Happy New Year to all our Friends of Emersons Green Park.

I thought you would be interested to see a picture of our kingfisher, taken just before Christmas near the Langley Arms. Lots of us have had glimpses of it. What a beautiful bird it is and kind enough to wait in the same spot while I fetched my camera!

Just before Christmas the park was also visited by this beautiful little egret. The bird stayed for around 24 hours and may have been assessing it as a nesting site. I hope he comes to stay. These birds have been gradually migrating north from the European mainland over the last few decades.

All the birds are now very busy. As the days get lighter following the winter solstice on Dec 21st, the birds seem to switch on and begin their political campaigns with tussles for territory and nest building. I saw more than seven magpies in one tree yesterday making a terrible racket.

In reply to my last post, thank you to Alison who tells us that the new tree on the lawn next to the junior playpark is a tulip tree (Liriodendron) and a replacement for the one that had to be cut down.

Best wishes for the new season

Work has recently been done in the Park and a meeting held – I thought readers would like to hear more.

First of all, in the park itself, several trees were felled in the lawn area next to the junior play park, including the tulip tree, which had been irreparably damaged by vandalism and the new conker tree, which had bleeding canker. Sad to see them go, but delighted to welcome a new tree planted last week. Not quite clear at this stage what it it. Any ideas?

There has also been considerable work done to tidy up the formal garden and open up the entrance via St Luke’s Close ( near the Doctor’s surgery). There is now a nice view of the park as you enter from this direction.

Some people have asked me about the meeting held ten days ago. It was a small, informal and well run meeting with ample time to discuss things. Thank you, Jim, for that. There were only a few of us there, including some from Emersons Green Lane plus a contingent from Friends of Inspirational Life. We heard about Bug Life and the project to make the Park more pollinator friendly. Jim went through the results of a small consultation about the Park and, as a result, presented a proposal to put more trees on the path from Sainsbury’s, repair the zip wire and various other developments like notice boards.
A local resident pointed out that there was a tendency to antisocial behaviour within the hedge circle and Jim offered to lower the height of the hedge in response. Others were concerned about the drainage system and especially the blocked flat valve shown below.

The discussion that followed included Glyn Everett who is from UWE and interested in community interaction with flood water systems. It became obvious during this conversation that no one present understood precisely what the flood system is for or how it works. As a result I asked South Glos staff to let me have the plans of the drainage system, together with the research that lies behind the construction of our balancing ponds. I will report back on their response.

The tone of the meeting was overall very positive. Several people said how much they enjoyed the park especially in its variety and balance of formal and more natural spaces.

I can  forward the minutes of the meeting to anyone who would like them. There was no enthusiasm to create a constituted Friends group at this stage, though I am willing to do this, if there are five or six others who would share the load.

Enough about meetings, enjoy the park in its autumn splendour and best wishes for the coming season!
Chris

The park can be spectacular in autumn. Walking along the path next to Green Lane, the leaves are now thick underfoot and scrunch with each step. Near the centre of the park you might well come across a pair of young jays who seem to be nesting in Green Lane and are often in the park.

I thought that many of you would be interested to hear about a meeting in the Village Hall, for all those interested in the park on November 16th at 7pm.  It will be hosted by Jim Mathison, who is now the lead person from South Glos to do with our park. He has invited Hayley from Urban Buzz who will be telling us about a project to encourage pollinators across the Bristol area, which features our park as a key area of interest. Jim will also be reporting back on the consultation held over the summer about priorities for improvements in the park and introducing Glyn Everett from UWE, who is doing some research on green spaces and public behaviour.  I hope you can join us. I think it will be useful to get together.

Also to give notice that there will be various pieces of work done in the park over the next few weeks, on the theme of opening things up, some around the entrances to the park and some near the formal garden. There will also be some bulb planting. Let me know what you think about its impact.

Finally I thought you might like to see this pic of our local heron, sitting on a roof by our house and eyeing up my fish! Holly, our golden retriever, was growling in the background!

Best wishes

Chris

With autumn approaching, the council have set to clearing the young growth around the ponds. And they have a new machine! We are all beginning to hear about driverless technology, but our council seems to be setting the pace with this beastie, which is able to manage the very steep slopes around the watercourse.

