A very hot and sunny day was forecast today, so the Friends, Astrid, Dave, Chris, Alan and Rita, decided to concentrate on working in the shade. Most of the trees in the cemetery had got a bit overgrown since we last trimmed them, so that was a job for today, obviously the larger trees where there was the most shade! The large cedar in the centre of the cemetery was the first one to be tackled, one of the larger branches had cracked at the top and the end of the branch was touching the ground, to reduce the weight the branch and its foliage was cut off six foot from the ground. SDC will need to remove the upper limb to ensure it does not break away and fall if we have strong winds. The ivy and saplings around the bottom of the tree were cleared. Rita went to the wild flower area and cut some of the long grass and watered the seedlings planted last week. Astrid and Rita then moved to the nearby fir tree and Euonymus tree and trimmed these to give a 6 foot headroom for people walking through the cemetery. Chris worked on another Euonymus tree in section K and did an excellent job before moving over to the ‘new’ hedge to join Alan and Dave who were clearing the clippings which our friendly neighbour had very kindly trimmed for us. Alan dug up all the grass that had grown up along the side of the headstone path in front of the hedge. 6 dumpy bags were filled today. While on walkabout the boys noticed the War Commission workmen had been in and moved the WW1 headstone of Lance Corporal S. J. Southwood that had been hidden behind another headstone which was obscuring the inscription. A photograph was taken for the website.
