Did I say that my favourite magazine was the Ecologist (now only available online apparently)?  Fame, and surely fortune some time soon, has finally come my way.  Check out the following article:

Trees For Life in The Ecologist

Thanks must go out to Eifion, who joined us (on the 24th Oct, Plodda week) for Monday and Tuesday, after the group had already been together since Saturday.  Not an easy thing to do, and he was a great sport.  He even managed to win at Cheat, if I remember correctly.  Hopefully he’ll be back for a full week sometime.

(“Transformative”?  Nice one…)

So I’ve just finished the last work week of the season.  It was great.  My co-focaliser was the TFL legend, Gordon McRuvie, and the group was a great mix of young and experience, local, national and international.  Norman had managed to squeeze himself onto the week following our encounter at Dundreggan, and I was glad to spend some time with Bill, given his thoughts for the future.

We spent a couple of days planting 2000 or so trees in the field by the river Moriston.  The field had already been planted up during previous weeks and it was a matter of filling in the gaps.  The first couple of mornings were crispy white, just as Scottish winter mornings should be.

The rest of our work was spent improving the plantation in the West of the estate for Black Grouse use.

After we dropped the group off in Inverness, myself and Gordon drove back to Findhorn.  No change-over today.  The last week of the season.  It was probably more to do with how much I’d enjoyed the week just gone, as opposed to knowing that I was due a break from work weeks for a while, that made me feel a bit reluctant to say goodbye to Gordon when we dropped off the van.  As we had done with all the volunteers, as we left them at the train station, we hugged good bye.  Then we shouted “Shabbbroch!” to each other a couple of times, whilst passionately beating our chests with our right hand, as I drove my van out of the car park, with the intention of finding myself a quiet spot to contemplate the finer points of the week…

Anyway, check out these photos.  There’ll be a link to more photos, when I have a better internet connection.

Ok, all photos are now uploaded. To view them click this link.

It’s almost time for the last work week of the Autumn, and 2009.  Craig, the work week/volunteer co-ordinator, leaves at the end of the month, so this is the last time I’ll sit with my co-Focaliser, and listen to the great man’s instructions for the week.

Gordon arrives early afternoon and we get the food order sorted.  Then we sit down with Craig – unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of the occasion – who gives us the low down on roughly how many trees we’ll have to plant during the forthcoming week at Dundreggan, where we might be taking out non-native weeds, etc

Afterwards we all go and get food at the Findhorn CC, with Ruth (Craig’s wife) and the kids.  Craig brings efficiency, professionalism and good humour to the co-ordinator role, and I’ll miss him doing the job.  But there are potential benefits to him moving on, I may finally get to co-lead a work week with him (after two aborted attempts) – we have one planned for the spring.

I had a feeling this was going to be a good week when myself and Sasha met the group in the station.  I’d had a call from John at the changeover saying he was just passing Tebay – typically tardy, but hey, Frodsham to Cannich in one day is a bit of a mission.

John eventually turned up at gone 7, by which time the group had already made food and seemed to be getting on rather well.  The good food and good laughs continued all week, with games almost every night, lots of hard work, a freelance reporter (Eifion – apparently he’s sold a piece to the Ecologist and the Shooting Times so look out for them) and a swift drink in the Tomich Hotel on Friday.

And, on our day off (Wednesday) we all went on a walk together.  It started with a river crossing, shoes and socks off and rolled up trousers – we waded over in threes in an attempt not to lose anybody – and included great views of Glen Affric, dinner by Loch An Ang (I’ll have to check the spelling later), another river crossing, a walk through a field with grass as high as our heads and a look at the Guisachan ruin.

More pictures will follow when I have decent internet access…

Ok, all photos are now uploaded. To view them click this link.