I was also pleased to bump into Thorsten this week, who is behind the art installations in the formal area of the park. I think many people were impressed by this wooden sculpture of the life cycle of a butterfly. Thorsten tells me that there are plans for more work including a central feature with benches and quarried stones.

This Wednesday there was a gathering of Friends groups from across South Glos. The venue was the splendid and just-opened cafe in the middle of Page Park, pictured here.

I was pleased to meet with many others who are caring for their patch of land and plan to go and see some of these projects and swap notes. There is also news of an initiative about pollinators which our park could be involved in. More to follow on this.

The ugly prize went to this bat which was shown by the Avon Bat group, who care for orphaned and disabled bats. It is a Serotine bat one of our larger and less common species.

Finally, for those who would like to join us, our next orchard workday is on Saturday October 7th 10 – 12 as usual. I hope you can join us.

I have been cataloging the trees in the park. It is a long job! I thought you would be interested to hear that we have a surviving elm tree. The story across the UK is that we lost many of the old elms to Dutch Elm disease in the 70s, then some smaller ‘hedgerow’ elms emerged from saplings of that period, only to succumb to the disease in the 90s. It is surprising therefore to find an elm hidden away in this substantial oak tree (just after you have gone down the slope towards the Langley end).

Sadly it is showing signs of the disease in at least one limb, but at this point there is also much healthy foliage. Here is a picture of the characteristic fissured bark and leaf with its asymmetric base.

The park has been full of activity in the summer. Did you see the green woodpecker? There is also a very daring pigeon nesting in a crazy place – I wont tell you where, in case it gets disturbed, but here it is.

Birds of prey have been active too. I suspect this is the sign of a kill. If you are interested in hawks and the like you may enjoy ‘The Peregrine’ by JA Baker, a nature classic that is written with an extraordinarily rich literary style.

Finally, the sci-fi looking Cardoon in the orchard remind me to say that this Saturday 5th August is our next orchard work party. Please come if you can – we start at 10, finish at 12 and have jobs to suit all ages.

What a phenomenal summer we have been having,with temperatures in the 30s but enough rain that the plants are not in too serious a state. I recently had an interesting walk round the park with Jim Mathison of South Glos Council who is co-ordinating things from a council perspective. It was good to meet Jim and sense his knowledge and concern for plants and wildlife.

He pointed out these two dead elms which are near the gate by the houses at the Langley end. A sad legacy of Dutch Elm disease.

On a positive note you may have noticed that the hazel is now carrying its nuts and the blackberries are about to come ready. If you fancy picking some without prickles then try the orchard where there is now a good stand of thornless blackberries growing in amongst the autumn olive tree on the bend in the path.

It has been good to see the orchard come into its own this year with many local people sampling the fruit. That is what it is for, so help yourselves! If you would like a guide to how much to take, the normal gleaning rule is not to take more than a third of the ripe fruit from any bush.

Also news from Tony, he has been compiling a log of wild flowers in the park. I am hoping we can show you some of these shortly.

Finally I thought you would like to see these two grand birds, living close by. The heron is regularly at the park. There are at least four little egrets.

Have a good summer.

The ground was parched. The seeds were waiting. Cracks were appearing in the hard clay. I sense that the recent rain was a delight to nature, even if we humans tend to call it ‘bad’ weather.

Our park is looking its usual Spring splendid. Even common cow parsley and buttercups stand in great magnificence.

Down at the Langley pond, there were a few inhabitants who I am sure welcomed the refreshing of their water. The mallards are currently cavorting about as if at Versailles and the moorhens are already rearing their first chicks.

They say ‘nice weather for ducks’, but I am not sure that this young moorhen was appreciating the rain!

I gather that the late, hard frost was a problem for vine growers across the country and noticed that both the vines and the kiwi in our orchard have had their leaves burnt by the frost. We will see if they bear any fruit.

Otherwise the orchard seems to be doing well. The apple trees were beautiful as they flowered. The gooseberries will be ready soon. Jostaberries are full of vigour as usual. Why not take a walk through the orchard and see what you can identify?

