I wonder if you have seen the painted pebble snake that is appearing around the metal sculpture in Johnson Road? A rather lovely example of community art organised by our young people.
Back in the park there has been great busy – ness. I was in the orchard the other day and there was a continual buzz as bee after bee toured the blossom. I reckon there must have been several hundred on site. This little fellow was tucking into a tayberry flower.
We have not been able to organise any work sessions on the orchard due to the lockdown but some of us have been out as individuals to do a little work. Thanks especially to Neville for clearing a giant patch of brambles and creating a whole new area for planting.
The late frost last week hit the grape vines and the lack of rain has been causing some stress to the young trees, but overall the fruit is coming on well. There are some gooseberries, nearly ready, for those who are partial to them.
I hope readers of this blog are keeping well. I am aware that some of us associated with Friends of Emersons Green Park are working very much in the frontline of the pandemic. We thank you, and all your colleagues, for your work. Keep safe.
By the way – did you hear that storks are breeding once more in England? At the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, they have been experimenting with ‘Rewilding’ a massive former farm. They have taken down the fences and let their stock of Old English Longhorn Cattle, Tamworth pigs, Fallow deer, Exmoor ponies and more all run free in a carefully managed transition to a much more natural and wild condition for their estate. Along the way they have been delighted by the return of turtle doves, purple emperor butterflies – and this year their storks have had chicks. It is the first time since the battle of Agincourt that we have had storks resident in England. It is amazing what nature can do when we give it a chance. You can read more about it here.
As we are all instructed to stay at home over the Easter holidays, why not brighten up your day by exploring the wildlife in your own garden? Take a look at those flowers blooming, the insects hovering and the birds gathering and either photograph them or capture them in some form of art like drawing or painting.
The animals are aware that something is going on and they are coming closer to us as we shelter in our homes. I saw four deer yesterday right up close to houses on Lyde Green. A vixen was crying outside our house in Guest Avenue last night.
The Horfield weather station records that we have had the wettest six month period since their records began in 2004. It recorded rain on 51 out of 60 days in January and February. And I guess we are all beginning to feel it in our bones.
Also – Our grafting session was great fun and particularly interesting as we tried to make new copies of some old trees from Magpie Bottom. Here are Venetia and Jim learning the art! I hope to do some trees that Mark is trying to preserve shortly. We shall see if we were successful.
food in one of our gardens where hedgehogs have been present since 2013.
This is Horace the Hedgehog. He is currently asleep in his house in a garden in Emersons Green. Horace and the other hedgehogs of the area are under threat. They face real difficulties surviving in our sort of society and may go extinct in the UK within the next decade. Their numbers have already decreased from 36 million in the 1950s to just 500,000 animals today.
It is with great sadness that I report the passing of John who walked the park every day with his German Shepherd Tess. It is probably no exaggeration to say that everyone knew John, because he stopped and spoke to so many and always had some story to tell. John loved the park and maybe the park loved him. He would quietly try to save the frogspawn when the wet patches were drying out. He would look out for the foxes he met in the nighttime. And he was particularly pleased with the new benches.
