cohort have been turning up. They are off basking in the sun elsewhere. Good for them.

Our volunteers have been undertaking weeding and chipping of the small Lyme Walk. They work in pairs or small groups. They concentrate their efforts on one area and then continue their work the following week. So far, the small Lyme walk has been quite well weeded. The shrubs and bushes have been pruned back to allow for further weeding. We are now beginning to lay woodchip to prevent a swath of weeds in the spring time.

The volunteers of Friends of Thompson Park have undertaken path edging. This is where a half moon is used to cut the grass edge and soil. This is so that it can create a defined look to the paths through the use of cleaner lines. The cut grass and soil is then removed with a turfing iron. This separates the soil from the path and allows you to life the strip for removal. We then run a brush along the path edges to remove any dirt or grit that is left over from the process. Whilst interesting, and rewarding once a section is complete, it is difficult laborious work. With miles ahead to go, this project will take all winter to complete.

This week marks the second week in which the volunteer group has supported their new leaders Karen, Julie, and Lynn. This change in leadership marks the end of our industrious former leader Maureen as she now takes a step back to enjoy the fruits of her labour’s with none of the stress. Or at least I should say, reduced stress. The volunteers have been working on the Small Lyme Walk this week and beginning to remove creeping buttercups and enchanters nightshade. Andrew has been working on creating wooden dragons and putting them up around Thanet Lee Wood. Whilst Judith has been working on the dragon trail and prep for Saturday’s Acorns Groups.

Trees for Burnley joined me for a Tree seed collection session. A very wet and wild day led to a tough walk around discovering different trees. We walked for an hour picking seeds and berries from different trees to process. We gathered berries from Rowan trees, seeds from a field Maple tree, acorns from a Turkey Oak and a red oak. We also discovered a cockspur Hawthorn. We took the tough berries from the Hawthorn to process later. After two hours walking around Bank Hall we were all very drenched but had collected a good range of seeds to propagate. No one stayed for a hot drink and biscuits, we were all so miserably wet we decided to part ways and dry off.

A group of orienteers’ had been in contact with the friends of Ightenhill. They had programmed a large orienteering event in Salford on the Sunday the 8th of September and had wanted to provide their runners a warm up orienteering session. The orienteers’ participants were mainly from the North-West of England but there were members from the orienteering organisation that had travelled from as far as Italy to take part! The friends of Ightenhill obliged and decided to set up a base at the Ightenhill gardeners compound. We had stalls which highlighted the work the Burnley Civic Trust undertake, that sold honey and promoted beekeeping, served hot sandwiches, and served hot drinks. David and I manned the beverage stall selling teas, coffees, and cold drinks to the participants. The weather just held off for the event. The orienteering organisers said they received great feedback and that they were encouraged to put on more events in the future. The orienteers’ themselves said it was the best event they had been too and hoped to come back in the future.

The friends have elected Julie, Karen, and Lynn to be co-chairs of the friends group. They will now be scheduling work for the volunteers to complete. The new co-chairs had elected that we weed the small Lyme Walk. This task entailed removing the creeping buttercup and enchanters nightshade. Other volunteers worked in the top area and bottom area of the small Lyme Walk removing weeds and laying woodchip. The woodchip suppresses the weeds from coming up in the following months and also insulates the ground over winter.

Following a tremendous harvest of vegetables the friends have been spending morning sessions selling veg to the public. This raises money for the friends group whilst also providing customers with locally and organically grown vegetables. Other friends were undertaking bench repair, whilst others worked on the flower beds as you enter the compound. I assisted in preparations for the orienteering event on Saturday.

Neil, Gary, and I were joined by Nixie and Dammy today. We were gracious of their help as we had undertaken the start of path edging in Thompson Park. This is where you use a half moon gardening tool to cut the edge of grass and the underlying soil to create a firm edge. It creates a cleaner, more defined path. After 10 minutes getting to grip with the tools we began to fall into a rhythm. Where Gary would cut the path edge and I would scoop the soil and grass into the wheel barrow and deposit it in the green waste areas. Neil assisted Nixie and Dammy. They set out on their own route. We managed to complete one section of path edging. With many many more miles to go this project will take us all winter!

Myself and a volunteer have taken it upon ourselves to work on Clints Cafe, which is home in Memorial park. This is park of the work schedule for the Friends of Memorial Park. We started through shaping Acer tree in the corner, and then trimming back some the Geranium Blues that overran the flower beds. We also cut back some of the grasses and removed the self seeded trees and weeds. In two hours we managed to complete half of the plant beds that make up Clints Cafe.

