A warm welcome to new Friends of Emersons Green Park, who may have joined us last Saturday at our very first Emersons Green Festival of Nature. If you were one of those who spent time with Ed Drewitt in one of his sessions, I am sure you were as enthralled as I was.

I remember how he noticed the female blackbird, so tame and close, with worms in her mouth. ‘She must be feeding a brood,’ said Ed. Then as we walked up Emersons Green Lane, he stopped. ‘Listen, can you hear them?’ he said and pointed to a honeysuckle bush where, sure enough, there was the blackbirds nest with brood all chirping for food. We watched mother blackbird fly in and out. What a treat!

Then, while pond dipping, we found several creatures in the net, one of which was a damsel fly larva. A few minutes later, Ed called us round and pointed to a reed on which was a cocoon and right next to it, a newly hatched damsel fly just warming its wings before its first flight. The young people passed the damsel fly around. Then Ed placed it carefully back on the reed.

Please let us know your favourite moments of the day. I am glad to report that all the sessions  were well subscribed, the weather was kind and we seemed to have achieved our goal which was to take us all one step closer in our relationship with the natural world. And thanks also to all those others, who helped with the day, especially Amparo and Anna from the cubs and Martin Brice and team from the vets.

By way of images in this newsletter, I thought you might appreciate the carpet of bright new flowers in the formal garden, which came on a roll. Instant flowers! Also the new bench which seems very fine.

Finally for those who are interested in helping with the orchard this year our proposed dates for workparties are
June 2
July 7
Aug 4
Sept 1
Oct 6
We work from 10 to 12 and would really appreciate some new helpers. Let me know you are interested, or just turn up!

That’s all for now. Enjoy the bright sun!