Another gloriously warm and sunny day saw an excellent turnout of volunteers hard at work in the Buried Lock site, the canal upstream and Coed Gwilym Park.

In the lock site, Gordon was on mixing duty. Here he takes time to admire Sue’s very sharp slasher. Aled and Chris harvested more clinker to add to the by-wash wall. Rhys, on holiday from school, joined in the fun.

John came fully prepared for some serious tree planting today. He brought three young oaks and two horse chestnuts, complete with recycled protective guards and stake supports, to add to the variety of plants already in the garden. The foxgloves he donated to the garden earlier this year have now seeded themselves and hundreds of tiny foxgloves shoots have now appeared. Several other trees have also been added to the garden including hawthorn, a pear, silver birch and buddleia

Paul, John, Gordon and Martin all combined to plant the trees with a lot of hard digging in the stony soil. We were able to use the silt and weed dredged from the canal some weeks ago by our hard-working volunteers to give all the plants the best start possible.

Andrew has completed his flight of steps up to the top of the new garden. Well done Andrew. And thanks for giving us a second way up to the top!

Annette continued to work on her catamaran, assisted by Alan T who had made a chain tensioner.

Upstream of the lock, Sue slashed vegetation while Andy, Colin and Mike dragged out another prodigious amount of weed. JOhn and Nick, making a welcome return, barrowed last week’s weed back to the garden {sorry chaps, no photo}.

Meanwhile in Coed Gwilym Park, Ronnie made a great job of weeding around the stone walls and metal statues – it’s a simple if laborious job, but the impact is immediate, leaving the area looking much smarter. Moira tackled the borders to good effect, and David G removed more overhanging branches along the towpath.

Alan T planned to use our green work boat, but it was so full of rain water he spent an hour instead baling and draining! Never mind, better luck for his planned work next time!

Clive removed the canopy, revealing the final stages of the beautiful mural adorning the side of the boat store. Sunshine is a welcome sight, giving Cerys a chance to complete the painting and apply the sealant.

Tea was taken in the Buried Lock site, with marvellous cakes baked by Chris.

For no particular reason other than them being jolly good eggs, here are photos of four of our stalwarts – Aled, Andrew, Mike and Sharon. Keep up the good work!

Sue spotted these caterpillars munching on ragwort. Kath identified them as being of the cinnabar moth. It’s hard to imagine them turning into the stunning adult {photo by the Scottish Wildlife Trust}.

Another day of very hard work in three locations. All made the more enjoyable by the lovely, sunny weather – and Chris’s cakes, of course!