On one side of the lower reservoir it is thick with willow (likely to be Goat Willow), a tree which gets reinvigorated by cutting it back, so by taking prunings for making autumn wreaths, we were doing it a favour. Because we had decided to base ourselves in the upper wood area so ended up getting quite a lungful of fresh air around the site. This Green Gym session coincided with Halloween and one of our volunteers added a terrific spooky touch to the soup by stirring in black spaghetti (made from black beans) which turned out to be delicious! After casting a few made-up spells (!) we continued making the simple wreaths with the surprisingly pliable cuttings. Traditionally willows were used to relieve pain, and the painkiller Aspirin is derived from salicin, a compound found in the bark of all willow species.
