How about if you could be out in a glorious natural environment and listen to exquisite music played by internationally acclaimed musicians? And you could do it all here in Emersons Green?

I thought our readers would be interested to hear of Ham Farm Festival which is running from the 25th-28th July at Ham Farm, off Emersons Green Lane. Local residents and musicians Francisco and Emily have assembled a true festival of music over the four days, with workshops and education during the day and concerts by night, all set in their very beautiful, long- established garden. Check out the details here.

Meanwhile it is delightful to see so many picking the fruit in the orchard this year. The raspberry family seems to be everybody’s favourite including toddlers, some of whom are experiencing their first taste of fruit from a bush. ‘Are you a farmer, said a toddler to me in my straw hat?’ Well no, I said, but I might be a gardener’. ‘I want to be a farmer,’ replied the toddler. Little things. Little people. But a worthwhile experience.

It is a delightful time in the orchard. Raspberries abound and many are enjoying them. We have been pleased to welcome several new people to our orchard work parties on a Thursday morning and real progress is being made. I love these new tree guards, designed and built by Christine.

There are lots of wildflowers in evidence just now. I am particularly fond of the bedstraw by the Science park lake and on the Earth Sculpture (near the pylons alongside the ring road). These were actually used to stuff mattresses in the past!

There are also some lovely Meadow Cranesbill on Emersons Green Common

In other news- you may have heard of our plans for The Three Greens Festival – Emersons Green and Lyde Green celebrate our relationship with the Earth. It is to be held on Sept 25th this year. Check out Emersons Green Voice for an introduction to it. More details to follow shortly.

Also to say that Kate Liverton is organising another litter pick shortly. Several people have told me what fun the last one was. it is to be held on Sat 17th July from 10am til 1pm, meeting at Emersons Green Library. Tools provided. See the Facebook page COVID-19 Help, Support and Volunteering – Emerson’s Green & Lyde Green for details.

Have you noticed how many wild flowers are around this year? I cant help think that part of it is that we are leaving more spaces uncut. The insects love it and we are being rewarded by a shift in scene from flat, monochrome green to an enormous variety of colour and depth.

As the cow parsley subsided so the buttercups came to the fore, meadows full of them and all around us. This one was taken near Warmley Woods.

Bobbie recently organised us to do a plant survey of the park and common. We discovered 65 different wild plants with strange-sounding names like meadow cranesbill and greater stitchwort. It was fun to do and was significantly helped by the ‘Picture This’ app which I would recommend to anyone who fancies identifying plants. We aim to repeat the survey each year so we can see how the plants are varying. Orchids are on display just now near the lake at the Science Park and in a field below the former Shortwood Golf course.

You may also have noticed that the orchard is full of new growth and demanding some attention if we are going to be able to get to the fruit this year. So please come along, if you can, to our work sessions which will now be taking place every Thursday morning from 10am. Bring your own tools if you have them. Trowels, secateurs, gloves, spades and barrows are all useful. Also – wear clothing that covers you up, from sun, prickle and sting. Hope you can make it.

Finally I thought you might like to see this amazing picture of a recently emerged dragonfly from its larva, taken by Paul one morning at his pond.

Spring astounds us with the freshness of its green leaves. A dry, cold April has given way to a wet, and still relatively cold, May. But the park is at its best.

To my mind, the prize this year goes to the glorious cow parsley, which has flourished after the mowing season.

There has also been an impressive display of bluebells in the Drove Road.

On a less positive note I am sorry to hear that we have no progress yet on the pollution near the footbridge. South Glos are still investigating its cause.

It may be ‘no mow May’ but I do hope to make some paths through the orchard in the next few days if I can find a gap in the rain! And we will be hosting another work session at the orchard at 2pm on Wednesday 26th May. Please come if you can.

Kerry Lemon is pioneering a new community art project for Emersons Green and Lyde Green based on pressing flowers. It is suitable for all ages. I thought you would all like to hear about it. See Kerry’s message below. You can find more details and how to get involved at www.pressandprint.org

Willow is an unusual wood. Stick a nice fresh cutting in the ground and more times than not it roots and grows. It turns out that its bark contains lots of rooting hormone and salicylic acid (related to aspirin). This means that you can create sculptures of living willow like this one a team of us recently did in the lower part of the orchard. Let’s see if it grows! Many thanks to Christine who designed and led this project.

