Here we are in June and it’s nearly July – how does the time pass so quickly?
In my last blog I mentioned the
Eco-Fest of 14th April, which turned out to be amazing. We met so many like-minded people who were
interested in our plans and gave us so much moral support. We made lots of contacts and gleaned ideas
that we are fully prepared to steal adopt. We have the promise of work from a
tree-surgeon, who will start some coppicing for us in the autumn, as well as a
supremely gifted individual who is helping us with social media (I might go so
far as to describe her as ‘stellar’), and many people who are prepared to pave
the way for us when we need to approach local schools for opportunities to
speak to groups of students.
Through her work, we now have an email address, a Twitter page, a public Facebook page, and an Instagram account. Since I am ensconced in the Dark Ages, I have not yet availed myself of all of these, but have logged on (to all but Instagram) and know they exist. Instagram is next to be conquered, I just have to download the app (sigh! Again).
At the Eco-Fest Steve gave his talk about HBUF, in which he coined a new acronym, ‘Trimby’ – ‘Trees in my back yard’. This experience will stand him and us in good stead when we launch our campaign later on in the year, and need to give illustrated talks to several groups of people.
Through Community First, a charitable trust based in Devizes, we have acquired the services of someone who has been establishing our new logo, a simplified map, literature for our leaflet, and so much more. Everything takes a lot longer than we imagined, but I expect that is a common theme. I shall be posting an example of our new leaflet either with this blog, or in our next one. It is very colourful, simple in its design and exactly what we wanted.
We are also in the throes of ordering our first banner; this will be what is called a ‘feather banner’ and it will be illustrated by some of the designs that have been produced for us (well, naturally, stating the obvious there).
Our wildflower meadow is coming along beautifully. We were complimented on its progress by Richard Aisbitt, the Joint Botanical Recorder for Wiltshire, who remarked particularly on the presence of grass vetchling lathyrus nissolia . Well! Who knew? It’s actually very pretty, though very small, and does indeed resemble sweetpea. There are lots of vetch, golden rattle, dog roses, clover, geranium and flowers I don’t know the name of, like the white daisies that have been springing up. There should be lots of birds foot trefoil a little later on in the season as well. I went out to take some photographs of the whole area a week or so ago, and should be able to display these here somewhere. There was one plant in particular that was absolutely covered in bumble bees; I took several photographs of it, hoping to get some bumblebees as well, but they kept on moving. And can’t be seen in the photograph. Hmmm.
It’s an exciting time, and will be even more exciting when we’ve got our compact tractor.
The list of trees and shrubs we shall be planting will include:
Tree Species
Alder (Alnus glutinosa)
Aspen (Populus tremula)
Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
Bird Cherry (Prunus padus)
Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris)
Downy Birch (Betula pubescens)
Field Maple (Acer campestre)
Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
Lime (Small Leaf) (Tilia cordata)
Oak (Common) (Quercus robur)
Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)
Silver Birch (Betula pendula)
Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa)
Walnut (Juglans rtegia)
Whitebeam (Sorbus aria)
Wild Cherry (Prunus avium)
Shrub Species
Alder Buckthorn (Frangula Aanus)
Dog Rose (Rosa canina)
Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea)
Elder (Sambucus nigra)
Guelder Rose(Viburnum opulus)
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
Hazel (Corylus avellana)
Holly (Illex aquifolium)
Spindle (Euonymus europaea)