It's been so long...

I miss the pond!

And all of you, I hope you're all well.

xxxx

oh the memories!

I'm sure no-one reads this blog anymore, but just incase someone stumbles on it and wonders, "Whatever happened to that pond? I do hope that adorable eel was OK..." I thought I'd add a quick update :)

I just got an e-mail from Jamie:

"Went down to Roydon last week and you will be happy to know the pipe and dam are holding up really well.

Thanks for all your help and ingenuity"

and he added some photos! it's looking like a very nice home for an eel, some dragonfly larvae and some fish-eating spiders (which I suppose means there must be some fish in there too), I'm sure everyone will agree.

<-- deep enough to drown in now! not that you'd want to, but the point is that it is possible.

<--- I'm pretty sure that the guy admiring our handiwork is our dear friend Billy Joe the farmer. bet he regrets being so stingy about parking spaces now! after we made such a nice habitat for him and his wildlife............

just look at how well the water flows through that pipe, makes me feel so proud

<--- I know what you're thinking: that's the most impressive, awe-inspiring view you've ever seen, right? Thanks, glad you appreciate all the hard work that went into it! That was one muddy week! and I must have eaten my own weight in junk food...

Good times.

x x x x x

Little bit of love for all of you!

I have some pictures to share. All of your entires are lovely, brings a tear to my eye! I think we really have grown closer which is good becuase I think what we may have missed out in Africa we gained form being together and just making the most out of it, and I wont miss the mud, at all, but i'll miss you guys! Thanks for making the week a brilliant one, it could have been awful!. and thanks for putting up with me, I know im not the easiest but at least now you know you can out up with anyone! Im sorting the DVD and it'll be ready soon. HAve an amazing summer, you gals are the best, couldn't have hoped for a beter group of people. Now lets remember some quotes from the week:

Whispered "Henrietta.......7 Days"

" I love horses best of all the animals, i love horses they're my friends"

"Does the eel bite?" "Yes"

"Look Jamie's reading his wild flowers book"

"You shot Bambi's Mum"

"Die...Dead...Gone...Killed"

"You nearly hit me with your Heavy Load"

"Has he fallen asleep in the fire again?"

Jamies scottish accent "Get outta my swamp"

I could go on forever, but i have to say the funniest thing I've seen is Jamie Corry at Longdown Dairy Farm kicking in the direction of an inquisitive chicken and tell it to F*** off!!


Lots of love xx

Not forgetting...

henny's little accident

Longdown Dairy Farm

Longdown Dairy Farm!

There were horses and ponies and turkeys and ducks and chickens and goats and cows and pigs and bunnies and guinea pigs and chicks and calves and ducklings... I think Sian has a close up picture of my unfortunate experience involving a 'cute' little duckling.

I agree with Babett, this week in general has been a great time for us to bond. I feel especially close to Sarah. For example, just yesterday I was saying how I missed the juvenile delinquents who joined us on Wednesday:
Me: Its a shame the juvenile delinquents aren't here.
Sarah: YOU'RE A JUVENILE DELINQUENT!

No but really, I think it has been a really good week, and that what we've done was worthwhile...

I really loved all the pond songs, I find myself laughing, uncontrollably at nothing while others back away from me slowly. I think it may be the influence of the pond spirit that watched over us.
Here is a picture of the pond spirit... related to the loch ness monster?











I took these pictures of boots on the first day.





Will I ever be clean again?







Junk food binging was an integral part of the pond digging process.














This is where we'd got to after the first day. Yes, it does look like a bomb site or pile of crap as we affectionately called it, but scroll down and look at the next picture to see how great it looked when finished...





Beautiful.














The finished pipe. If you were a water molecule, wouldn't you want to go through it?











We have so many happy memories.

After Longdown Dairy Farm, we arrived back at the lonely college, finding it eerily empty, and when we went to the quads, somebody had put washing up liquid in the fountian.

Day 4 - Officially our final day at le pond

*sniff*

It's been an emotional day to say the least. Admittedly we didn't do the most work today but we did get the pond finished and it really was a great moment, maybe not as glorious as seeing the smiles on all the African children's faces, but deep down beneath that dirty water, we knew the dragonfly larvae were smiling too.

ARWW factor 10. Wasn't Bill's woggie just the cutest, little Kara.

Anyway....

Doesn't it feel weird that we're not going back there again, that we'll never get to binge on confectionary beside a pond together, brings a big ol' muddy tear to my eye. I really do feel that this experience has brought myself, Sarah, Sian, Henny, Steph, Charlie and Anisha much closer in a non-weird way and we are much better friends. We've had such a good laugh and it's been like that non stop. Not meaning to sound soppy but I wouldn't have chosen any other gals to spend this week with, they've all been awesome so thanks.

Long Down Dairy Farm tomorrow though woop. I'm planning to steal a baby animal but shhh.

xxx

um...

This may be the most profound and important experience I've ever had in my life. I feel... unable to put my feelings into words, but maybe I will be able to tomorrow after we have gone on safari.

Photos of our last day

Jamie Corry doing what he does best! _ Jamie and Kara (Bill's dog) _ Bill aka Billy goat Grant. wearing his Power Ranger suit!

Pile of clay next to a puddle ___ Lunch! ___ Walking from the mini-van to the puddle


Jamie's mysteriously muddy back... _______ Picnic _______ Jamie Corry making tea and hot chocolate


Squelching around _______ Smiley Sian _______ Sarah the Rabbit


Sian and Henny working hard ______Sarah at lunchtime ______Babett at lunchtime

Anisha at lunchtime ________ Mud glorious mud (Bill sang...) ___________ Everyone working hard

to the Pond!

Finally Finished!

It was a very emotional day today, as everybody will agree, when we finally finished the "pond" (or puddle as we discovered) which has become such a big part of our lives for the last couple of days. But I do feel a tremendous sense of well-being knowing that we saved all those amazing dragon fly larvae and eels in the tourist hot-spot that is the middle of nowhere in Roydon Woods.

Although I won't miss the digging and being covered in mud and getting strange looks on the bus, I will miss our new favourite farmer; Billy Joe.

I think I might develop a deep psychological issue now so whenever I see clay i'm going to have an overwhelming urge to dig. Although there was some complaining today I think it's fair to say that everybody has had a great time this weak (even with the young almost offenders who almost did some work) and we hope the pipe now works so we never have to return!

It's been a fun way to finish our 1st year at Tauntons College.

a life-changing experience...

Today was our last EVER day of Puddle Restoration (aka wading through squelchy mud to dig up, remove, put back and re-cover a plastic pipe). Some of us did some work, some of us did less work, some of us complained, some of us laughed, some of us sang. It was generally an easy day really!
Lunch of course lasted for longer than it needed to, and most of the day was spent shovelling clay about 2 metres from one big heap to another one then stamping on it! Adrian fell over a few times, and Jamie Corry somehow got clay on his ear, in his hair and splatters on his back. I have no idea how...
Bill didn't realise how deep the water was (because Sian and Henny were in there, standing on a plank of wood) and ended up knee-deep in the "pond" with loads of water in his welly. He didn't make much of a fuss... meanwhile Sarah hopped around screaming and I was being pulled out of the mud because I'd got stuck again!
Babett and Sarah sang loads of motivating songs throughout the day, particularly to the tune of Little Donkey. When Adrian tipped the wheelbarrow over by accident and almost hit Babett they sang:

Health and Safety,

Risk Assessment,

On the clay-y road,

Tried to kill me,

Adriaaaan,

With your heavy load!

At the end of the day when we had to wash off all the clay-caked spades and gloves, we all got a bit emotional because we realised we had to go, even though there was so much more help we could give to the animals of the forest. For example saving the squirrels from becoming Jamie Corry's dinner (yes, he actually eats squirrels : S). But unfortunately for the squirrels we are going to Long Down Dairy Farm tomorrow, so the poor things will just have to suffer.

This experience has definitely changed my perspective and I now appreciate the little things more, like vending machines (although we never went short of chocolate!) and sinks (because we had to rinse our hands in a puddle every day before lunch). I feel that pond-digging has been a rewarding experience and my life will never be the same again.

I do feel like Pond Digging has just been a parody of building a school in Tanzania, as Babett said, it's been a bit surreal!

but we've had fun anyway and we're probably closer friends now than we were before. I guess clay fights and name calling brings people together...

bring on the baby goats at the farm tomorrow! hahaha xx

Daaaaaaaaaaay 4

None of us really did any work today, i think we all lost inspiration, and belief in the pond cause, but we finally finished! We discovered that Jamie is actually shrek, and the pond is his swamp. I put my foot in the pond and soaked myself, my wellie filled up with pond water and i moaned about it for about 2 hours. Henrietta's nasty streak came out when she threw mud at Babett's face unprovoked. Babett and I did a lot of singing, and i think it thouroughly entertained every body. Aside from a lot more screaming, a lot more mud and some chocolate we didn't do an awful lot. Mostly Jamie Corry, Bill, Adrian and Jamie's friend did the work today, while we watched on in amazement. We presented him with his statue of Bambi, and box of chocolates for a little thankyou present, which he's going to use as target practice i think. All of us were glad when we'd finished, and this one's for you Henrietta "Wee on me, when your not strong, i'll be your friend", and "I've had the worst day of my life, and I owe it all to Jamie". Over and Out X

Day 2, noone wrote anything yesterday (said in BB voiceover accent)

Erm, yesterday, i don't realy remember doing anythign especially exciting, but then again i think that is a general trend for the week. Unless you're Jamie maybe. We had Paul Daniel(s) with us today, not the magician unfortunately. Mostly we just dug clay, moved clay, dug clay, moved clay ect. We packed the mud in to the space where the pipe was going to be replaced aswell. I think we took about an hour lunch break which was the best part. We really do need to sort some music out. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm can't really think that anything great enough to write about happened yesterday really. Bit o' a uneventful day, my wellies came off in one go.

Today was real good though, I don't think anyone would believe how much of a laugh a pond/puddle can be really, as long as you notice the little things like floating leafs. And also Jamie Correy got stuck in the mud and nearly had to chew his own legs off to release himself. And a bit of Henrietta terrorising didn't go amiss. Her and her see thorugh top made a starring appearance. And yes we all know that Jamie Correy isn't really reading about "wild flowers". And then we had another Wellie drama to finish off the day.

Henriette points "Theres Bambi"....Whole group turns around hoping to see Bambi, only to hear Henrietta laughing herself stupid.....good times.

Love to you all.

Day 3 (said in Big Brother voiceover accent)

So today was the third day of our ponding adventure, actually let me rephrase, day three of our PUDDLE adventure as today we discovered that the pond was not really a pond but some muddy water with reeds in it. I've never experienced a pond that you could walk through without drowning, even slightly. Jamie Correy lied to us and now we're all emotional scarred for a while but I'm sure in time we'll forgive and forget.

It was quite a relaxed day, to be honest we probably sat around eating chocolate and strawberry lances more than we did any work but hey that's the joy of it. Nah, we work pretty hard making good ol' slurry out of poo-like mud and water....and our own blood...that's obviously a lie. Anyway, us girls managed to plonk the pipe back in only to find that it was too high up. Yay for us, so we had to unplonk it and dig it in slightly lower so the water would actually go through it.

Hmm what else happened, oh yeah, Anisha found a prehistoric Nimbus 2000. SCORE! Steph was busy pressing muddy handprints on everyone and guess what Jamie Correy was DOING NOTHING! ....that's a slight exaggeration actually because this was the first day he lifted a finger for a reason other than making tea and turning the pages of his 'Wild Flowers' book. He is a legend though.

One more thing, this is for you Sarah ...

" I love horses, best of all the animals, I love horses, they're my friends."

incase we lost the bridleway, there was a not-very-helpful sign indicating that the bridleway was to the left, the right, and directly in front of us.





Sarah had a bit of trouble with her wellies...





...but was infinitely happy when she eventually knelt in the mud in only her socks.

And one more...

The whole team (minus Jamie Corry, but he didn't really do much today, did he?)

Babett, Eamon, Sarah's arm, Steph, Sophia, Siân, Charlie, Anisha and Henny.

Going home on the bus caked in mud was funny

We arrived at Roydon Woods and chucked on our welly boots, then after an extremely long risk assesment we stumbled over some tree roots to the area which Jamie Corry somehow called a pond...
it was basically just a large circle of large grass like plants in a giant puddle.
What we had to do was dig through clay to dig out a large plastic pipe, which was supposed to control the level of water in the pond and prevent it from overflowing, but the clay underneath the pipe had eroded away so all the water was just flowing under it instead, and away from the pond. So we started digging, then we dug some more, then we threw clay at eachother... then we dug a little more...
we stopped for lunch at 1 o'clock and had our picnic :D I had a giant pork-pie (I reminded myself of Henry) and we all shared out Pringles, pizza, dip, chocolate and cookies! and Sprite, tea or ginger beer to drink.
After our lunch break we went back to digging, but it wasn't long before the pipe was up (there was quite an amusing struggle to pull it out, in which quite a few of us almost lost our wellies forever to the clay bog that was the pond...)
Then we stood for a moment in the little stream that had formed underneath where the pipe had been and worked out how we were going to block it off... we eventually decided that handfuls of gravel mixed with clay would not erode as quickly as clay by itself, and that if we carefully arranged pieces of wood and slate we could form a dam and prevent the clay from eroding and the whole process having to be repeated next year. So we stood in a line and passed gravel along it to the mouth of the stream. A few screams later and we had uncovered an eel! It looked like a small snake but Jamie assured us that it was an eel, and that yes they do bite. and that they were very slippery! after that little escapade was over and the eel had been shown the way to the bit of stream that was safe from our shovels we got back to passing gravel, and Charlie and I went to hide the wheelbarrow and spades so that we wouldn't have to drag them all the way back from the mini-van again tomorrow!
once the wheelbarrows had been carefully and cunningly concealed (ie turned upside down near a tree: who would want to steal a mucky wheelbarrow anyway?!) we went back to the pond site, where the whole group were standing on a line of clay and stamping on it and jumping up and down! this was apparently to get rid of any air bubbles so that the clay wouldn't erode as easily, but all we knew was that it was quite a lot of fun standing there jumping up and down!
eventually, it was time to trek back to the mini-bus (but not before another clay-fight) and go home.
but alas, that was not the end of the Taunton's Pond Crew adventure for day 1...
when we got back to the mini-van, those of us who had brought a change of shoes changed out of our wellies and into them, but Sarah could not get her (highly stylish, despite being caked in clay) wellies off! A battle to free her from her muddy roots ensued, and after we'd all had a tug and Henrietta had laughed until she almost wet herself, Sarah was eventually freed!
What an adventure!
and the weather was even nice for us! only a drop of rain, but we were sheltered by trees anyway.
Another thing I forgot to mention... fish-eating-spiders!! yep, the pond we are restoring is not only home to eels, but also spiders that eat fish :-S and many other things, we found a dragonfly larvae!
Despite being in England instead of Africa, we all had a really good day and coming home to a warm shower and a flushing toilet meant that we knew we were probably just as happy here anyway :)

Day number1, Pond digging!

Urgh, My arms are all itchy, i don't think that clay is good for our skin, like they told us.
It was a good day though...
a life changing experience you could say. I got some strange looks on the way home, COVERED in mud.

A smattering of todays pictures: (we really need to get henny to post the ones of Sarah's welly drama)

The evening before...

I have the hoodies/tops! They're pretty cool :)
I'll bring them tomorrow, and we don't have to leave til 10 (or is it 10:30?) so we can have a lie-in, yay!
Everyone remember the picnic stuff for lunch time!
I'm quite looking forward to it! I love wading around in mud wearing welly boots.