Trees for Life week at Plodda Lodge and Glen Affric, 15th – 22nd Oct

I’ve just finished Focalising the last ever TFL week at Plodda Lodge.  Over the last two years Plodda has become my favourite TFL accommodation.  For me it has a very intimate feel with a communal eating area and a single bunk room.  It’s funny, I can remember avoiding it during my early volunteer weeks, because I was put off by the idea of a single bunk room, but due to some last minute changes to the work week schedule in early 2009 I was asked to go there for my first week as a Focaliser.  I was joined on the week by some good friends, from TFL and some I knew outside of the organisation, and I can remember lying in the bunk room one night, listening to everyone breathing/shuffling/talking in their sleep (a couple of them seemingly talking nonsense to each other!), and thinking that I felt an incredible feeling of well-being in amongst them.

During this week we carried out non-native tree weeding on three of the days, removed a few hundred metres of fencing on a wet day at Kerrow wood, and spent a day in the nursery.  One of the weeding sites was alongside Loch Affric, which is in a fantastic, rugged setting.  On our last day there we took the opportunity to visit the Athnamulloch bothy, a place that TFL have used for work weeks in the past.

Special thanks to Mick, my co-focaliser, and to Gordon and Julie for their support during the week.  In some ways this was the most interesting week I’ve spent with TFL, and I’m grateful that I was able to share it with such a considerate group of people.

I look forward to catching up with the trees from the nursery in a couple of weeks at Dundreggan.  Here are some photos from the week.  Not many nature ones I’m afraid, as it’s pretty hard to tell if I’m taking a decent picture without an lcd screen or viewfinder on my disabled camera.  The ones of Plodda falls and from the hills up near Loch an Eang are taken on our day off.