Many of you will know Joy and Margaret. They have been picking up litter in the park and making friends with people in the process for a long time now. Many of you, who joined the Friends of the Park group, will have been invited to do so by Joy as you met her on her rounds. It is with some sadness then that I report that Joy and Margaret feel that it is time to step down from their commitment and retire from their litter picking role.  They have soldiered on, I understand, for more than eight years , which is an extraordinary stint and I know we will miss them greatly. We may wonder what difference will be made to the Park as the litter, especially after those hot days, is not cleared, but I guess at this moment the Friends would just want me to wish Joy and Margaret our very best wishes and to say a big thank you from us all.

The park has become a truly beautiful place again this summer and seems to have recovered from the depradations of last year in fine style. The ponds, now desilted, are brimming with wildlife. I took this picture of what I take to be a two pairs of demoiselle flies mating on some vegetation lying on the north pond. I have also heard reports of moorhen chicks and am hoping they manage to lie low enough from the various predators around.

in the orchard there will soon be some raspberries to take if you would like some and there remain a few gooseberries.

Also, I hope you won’t mind me mentioning an event that I am leading in the library on July 9th entitled ‘Working for a Sustainable City’ and introducing people to a new way of sourcing our food from local producers that Bobbie and I have been working on. i hope you might be able to join us. More details here.

Best wishes for the sunshine. 30 degrees possible later this week!