Pulled my brack(en)

After running 5mins late, I noticed the familiar shade of red t-shirts shining through the trees as I approached the meeting point in the car park, with the Goodgym crew and heath warden kindly waiting for me! With about 5 seconds to catch a breath, I said I was ready and off we went for a brisk walk this time (instead of a run) through the heath, with some quite rocky and steep inclines before we arrived at the destination. There was enough time for a brief talk about heathers and the importance of removing bracken, It was interesting to know that heather can live for 70 years from seed.

We were one person down as Melanie could not make it but we split into two groups, with Sophie and Cheska pulling bracken (mainly because they had gloves) whilst Jonathan and David were given new root pulling gadgets from Will the heath warden, although not before they were disinfected for safety reasons.

Whilst removing some plants, Will mentioned how the heath work had been going for about 15 years and how important the work done by volunteers was, with purple heather thriving near us evidence of how removing bracken can help certain plants grow.

With some light rain arriving and the sky getting a lot darker, it was suddenly time to wrap things up. We briskly walked back (after a vote against running) to the car park with Will leading. He thanked us again for our help and off we went in our different directions home.