The wood lice invasion, the beetles, ohh the beautiful green beetles, the bee with the long beak, the sunshine! Blimey what a mission it was, with wonderful people. But this is just the introduction and we are getting ahead of ourselves. As all the best stories begin there is a journey. One by foot, one by bus and foot (pesky trains!!) and one who had already run 8 miles after doing the morning task! (Well done Sal!). Each a story that would merit a report of their own but our mission today was to finish off the weeding started on previous visits so that wildflowers could be planted.

Some ground had been cleared in recent weeks but there was still more than enough unwanted weedy coverage to keep the trio busy. Ms M supplied some fine tools, gloves, and even a shiny new kneeling pad in case things got muddy. With plenty to do, they set to work digging, forking (?), lopping (??) and generally grabbing at the roots of anything living in the overgrown flower beds.

They quickly discovered that the area was home to more woodlouse than you can shake a trowel at, including a huge specimen who may have actually been some kind of King of The Woodlouse Army.

Trying their best not to kill too many of the woodlouse folk, they shook uprooted weeds to remove soil before binning them, and in no time at all Bin Bag No.1 was full...

We paused briefly to inspect the beautiful iridescent beetles gathering on the weeds. After a cup of tea kindly provided by Ms M, and a final bit of weeding, we headed off home into the early evening sun.

(A Sal Fi Rich production)