It was a topsy-turvy morning weather-wise. It started with bright sunshine, then a bit of rain, then sunshine, then horizontal hail and a bitterly cold wind, then sunshine, and then snow…

It was crazy, and we soon decided that we would rather be at home with a mug of hot chocolate.

But ten weather-weary wildlife heroes turned out and tried to make the best of it. Ram, Ian, Mark, Steve, Dave, Marcus, David, Martin, Andrew, and Paul all got a good old soaking as we cracked on.

March is the month when everything is sort of in limbo. Stuff is happening, but the big green rush doesn’t start until April, so it’s an excellent time to get on with all the nagging jobs left over from the winter.

First was fixing a broken bench.

It’s just another place to rest up and enjoy the greenery. The aim was to stain it, but the weather said no…

We started staining the benches at the start of the week, aiming to finish today.

It would’ve been a disaster with the driving rain, so finishing them off will have to wait until the weekend.

Someone decided that they didn’t like our Friendship Triangle, so this is going to be redeployed a little further north.

We have until the end of the month to get that WOW FACTOR!!

Coffee and cake were a welcome distraction from the bitterly cold weather.

A tasty few minutes before we decided that it was way too cold to be standing around…

Probably a good time to mention – a lot of men say that they have difficulty making friends, and are almost resigned to living a lonely and unfulfilling life. I see it everywhere, and I tell other men to do something similar to what we are doing. All you need is a hobby, like-minded people to join in, and the ability to move friendships out of the group so that they can develop independently.

There really is no need for a man to feel lonely and marginalised. We all know where that leads to, and it’s not a good place.

Yes, it takes time and effort – there is a term that I use a lot when it comes to stuff like this. “You gotta do the work”… Sadly, a lot of men don’t do the work and then wonder why nothing changes.

Anyway, back to it.

We got the strimmers out and started to define the path width.

In April, we need to have a conversation around how deep we go with the strimming and how we create that metre-wide strip of wildflower-rich grassy margin.

It’s a tough one because the natural thing to do is to strim right up to the scrubby edge. I have thought about putting logs down to guide us as to where the path edge stops, but have resisted so far.

I cannot put into words how much angst this causes me…

I’m sure we will work it out.

Wildflowers Spotted

More of a garden escapee than a true wildflower, but it is everywhere.

Lastly, the obligatory litter pick.

That’s it for this week.

Until next time!

Paul