Wood you like to Ear what a Fun-gi Mike is?

Three dedicated goodgymers helped on Urban Green in St Lawrence park on this wet and miserable Saturday morning. Todays task involved cutting down hedges and crowning trees to create a clear line of sign into the park. This helps park users feel safe knowing that other people can see them and deters anti-social behaviour for the same reason, which allows more people to safely enjoy the park.

We started off cold and wet due to the damp weather but soon warmed up as we found that cutting down brushes, loping off lower branches of trees and stomping down the cut vegetation is hard, heat producing work.

Half way through we stopped for a well deserved tea and coffee break. Mikes interesting fact of the day: hippos kill more people than any other African mammal and can run at spends of up to 30mph. If you are wondering how we got there it was from plants we cut down last time having thorns which could stop dinosaurs via how much feathers and bodyfat dinosaurs might have had.

I found a wood ear fungus, also known a wood jellyfish due to their jelly like texture. I was literally about to remark how they looked a bit like ears when Mike told me the name. Another interesting gem of knowledge from Mike, in France pharmacists learn about mycology and people can bring mushrooms and fungi they have picked to the pharmacy to check if they are edible and not poisonous. This one is edible apparently,

Charlotte found an abandoned child's bike in the bushes and couldn't resist trying it for size before we put it in the back of the van. Urban Green donate any bikes dumped in their parks to Recyke Y'Bike, another charity we regularly help. They refurbish the bikes and sell them at affordable prices or give them for free to people in need.

We finished off with Dan cutting some ivy before it became too heavy on the bigger trees and me and Charlotte cutting some over hanging trees which was very satisfying when we managed to cut down big branches and they fell with a thud. It was a very satisfying task as you can see right into the park now and the before and after pictures show how much better the line of sight is now you can see the boundary fence.

If you want to come help out in the parks we have a session with Urban Green tomorrow at Hodgkin Park or look out for more sessions in three weeks time. We are also litter picking in Ouseburn on Monday if you want to get involved.