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| The friendly tenants of Pilgrim Hill. |
While we had a few items on the work agenda, the battle against the invasive thistles became the priority. These thorny and hostile weeds were attacked with some trepidation. A positive attitude and a sense of humour was the only way to approach such a large scale infestation, we informally named the area ‘Thistleton’. Perhaps the most disheartening sight was seeing hundreds of thousands of tiny seeds that had already spread before we could capture the cotton heads of the thistles. Picking all of the seeds up was impossible.
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| The Californian Thistle, one type of weed we removed. |
However, there were many things to be grateful for on this day. The weather was just right for weeding, that is, not too hot, windy or rainy. The rain had cleared earlier that morning and left the soil perfectly moist for pulling weeds. Although the team was small, there was a real sense of camaraderie as we tackled this epic task. Good conversations were had and word games were played to pass the time. Furthermore, a Pilgrim Hill workday is always accompanied with good food and this one did not disappoint. American hot dogs were enjoyed by all, some for the first time, complete with chilli and iced tea.
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| Whilst this ragtag team could be mistaken for the cast of the next Jurassic Park film, they were actually the willing volunteers of a productive Pilgrim Hill Summer Workday. |
Finally, as the day drew to a close, there was a real sense of achievement. We managed to clear the entire problem area and although it remains to be seen if we have won the war on thistles, we did win this battle.
