On a beautiful sunny morning, we fielded a team of twelve regular volunteers plus two new faces, Charles and Steve, from CGI in Bridgend.

As Gordon was sunning himself in Croatia, John G. took up the reins and split us into five groups:

(1) Pontardawe

Michelle, Paul and Elle busied themselves around the Herbert Street bridge. They cut back buddleja hanging into the water and retrieved rubbish, including an extraordinary number of pint glasses and bottles.

(2) The Hidden Lock

General tidying up here, after the demolishing of the walls. Overgrowth of grasses and moss was cut back, swept up and barrowed away.

(3) Weed removal

Down at the Vale Inco water outfall, Alan T., Alan W. and Steve pulled out Canadian pond weed and barrowed it back to our compost pile.

(4) Foxglove planting

John D., Martin and Bryan launched themselves to the off-bank in Coed Gwilym Park in order to plant foxgloves. Martin nearly toppled in!

(5) Litter picking

As usual John A. (he’s not really in jail – we just needed to keep him away from the cake) and Mike patrolled the towpath picking up litter.

Soon it was time to relax with tea, coffee and cake. Bob seems to be taking the relaxing bit to the extreme.

After tea, the weed removal was brought to a somewhat abrupt end. What do you do when the wheelbarrow runs out of fuel? Yes, you push it. It’s a pity that Anna and Cerys couldn’t be harnessed up.

All-in-all, a very busy day with lots being achieved. Special thanks are due to our new chums from CGI. As a footnote, Martin took this photo of bee hives located just south of the Hidden Lock. They are maintained by a Swansea man who has many hives throughout the area. He has the interests of bees at heart.