An unusual, but welcome, site in the park yesterday as divers came to inspect the penstocks (like sluice gates) that lie on the outlets to our main ponds. I had heard these things existed but was delighted to see them for myself. They can be adjusted to regulate the water flow. These guys have also been sampling the silt to check its depth and assessing contamination near the footbridge.

With the hedgerows now in bloom with all the various prunus (plum related) trees, Thanks to Tony for some lovely pics of some less obvious stars of the season. This dark-edged beefly was seen on the wet weather pond near the orchard. And Tony also found this Common field speedwell.

As lockdown has now eased we are looking forward to doing some work on the orchard in groups of six.

And this is to invite you to come to our first regular work session on Saturday April 17th at 10am when we shall be preparing the orchard for the new season.

We also have one place left on a special willow sculpture session on Wednesday April 7th at 2pm. If you would like to learn how to cut and plant willow cuttings to make into ornamental shapes. We shall be making a small willow feature in the damp, lower end of the orchard. Thanks to Chris Griffiths for this workshop.

If you would like to come to either of these please let me know via this blog or otherwise.

Chris