March to June 2013
The last four months have been very busy for the Friends in general and myself in particular. As a result, I have had to re-write my timetable and delay the launch of the new site - it should now go 'live' during the summer. I have therefore decided to spend some time publishing new articles here, in order to keep visitors up to date.
I begin with news which will be close to the hearts of all our park users, in particular those who enjoyed Sidney and his antics over the past 20 years and more. Follow this link to read about our New Swans and see some more photographs of them.
Regular visitors will be aware of the Event we held back in October 2012, called the 'Roots & Fruits Family Fest', which could have quite easily turned into a fiasco, had it not been for the loyalty and hard work of 'the usual suspects' from our membership pool and the determination of the Management Committee. There would have been fruit trees to plant on the day; unfortunately, due to the very wet summer and poor start to autumn, the trees could not be delivered until November 2012. An account of the reasons why we could not plant the fruit trees can be seen here: a report on the Event can be found here and the eventual planting of the trees, on Sunday November 25th 2013, is reported on the Community Orchard page.
On Sunday 14th April 2013 we had another Woodland Clearance day which you can read about here. Several more such activities will be carried out in this wood during the course of 2013 and hopefully, by the summer of 2014 it will be vastly improved upon.
Everyone will remember the severity of the storms and the unprecedented amount of rainfall throughout 2012: however, not all visitors to the park, or even this site, are aware of the extensive damage the unusual summer weather conditions caused within the park. It disrupted a lot of planned work, such as the Roots & Fruits Family Fest, because the saplings could not be planted on time; it brought down trees; it severley affected the essential work of bees; it washed away newly repaired footpaths and created several new watercourses, one of which proved to be quite dangerous.
The force of the water managed to overflow the bank of the Griffin Brook, just as it turns almost a full ninety degrees to the north on leaving the Plantation. A spectacular new waterfall was created within days and over the following weeks of wet weather, the waterfall became deeper and the new watercourse wider until it threatened to create a new lake.
Despite the limited funding available for parks and open spaces, the Parks and Nature Conservation Service Constituancy Manager, noting the potential danger of the 'new' waterfall, prioritized repairs.
See photographs here.
