The bank repairs at the Swan Food Project are now a race against the weather, Now autumn is around the corner there's a chance that the floods are too. So we were back for a second week to gather more silt for the project to use. All of last week's material had been used up with great effect (I forgot to get a photo of it unfortunately) with woven willow dead hedges used to hold in the compacted silt. This time we had three of us doing the shovelling and shifting with (Bertie) claiming this was exactly his kind of task. Between us we filled a record 21 bags which pushed the limits of the suspension on Marilyn's trusty Peugeot! It was all then stored safely at the Swan Food Project HQ to be used by their volunteers over the next few weeks. The swans soon came swimming over when we produced the food bag at the end of the task and we left with lots of happy customers, not least of which was Marilyn. We'll be back again in the spring when we can be sure that river will be staying within it's banks.

For some reason most people had to wash their hair tonight so couldn't make it to the task so it was just Kirsty and I. We were back at the strange set of steps down to the Severn that's stuffed full of silt. Marilyn from the Swan Food Project had invited us back to fill sacks with the unwanted silt so that it can be used to repair the bank further downstream.

We'd soon filled 11 sacks with silt but then had to shift them to the car which was heavy going! The final part of the task was to unload down at the Swan Food Project HQ. Tomorrow it will all get used by Worcester Environmental Group for the bank repairs. A great collaboration between three organisations.

Marilyn told us a bit more about the swans before handing over a bag of pellets for us to feed them. I was soon surrounded by the huge white birds, all keen to get as much of the food as possible!

Hopefully we can get in another visit before the winter floods return and on an evening that isn't hair washing night!

On the hottest day ever recorded in May the thought of a task by the river sounded appealing. Perhaps we could carry out a swimming litter pick? Unfortunately the task was very much land based but slightly unusual. Marilyn from the Swan Food Project had been in touch to ask if we could help collect silt from some steps down by the river off Hylton Road so that they could then take it down to the Swan Sanctuary to help rebuild the river bank. A classic case of removing something that wasn't wanted in one place and making use of it where it was very much needed. Four intrepid GoodGymers turned up for the task and. after a short run from the Hive met Marilyn and began digging. In just 20 minutes we'd filled 14 sacks with over a quarter of a ton of silt! We loaded up Marilyn's car to the limit of it's suspension and then had a nice walk down to the Swan Sanctuary. Nice apart from the last few sacks and all the tools weighing us down! All good strength training though folks!
Once we'd unloaded at the other end Marilyn gave us an overview of the Swan Food Project while we watched the beautiful swans with the Cathedral bathed in evening sunlight behind. She told us that we'd saved at least 2 hours of work for the usual volunteer team who could now concentrate on using the material to repair the bank, A swan-tastic evening's work!