Volunteering at The Lancashire Wildlife Trust

A good day to you all and welcome to the regular update of Alex Ashworth's voluntary pursuits he's endeavouring to do throughout the community of Preston.

Today marked the penultimate time I would be volunteering with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and lead Chris Taylor's group 'Bees, Butterflies and Bikes'. The reason for it's closure is due to funding and June 22nd will be my last time with the group but it's been an excellent seven months and I've learnt so much since back in November at the end of last year ( 2015)

It was just Chris and I today but, like always we played a diligent role at the Guild Wheel Cycle Path. As Himalyan Balsam keeps reoccurring every year it was vital today that we got a considerable amount of it taken out. It's a deadly weed and it doesn't do anything good for the environment.

Chris and I were armed though with a mighty scythe like tool that enabled getting rid of the balsam in a blitz like fashion. We both agreed how satisfying the noise is when you stand on them and how great it feels to eliminate them from view.

For CV purposes I wanted a photograph of Chris and I on site. Fortunately a walker was passing though and I asked Chris if we could ask her to take a photo of us. We both looked great after it was taken, one for the album indeed.

After a period of time in one section balsam bashing Chris thought it would be good to have a brief walk to inspect some of the work we had done over the past few months then conclude with a final section of balsam busting.

Once that was completed we had a good review of all the work we done since the winter. It was brilliant to see the progress of the plants we had planted

, for some reason however we could not find a single flag iris. Despite our pursuit of the missing flag iris Chris noticed how well the holly trees had come on and also the campanion.

The two hours was nearly complete it just needed Chris to drop me off back at my car and a penultimate goodbye on what has been a truly fantastic and educational experience. Thanks Chris. See you on June 22nd for the last session.

This is Alex Ashworth signing off for yet another productive and life enriching time with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust.