It's been another extremely sunny and warm week out here on Flat Holm, which is great for the relaxing outside in the evenings but not so good for all of the heavy manual work!
The week began with a full clean down of our water system on Monday. All of the large water tanks had to have their contents run down in order for us to clean them, and getting rid of so much water felt so strange considering how hard we normally try to conserve it! Once the tanks had been run down and scrubbed we then flushed a bleach solution through all of the pipework across the island before the system was re-topped up and flushed through with clean water again to rinse it.
On Tuesday the week's butterfly survey saw the general population of the island boom, with us recording more than twice the number of butterflies compared to any of our previous surveys.
As well as looking at the butterflies this week we also took the time to create a new invertebrate study which enable us to get a better understanding of the less obvious creatures that we share our island with. So far we have found 4 different species of grasshopper, many different flies and beetles as well as a couple of spiders.
With us having had so many scorching days without a drop of rain over the last 2 weeks some of the plants and vegetation around the island seem to be struggling. Ideally we could do with a bit of rain before long to keep the plants going as they act as a habitat for many of the insects that we find.
During the week we had a visit in very unfortunate circumstances from the police search and rescue helicopter. A young girl who was swimming in the sea off the coast of Barry had gone missing, and a 3 day search followed in the surrounding area including Flat Holm. The helicopter circled the island to do a visual search before landing to come and talk to us all. Having followed the story on the news our team had already conducted a search of the shoreline just in case but had found nothing. 2 days later we heard the terrible news that her body had been found a few miles from where she was swimming, and our thoughts go out to all of her family and friends.
With the only boat of the week being Thursday's Westwood Ho trip the rest of the week was an ideal opportunity to carry on with a few of the ongoing jobs around the island. The dry stone wall has continued to get slightly larger although it is still very slow progress. We are also scraping and scrubbing down one of the old storage buildings near the island's jetty in the hope that we can get a new coat of paint on it some time within the next week.
The weekend has so far provided us with a good opportunity to spend some time swimming and sunbathing on the beach, and generally taking it easy before we get back to work on Monday.
This week's amusing story is all about misheard song lyrics. Unfortunately "just let me staple the vicar" (from Peter Kay's latest stand up) didn't make it in, but here are some of the most commonly mistaken lyrics as voted for by the public...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23284179
Have a good week and we'll see you next time!
The week began with a full clean down of our water system on Monday. All of the large water tanks had to have their contents run down in order for us to clean them, and getting rid of so much water felt so strange considering how hard we normally try to conserve it! Once the tanks had been run down and scrubbed we then flushed a bleach solution through all of the pipework across the island before the system was re-topped up and flushed through with clean water again to rinse it.
On Tuesday the week's butterfly survey saw the general population of the island boom, with us recording more than twice the number of butterflies compared to any of our previous surveys.
As well as looking at the butterflies this week we also took the time to create a new invertebrate study which enable us to get a better understanding of the less obvious creatures that we share our island with. So far we have found 4 different species of grasshopper, many different flies and beetles as well as a couple of spiders.
Vicky, Molly and Emma trying to identify some of the insects we found
With us having had so many scorching days without a drop of rain over the last 2 weeks some of the plants and vegetation around the island seem to be struggling. Ideally we could do with a bit of rain before long to keep the plants going as they act as a habitat for many of the insects that we find.
During the week we had a visit in very unfortunate circumstances from the police search and rescue helicopter. A young girl who was swimming in the sea off the coast of Barry had gone missing, and a 3 day search followed in the surrounding area including Flat Holm. The helicopter circled the island to do a visual search before landing to come and talk to us all. Having followed the story on the news our team had already conducted a search of the shoreline just in case but had found nothing. 2 days later we heard the terrible news that her body had been found a few miles from where she was swimming, and our thoughts go out to all of her family and friends.
The police helicopter coming in to land on the helipad
With the only boat of the week being Thursday's Westwood Ho trip the rest of the week was an ideal opportunity to carry on with a few of the ongoing jobs around the island. The dry stone wall has continued to get slightly larger although it is still very slow progress. We are also scraping and scrubbing down one of the old storage buildings near the island's jetty in the hope that we can get a new coat of paint on it some time within the next week.
The weekend has so far provided us with a good opportunity to spend some time swimming and sunbathing on the beach, and generally taking it easy before we get back to work on Monday.
Matt enjoying himself in charge of the BBQ
This week's amusing story is all about misheard song lyrics. Unfortunately "just let me staple the vicar" (from Peter Kay's latest stand up) didn't make it in, but here are some of the most commonly mistaken lyrics as voted for by the public...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23284179
Have a good week and we'll see you next time!
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