Calico had been in touch with me and wanted to organise a corporate volunteering event. This is where employees from a company or organisation request the help of the employees to volunteer with a group. This helps promote sustainability and selfless work within the community that helps benefit all. It also assists me in tasks I would like completed to better the parks and increase awareness of all that is involved in maintaining parks. Calico managed to provide roughly 17 volunteers. I split the group in two and had one half undertake litter picking between Thompson park and Queens Park. The other half worked with me weeding the rose beds. After lunch the two halves of the group switched activities and I had a new batch work with me weeding the rose beds whilst the other half embarked upon litter picking. Both groups performed well. They managed to collect ten full bags of rubbish that would otherwise be littering the streets and parks. I managed to weed six rose Beds. A lot of work can be accomplished in a small amount of time when you have many helping hands. Thank you Calico!

Helen and I have been continuing work in the Clifton Farm Woodland. Over the last month we had cut back the overgrown vegetation over the path. Trimmed back encroaching branches from neighboring trees that restrict peoples ability to walk down the path. We also wanted to form a boundary to the path. we established the path edge by using logs and sticks to form a raised boundary. The boundary helps suppress weed growth and the definition of the path edge allows pedestrians to walk up to outer limit further protecting the path from weed growth through footpath erosion.

The CAF funded Green Activity Coordinator is working in collaboration with Joel from East Lancashire Wildlife Trust. The aim is to deliver sessions that provide a range of work within the green spaces sector. This includes work such as park maintenance, arborist based activities, ecology, tree planting and many more.
Today we embarked upon a task to complete a little fence painting on behalf of the Burnley Borough Council. Within five hours, Joel and I, and two volunteers manage to wire brush a section of fence and paint it green.

Today marked the final day of the enrichment program with Stoneyholme School.
Seven families and 12 children had enrolled on the Gardening Club enrichment. The gardening Club was a session for children and parents to learn how to sew vegetable seeds, plant herbs, water, and care for their plants. In this session we gathered soil in a wheel barrow, and repotted 14 tomato and 7 coriander plants. First we added soil to the larger pots, then we removed the pot of a plant and added it to the new pot with fresh soil. The children topped up the soil in the new pot. Finally we added water to make sure that the plants would be happy and nourished in their new home with fresh soil. The children were allowed to take these plants away with them to raise over the summer and benefit from the vegetables the produce. Finally, they were taught how often to water them and when to repot them, and when the tomato’s were ready to harvest.

The friends of Ightenhill were undertaking some memorial tree maintenance today.
I assisted by removing a 2×2 foot square of grass top from around the tree, Then dug down a few inches to remove a small amount of the top soil. Whilst removing some of the top soil I levelled off the areas, removed the stakes that had held the tree in place for many years, and also edged off the area with a half moon. I did this for four of their memorial trees. They returned quite happy with the work I had completed for them. I then met with playground team and parks officer to discuss possibilities for play equipment repair. The volunteers continued work on the Memorial trees, they laid mesh netting over the exposed soil area to prevent weeds from growing through. They then laid woodchip above the netting within the square boundaries which hid the netting whilst adding a lovely contrast to the grass.

After a long hiatus, the band was back together; Neil had finished invigilating, and Nixie joined us after a month off volunteering to tackle the Italian Gardens. The Italian Gardens had not been worked on since Neil and I had worked on them back in February. Nixie, Neil and I got stuck in weeding the Italian Garden beds. we pulled out Willowherb and Hairy Willowherb managing to tackle a vast amount of it across five beds in two short hours. In total we removed 5 wheel barrows worth!

Saturday marked the first of the wildflower walks as part of the array of themed walks on offer organised by Burnley Leisure and Culture and Newground Together’s Great Outdoors Team. Three volunteers and I started from Burnley Youth Theatre and began our walk down Netherwood Road and around the back of Rowley Lake. We stopped often so that I could identify the different wildflowers, trees, grasses, and bushes along the way. We saw a broad variety of wild flowers including, Yellow Rattle, Common Birdsfoot trefoil, bush vetch, Spear Thistle, and common knapweed; grasses like Yorkshire Fog, Crested Dogs Tail, Cocksfoot Grass, and False-Oat grass. The volunteers enjoyed the wildflower walk and we shared ideas along the way all of us coming away from the session having benefitted.   

Thursday marked the first session of Quarry Club. An ex-quarry now turned nature reserve thanks to the help of Trees for Burnley who, in the early 90’s, planted the site with trees. I had scheduled work for a month at this site including cutting back weeds either side of the path, removing dead wood, and removing low hanging branches. Five residents of the area came to volunteer and as a result we managed much of the scheduled work for the month in a single session! Between us all we managed to clear the paths of overgrown weeds, cut back the roots, cut the low hanging branches down. We also managed to cut back some of the piles of dead wood that had been left, and work on some of the windfallen trees that have come down in recent storms.  