We have our second orchard working party this Saturday May 20th 10 – 12 as usual. Please come and join us if you would like to. We will be planting herbs in our new herb bed, as well as some thimbleberry and chokeberry plants (heard of them before? I hadn’t!).

Lots of different jobs for all ages.

Have a good summer!

It has been disappointing to hear about anti-social behaviour in the park and elsewhere recently. For me the most devastating part of it all is the sense of helplessness. Gangs of young people are intimidating and if you intervene, even in the most respectful and gentle way,  you risk becoming part of their ‘game’. The mercy of it all is that they grow up and eventually they move onto other things.

The good news, of course, is that Spring is well and truly with us. Our trees are still in their winter coats, but new life is emerging everywhere and one of the most healing things to do is surely to pay attention to nature. As the trees reach out in the bright blue sky, so we can look up and enjoy the gifts around us.

That looks like a sizeable nest, (near Langley)  I wonder who is making it?

Have you noticed how the stream is naturally cutting out its path. On a different scale it could be a great gorge!

For those who would like to help with the orchard this year, I am now putting together some dates for the year. We try to do just two hours a month on a Saturday morning starting at 10am. The tasks this year are likely to include making a shallow wet area, a new herb garden and a special wildlife area. I hope that sounds interesting .All ages and levels of fitness very welcome. Provisional dates are

Apr 1, May 20, July 1, Aug 5, Sept 2, Oct 7

It would be very good if you could join us, even just for one or two sessions.

January can feel a bit muddy and dark at times, but there have been some beautiful moments in the park this winter. The dogwood, with its bright red wood by the Langley pond has been spectacular. The low winter sun can create some magnificent scenes.

Even the wet patch near the orchard has a certain rugged beauty.

I wonder if you share with me the sense that our park is a rather special place with its combination of play areas and wild spaces, its foxes, kingfishers and moorhens, dog walkers, shoppers and children, all mingling together and tolerating each other in the peace that only outdoors can bring.

You will have noticed that the hedging has been removed beside the formal garden near the nursery. For me,  it makes it all feel more open and friendly. What do you think? Any ideas about why this was done, who was consulted etc. It would be good to know.

Thanks also to the council for reinstating the borders to the paths, filling in with earth and reseeding, which happened over the autumn. It is a little sad to see this work so quickly undone by the council van failing to drive on the tarmac.

Soon we will see the snowdrops and daffs – but even now there are some lovely signs of new growth like this cow parsley near the Langley pond.

I am wondering whether it might be helpful to have a meeting of the Friends of Emersons Green Park shortly, to see how people are feeling about the park and any particular ideas we have for action this year. I also wondered if I should invite a friend from the Feed Bristol site who is an expert on wildflowers and forest gardens and who might have some interesting ideas. Please could you let me know if you would like me to call such a meeting – if there is interest I will.

In the meantime, enjoy the outside. They say there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing!

Chris

A colder wind this week and our lime trees are just beginning to lose their leaves and take on their autumn gold while this female blackbird is finding some easy pickings among the berries.

A less common autumn bloomer is the strawberry tree (Arbutus Unedo) in the orchard – pictured here. The flowers are pollinated by bees and take around 12 months to mature into strawberry-like fruits. The fruits can be used for jam and in Albania, they use them as a constituent of their highly alcoholic raki!

Speaking of bees you may have heard that there have been two sightings of the Asian hornet in this part of the country. This incomer is truly unwelcome. It has the potential to wipe out our natural bee colonies.  Here is a copy of the poster that has been published to alert people about the danger. They have done serious damage in the Channel islands. There are also lots of gruesome videos on YouTube about hornets attacking bee hives if you want to see what they do. The bee is active until November.  Details on the poster if you think you may have seen one.

On a more positive note, it has been a remarkable growing year. Despite a cold spring, some are saying it has been the best year ever on the allotments. And now is the time for fruit. Apple trees around the area are heavily laden.  In the coming fortnight I shall be working an apple press at various venues as part of Healthy City Week. Many thanks to Ralph and Mark for gifts of apples.