Next to the willow domes stands our new creation, still very muddy and without any leaves yet, but our attempt at a living willow dinosaur. It is all part of a dinosaur garden that we will be shaping up over the next few months, designed to evoke our imagination about the time that the dinosaurs lived. We have based our attempt at a dinosaur on the Saltasaurus, a smaller member of the Titanosaur family, which lived on Earth around 100 million years ago.

More details of the garden and some upcoming events coming soon…

You may also notice that our website is being upgraded a little and the address is being changed to friendsofemersonsgreenpark.com…

Back in February I was worried that the new domes would not have enough water. I was planning on getting a watering team together. Then the heavens opened and the rain went on and on and on. Which brings me to the good news of course, all the willow has sprouted and the domes are looking very much alive.

The downside is that our work to make Green lane passable has been overcome by the wet. Well hey, with luck it will soon improve. The Friends have been busy as usual. We have a new bog garden in the orchard and we have done some work on the old painted stones garden, which had fallen into disuse. Check it out with its new willow fan and willow woven fence.

Also great news for those who love listening to the birds but are frustrated by the need to recognise their songs. There is a free app called the Merlin Bird app which you can put on Sound ID as you walk around and it tells you which bird is calling and gives you a nice picture and some info. I have been using it this week and it is amazing.

Finally, I am pleased to announce a new competition running up to our festival this year on July 1st. It is called I live here and it is an invitation to draw something from nature in the local area and tell us about it on a page of A4, all freehand. The competition is open to all ages. More details here

Have you heard the call of this gorgeous green woodpecker that has been around the park the last few weeks? Once you recognise its call, you will not forget it. I have uploaded it to the EGTC Facebook site. Here it is

There has also been an owl calling this year for the first time in the vicinty of Green Lane. We think it is a tawny owl and it can be heard late at night and early morning. So if you are having trouble sleeping, maybe cast an ear to the window. The presence of the owl might tie in with the glimpse I had this week of a little field mouse just by Green Lane. Clearly the owl is able to source its food here.

A little egret has also been scouting around the ponds in our park the last week.

All rather exciting I think. Maybe the birds have heard about the new community nature reserve and are coming to take a look!

Our community is certainly interested in the project. Around 65 people came to build bird boxes last weekend at the village hall in an event put on by EGTC Community Nature Reserve. If you have not registered your garden yet please do. An online form is available here.

Cold next week, but Spring is on the way!

I hope you like our two new willow domes by the toddlers play park. The plan is to link them with paths and create a new wildflower patch in the middle a bit like this.

This blackbird in amongst the dogwood would also like us to know that he is delighted with the launch of a community nature reserve in our area.

On January 19th Emersons Green Town Council launched a community nature reserve across the whole town council area including Emersons, Lyde, Blackhorse and parts of Mangotsfield. More than fifty people were at the launch and there was very obvious enthusiasm. The idea is that we should all work together to care for wildlife in the area. Everyone who manages a garden with wildlife in mind is invited to register it as part of the nature reserve. There is also a facebook site EGTC Community Nature Reserve where we can share our plans and any news of wildlife around us. You can register your garden here. Please register your garden even if you are just setting out on being wildlife friendly. The more gardens that we have engaged with this the more effective it will be.

Finally, guess where this picture was taken? It looks like a hot summers day in a field perhaps, but it is actually Lyde Green Lake in the winter sun.

Every day it is getting lighter, soon Spring will be here…

We have been working hard in Green Lane over the last few weeks. We were delighted with how the dry stone wall went. We learnt how to do it from You Tube! More recently we have been opening up some more areas of the lane so that the soil can see light with the intention of allowing more wildflowers to grow there and allowing us humans to access the path through the winter. The big project has been building a bridge over the mud near Cave Grove.

Julia’s dog clearly liked it! Julia said ‘It was amazing to be able to walk up Green Lane in November. Its usually a no go area. End up with welly boots stuck in the mud!’