Stoneyholme school asked that I deliver parent and child gardening club sessions. The aim of the sessions was to encourage children’s interest in gardening and raising vegetables. Through having parents attend the sessions with their children, this allowed a bonding between children and parents through these sessions with a shared learning experience. This week we were planting bell peppers seeds. We planted them in small pots for the children and parents to take away with them at the end of the session.  

Wednesday the 26^th marked the first session of friends of Clifton Wood.
Helen and I started by widening the paths through the small woodland. Over the years they had become completely overgrown and, in some areas, made it impossible for anyone to walk through. Helen and I first removed overreaching branches that encroached into the pathway. Then, we cut back weeds, nettles and brambles. We increased the width of the path so that anyone were able to walk through it safely without being stung or scratched.
Brendon, a new volunteer, joined us and helped us with these activities, to finish up the session both Helen and Brendon litter picked the site.

Each year children from across Lancashire are invited to the SPAR School Games. The School Games is a unique opportunity to motivate and inspire millions of young people across the country to take part in more fun activity that helps young people be active and move more.
This year the offer was a fabulous Party in the Park event, which combined the traditional sport activities and opportunities, with an array of different opportunities for the children to move more outdoors. The event finished with a colour run for all participants.

With the promotion of all things outdoors. This year marked the first year it was held in Burnley, across Thompsons park and Queens Park. Each school had individual scheduled sports sessions that their students were competing in and between these sessions were opportunities for the schools to enrol and try out activities like paddle boarding, yoga, meditation, and park and play.
I ran the park and play sessions where classes would enrol with us to undertake some horticultural activities.

The activities I offered were tree planting, flower arranging, and wildflower ID’ing. Three separate schools enrolled in the activities across the day. I showed them how to safely plant trees. How to identify wildflowers, and how to arrange flowers in pots. All the kids greatly enjoyed the sessions, and I feel they got a lot from it, with one child having enjoyed the session so much she ran back to hug both me and Alexis to say thank you.  

Thursday the 20^th marked the first day of assisting the Grot Grabbers of Ightenhill. We set off from Ightenhill Compound, walking down towards the rec, onwards to Pendle Way. Then, we walked up to Padiham Road and litter picked the street down to Lakeland Way, eventually circling back to Ightenhill Compound. Between the four of us, we managed to collect roughly 4 bags of rubbish, with an estimated total of 20kg’s! 

Friends of Ightenhill Park. 

I joined Kath and Irelene in the vegatable garden for the first time. We prepared soil for vegetables, pruning dead leaves, and rotating vegetables around the polytunnel. I then went to help Ian and David move soil that was left over from filling the planters. We moved soil from the ton bags to a designated soil bay within the compound. We also helped Kath and Irelene by taking soil to the potato plot to help mound up the potato’s around the stems.  As potato’s grow, they need soil to be mound up around the plant, to encourage more spud growth!

I was joined by Claire and Jason who assisted me with weeding a rose bed. This rose bed was overrun with weeds, trees, and dandelions. It took the three of us two hours to weed most of the bed. Leaving a small section for the following week. 

Val, Pete and I decided to continue barking out paths within Scott Park. I showed Val where and how I would like the bark to be placed whilst Pete and I regularly collected bark via the wheelbarrow and ferried it up to her. We had the path complete by roughly 11:15. The friend’s group had put on a fun day in the park the previous day. The volunteers were quite tired as this was an all-day affair. After barking the path in the park the following day, I let the volunteers go as I was quite sure that they were still very tired from the previous day.  

Today marked the day of working on the circular bed outside the front of Towneley Hall by the pond and Cafe. It was overrun with self-seeded trees, brambles, and undesirable plants. They had to go. Working on the bed was Helen, Hazel, Karen, David, Jason, Mirabela, and myself. You often find when working on a circular bed that one completes work in segments, and that you end where you started.  

The students of Stoneyholme Primary school were excited to get their hands dirty! Pots were handed out to each student and they took it upon themselves to fill their pots with soil and fresh compost. They then created holes to plant carrot seeds in. Each child was handed a handful of seeds which were inserted into each little hole in their soil. They then covered each hole up and watered the soil. The students were interested in the technique involved and every student got their hands dirty through grabbing handfuls of soil! We even had time to fill cups with soil and compost and add sprigs of rosemary to each one. Each child took home a pot of carrots and rosemary. Over the coming months the plants will grow large through the care of the children with their newly acquired skills.