We all met up at the car park at 10.30 and we were immediately greeted by a substantial fly tip at the entrance to the lane down to Cwrt Henllys. Part of it was still smouldering. It consisted of household goods including lamps, a chair and cupboards which had been set fire to. There were many photographs and a record of a child’s progress through school – even including her birth record from hospital – so we have a few names which the authorities will be able to follow to find the culprits.

Ray came along with the probation boys and put everything into their wagon – except for the information which could identify the culprits which TE
took away to hand over to the council. The probation boys continued to do a litter pick around the car park which was in a pretty bad state too at the start of the day.

A very welcome new helper showed up, named Lesley, and she set off with pickup stick and bags in hand to do a litterpick around the wider area.

AB was the first to arrive and throughout the day he helped everybody with their various tasks. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying he is one of our oldest members but he is one of the keenest members to lend a hand at all of our events – many thanks AB, we could do with more like you.

MW arrived with wheelbarrow and tools and went up to the stock gate to do some repair work to the pathway there.

TE set about strimming the rushes and ferns from around the cairn with a view to making this area more welcoming for use by schools or other groups to use as an “outdoor classroom”.

RS clambered into the double fence and started to work his way up the hill cutting down the new ferns which are starting to surround the newly planted trees and threatening to starve them of light.

HV arrived and drove up to the stock gate to inspect the damage made by the cattle and make plans of what can be done to alleviate the problem. He also inspected the vandalism to the kissing gate at “Alamo 1”.

DP inspected the culvert which was blocked by silt in last week’s storms causing it to overflow and flood into the MP tree area. TE and MW had effected repairs at the time. DP managed to get a rod through the pipe but it will need a good flushing through with water the next time we get some serious rain. He also dug out most of the silt that had built up in the sump.

A major task of the day fell to SE, MT and DP, who painted the gate to the ORPA in a lovely shade of green.

SE and MT continued litter picking around the immediate area and L arrived back with a couple of bags full of rubbish from the top of the mountain – between them they collected about 8 bags of rubbish all together.

TE and some others shovelled up the remnants of the earlier fly tip which couldn’t have been collected earlier as it was still too hot. All the rubbish collected was put into DP’s pickup for him to take to the tip the following day.

Everyone gathered back at the vehicles for tea and biscuits prepared by SE.

Overall, a good amount of work was completed throughout the day – a lot of chat was had – and plenty of tea was drunk and biscuits dunked. It was bright sunshine all day long and we all went home with a bit more sunburn than when we arrived.

There’s an album of photographs on Picasa – Click here.

POST SCRIPT: To top off the day, just as I was packing up so an old friend arrived and he had with him a group of family friends who were visiting from India. He had brought them up Twmbarlwm to show them the beauty of the area in which we live – considering they are from a very beautiful area of southern India they were very impressed with our mountain – with its landscape, its history and the affection we locals have for the place.

So you see we had a great day – I look forward to more of you joining us next time – which will be on Sunday 29th June 2014