Which reminds me that this Saturday 17 from 10-12 we will be doing our first orchard work session. We have a few places left at this stage, please let me know via this blog if you can come.

Meanwhile let me leave you with two interesting sightings from the park. The first is wood anemone spotted near the seasonal pond by Tony.

The second, a little egret seen by Bobbie near the Langley pond. I love these birds but I fear that our ponds are not to their liking just now, with all their silt. Hey ho – soon to be mended I trust.

See you soon.

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

What a glorious few days we had last week! The Great Spotted Woodpecker was in the Tree of Heaven. The frogs beneath were laying down copious quantities of frogspawn in the Langley pond. And Spring was truly in the air. It is cold again for a few days now and the grind of lockdown continues, but Spring is with us and with it the hope that soon we will emerge, all jabbed up and friendly like.

I hear much on the airwaves about the Newlands bridge (between Lyde and Emersons) and its refurbishment. It seems we can look forward to the approaches to the bridge being substantially improved, plans are being developed and we will shortly be consulted.

There is also to be some work in the Park. The ponds are to be desilted later in the year, after the breeding season, so we should have some water again in the middle ponds. I walked around the streams with John Morris of South Glos recently and we saw four rats in half an hour! That is slightly worrying and underlines the importance of minimising food sources of all kinds in the park. We are also expecting some works around the footbridge area, which I know many of us have wanted to be improved.

Two pieces of other news;

Bristol City Council are offering an online conference entitled Love Nature, Love your park on March 20th. It will include sessions on meadows, ponds etc and is open to folk from South Glos. Some of us might like to attend. You can dip in and out according to what interests you.

I am sorry to report that there was an unpleasant incident involving a cyclist near the Langley entrance to the park last night (Thursday 4th March at about 5.30 – 5.45. If anyone saw this please let us know through this blog.

Finally our Friends management committee meets shortly (on March 15th) so if you have any particular interests or concerns you would like to raise ,please let us know via this blog or otherwise.

Everything seems so strange these days, but I am sure that many of us have found comfort in the park. I am heartened by the birds calling out the coming Spring, even though the ground is so wet and the air cold.

I hope you like our new noticeboard. I hope it will mean that people understand more about what is going on in the orchard and why we do what we do. They may also feel more confident to take the fruit. The orchard has never been tidier, after some serious brushcutting in the autumn. We have also managed to do a little pruning despite the lockdown, so we are well set up for the new growing season.

Since we are all spending so much time at home these days I thought you might be interested in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which is taking place over the weekend of Jan 29-31st. The survey just takes an hour and it doesn’t matter if you don’t see anything! They have decided to focus on gardens this year, because of the lockdown and I know that some of you have been enjoying the birds from your windows. The Woodpecker has already been seen!

Talking of Woodpeckers, I was delighted to hear a ‘Zoom talk’ at Bristol Naturalists Society recently by Ben MacDonald, who has been studying wildlife associated with some ancient orchards in Herefordshire. He was thrilled to find the rare Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in one of these orchards. (Ours is the Greater Spotted variety) and talked about developing orchards for wildlife. If you like books you may be interested in his book Orchard – A Year in England’s Eden.

Best wishes, especially to those working with the sick, keep safe.

I always look for these little white lanterns on the strawberry tree this time of year. They turn into strawberry-like fruits shortly – but they are not much good to eat!

We are delighted to publish today Ed Drewitt’s report about our survey of the park and surrounding area. Working with Ed has been a privilege and has resulted in a report of great interest with recommendations about future care of our area that you might enjoy. You can access it here.

You may have noticed that we have been doing lots of clearing in the orchard recently. The idea is to clear off the scrub once each year and make compost which can then be added to the trees and bushes the next year.

It is also to get the orchard ready for its tenth anniversary in 2021! The first trees were planted in February 2011 and we are hoping, lockdowns permitting to have a celebration some time next year.

I am afraid that we had to cancel our work session this Saturday Nov 14th for obvious reasons but if anyone would like to do some work on their own on the orchard, please let me know and I can offer some ideas of jobs to do.

We placed this little plaque on the painted stones garden this week. It has been beautifully hand made by Genevieve Whittle Ford of Gennywren Silver. We are very grateful for her work.

Best wishes for the lockdown. i am sure your spirits were lifted, as mine were, by news of the vaccine. Better times to come.