I thought some readers of this blog might be interested in an event next Tuesday Dec 6th in Resound. I am hosting a conversation about home energy. It is a subject everyone is talking about just now. What can we do? A chance to talk to others and to get some inspiration. Come and join us. It is open to everyone.

I am sure you will have heard of the photo competition that the Town Council are running. They have asked people to submit their photos of local nature and the winning photos will be on a local calendar available soon. I hear that more than a hundred entries have been received! The winners will be announced at an exhibition to be held in the Village Hall next week, on October 20th, details below.

It is very good to sense how local people have got on board with this. As I see it, it is all part of the main task for human beings in these days, which is to develop a love for nature.

We are delighted to announce a rather special autumn celebration this year. We are aware that there are now lots of people in the area who value the work of the Friends of Emersons Green Park. We are always hearing appreciative comments about the Orchard, the Dome, the Wildlife garden and the new dry stone wall. We also know that many enjoyed the festival this year despite the rain! Whatever your connection, we would love you all to join us on October 10th at 8pm for an evening at the Langley Arms.

We have invited Michael Loader, who led the parade at the Festival. He is coming to tell a story on a nature theme. Expect something lively and engaging. We shall also be apple pressing and will review the year that is past.

It will be a moment to meet together, join in some fun and see all the things that have been achieved this year. We would also love to hear your ideas about the future.

To cover our costs of this evening we will take up a collection for the work of the Friends of Emersons Green Park. The evening will officially be our AGM. Please share this flyer with others.

Have you noticed how many leaves are on the ground in the park? It is a sign that the trees have been struggling with the drought. They call it a false autumn. The trees begin to shut down when they cannot get enough moisture from the soil.

In other places the park is buzzing with life, not least at our new bee tree. A year or so back you may remember we set up a wildlife garden near the Village Hall, hoping to attract all manner of interesting insects and frogs and whatever. So, to our delight we report that one of the trees down there has become a bee tree, with its very own bee colony. It is right above the fairy garden so ‘bee’ a bit careful if you are there. Paul, our local bee expert will be monitoring the bees as they develop their colony.

The drought may actually have been good for our wild flowers. See how the flowers round the dome have come on over July and August. You may not have noticed this magnificent display down by the Langley pond.

Where they are guarded over by various moorhens and this rather beautiful mallard.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday time!

‘Is that Mr McGregor?’ said the little tot to his mum as they spied my straw hat among the trees in the orchard. ‘Maybe’, I replied, and went on to show the toddler the raspberries and blackberries almost ready to be picked. I enjoy this sort of moment. It is often the first time these children experience where fruit comes from.

The massive heat of the past week will have made us us all too aware of climate change and the wider environmental crisis and it is so easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. There seems to be nothing that us ordinary people can do. It seems to go so deep and ask changes of us that we don’t want to bear. How do we even start to do something?

I have come to think that the heart of it all lies in our relationship with the natural world. If we can learn to love nature and feel our impact on it, then we will change inside. And that will be a new day. Also, if we can combine together in local areas to care for nature around us, that could build community life and give us a common purpose. I sense that happening here in Emersons Green as more and more people express their support for our work. This year’s festival, for example, was a gigantic work of cooperation, with loads of people volunteering time and energy to make it happen.

This sort of thinking about our relationship with the natural world lies behind all our work in Emersons Green including the festival, the gardening for wildlife open day, Green Lane, the community orchard, the wildlife garden and the dome. Of course it is all small beer in terms of the global need. But what if every neighbourhood did it? Everywhere. Perhaps humanity could change its path and embrace a truly good future? That is the hope that lies behind a new movement just being launched called ‘Neighbourhoods for the Earth’. Emersons Green is a founder member. We shall see if it takes off.

One of our regular toddler volunteers, Ben, was exploring the grass in the orchard this week. He enjoyed running his fingers up the grass head and collecting the seeds. We thought about those little seeds and how they might spread. I guess our work in the park is a bit like one of those seeds.