Busy day today! The volunteers worked hard on a variety of tasks at the Buried Lock site in Clydach, made all the more enjoyable by the warm spring sun.

All of the tasks continued before and after tea so, in no particular order, we start with Sue, Ian and Andy finishing off last week’s job of cutting and clearing the brambles and brash at the top of the grassy bank.

Sharon found at least a dozen saplings that she and Moira had planted a while ago. She gave each one a nourishing mulch.

Gary and John dragged muck – mostly fallen leaves – from the boat basin. Peter passed full buckets up to Phil who carried them off to mulch the flower bed and the saplings.

Christina, Diane, Jan and Martin worked hard on the grassy bank. Their labours plus huge amounts of mulch plus a lovely selection of spring plants absolutely transformed what had been an arid slope of weed.

Martin planted plugs of wild cherry, hawthorn, hazel and blackthorn. Aled and Lance were great digging the holes for the plugs and the silt from the canal provided a wonderful feed for the young trees. Still more plugs to plant on the tow path on the right next week.

More activity in the by-wash. Lance and Aled mixed the mortar and Alan, Ian and James laid the stones.

Sue tackled the ivy that was threatening to invade the grassy bank.

Tea was taken in St Benedict’s car park. Christina’s bakes were superb.

And finally, a photo that caught almost everyone in action on one or other of the tasks described above and, of course, the now-customary video taken by Paul.

Wow! Another fantastic effort by our fantastic volunteers. The planning for today’s work had at one time been a little confused but Alan soon sorted out what to do and the session proved to be a marvellous success.