Wednesdays are work party days up at Durlston. There's normally a group of 5-20+ of us (a few regulars, I'm a 'summer migrant'), and there's always a range of different things to do. Each week is normally different- although in the dry July-August months, there's a lot of ragwort picking in the meadows to do so the farmer can cut the grass. I've helped in the shop before though, gone for litter picking walks, dry-stone walling and cementing the top stones into place (no cement fingerprints allowed though!), and installing art pieces into the Castle's garden.
This week, we were trimming back the trees and shrubs from the side of the road up to the car park. As it's the first part of the park you see, it's nice to have it all neat and tidy for a good first impression. The trees have grown pretty massive over the couple of years since it got cut last, so there was some serious chopping to do!
Photo from TripAdvisor
Sadly, I forgot my camera, so this is the best photo you're going to get for now. I might take a better one next week, if I remember!
I quite like using loppers, but when you're reaching up high, you have to be careful not to lop off a branch right onto your head! I ended up working with one of the other guys who was a bit stronger at cutting the big trunks and things, with me dragging out all the extra onto the verge to get picked up in the cart (it's called a mule). You can really open out an overgrown area by taking out some branches (dead ones, even), clearing away brambles and letting some light in.
We're not done the whole way down the road yet, so there'll be more next week, but it's looking much better than it was.
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