Here is Robyn wielding her baton to get the CCA Choir warmed up for a perfect day's work - the blue sky and a shimmering ocean made the planting of the first 300 seedlings at our new project opposite Bryan Way a pure pleasure.
The seedlings comprised various species (including rhagodia, club rushes and prickle lilies, coastal daisies, sword sedges and wallaby saltbushes) which were ready to be planted from those propagated by Apace from the seeds we had collected and the cuttings we had taken in the Cottesloe area . In order to give them the best possible chance to settle into the dune, we dug ample holes (the photo shows Mike in action with his very own super-sized spade)
and watered them in with buckets carried from the wheely-bins which Paul from the Cottesloe Council Depot had volunteered to fill for us on this Saturday morning, the 9th of June.
Here is Laurel, one of the inaugural CCA volunteers, carrying water to the plants.
For three hours the slope on the site (we started on the most difficult part!) was the scene of intense actvity - about 14 volunteers getting their hands and knees dirty and straining to keep their balance on the steep terrain:
However, no planting day organised by Robyn is without a delicious interval - this time we had sumptious home-made scones with cream and jam that proved too tempting for everybody!
Even the most unsuspecting passer-by cannot resist being coaxed by Malcolm into planting at least one seedling - here it was the turn of a not any longer so casual visitor from overseas:
By lunchtime the water was used up and we all considered this to be a good sign that we had done enough - in fact most of us felt quite exhausted, but also immensely satisfied: can you see the pleasure in our faces?
(Text by Robyn and Frauke, photos taken by Robyn and Dieter)
Casual Cottesloe beachwalkers would have been bemused at the somewhat ungainly rearviews they may have seen on the 18 June, our second planting day at the Bryan Way project: it was a real challenge to dig holes, plant the seedlings and somehow manage to keep the water buckets upright on the hard & rocky, steep slope! Some of us wished for more youthful agility and more obedient leg muscles - however, our small group of indefatigable mountain goats succeeded in planting some 200 new seedlings, including those lovely sedges you see at the top of the photo.
[Photos taken by Kate Sputore]
