Bit of a wet day today – the drizzle was interspersed with heavy showers – but a somewhat reduced cohort of volunteers busied themselves in and around Coed Gwilym Park.

We are very grateful to Alan and Janet Williams who generously donated a huge bag of Tête-à-tête daffodil bulbs from their garden for our use. Martin divided them all into three bags, one for use in the Hebron Road garden and two bags for the award-winning gardens by the Canoe Store. Moira and Ronnie were able to find room for many of the bulbs in the park and used the leaves and soil from the clearance work on the towpath to create an extension to the existing beds. A great example of ‘reduce, recycle and reuse’. It will take time for all the material to settle down but we will have even colourful displays next spring. Martin planted his bag of bulbs in Hebron Road. He took a picture of the bed after planting which is similar to the one he took last week only with more dug over soil. You will just have to imagine hundreds of little white bulbs 4 cms down easing themselves into their new home.

Duncan and a passing boffin endeavoured to install and activate a new alarm. A long and tricky job continuing from last week.

Mike and Alan positioned a couple of bird boxes that had been languishing far too long in store.

Phil, Lance, Rowan and new boy Tom cleared the path edges from the park down to the unBuried Lock. John and Gareth joined them to drag branches from the cut and trundle leaf litter up to the gardens. Gareth’s efforts were hampered by having only one properly functioning wheel on his wheelbarrow.

Tea was taken with lovely cakes baked by Chris and anxiously dispensed by John. The eagle-eyed amongst you will note two additions to the dog troupe.

After tea, we walked up to Trebanos to check on where the bank needs to be repaired. We took the chance to retrieve an enormous trolley and wheel it back to the park, after Alan had got it moving with a couple of firm yet accurately positioned whacks.

A wet day and a reduced compliment of volunteers but we still had fun (?) and got a lot done.