We’ll be going ahead with more planting tomorrow (Monday 9th December). The day is forecast fine, and it would be so good to see lots of people there. It’ll be the same area, the field beside Cricklade Road, and the same time to start, 10.00 a.m.

If you come by car and park in the small car park off Pinehurst Road, just follow the cycle path round on foot to the other side of HBUF.

We had greater numbers today, including a family with two dogs, three children, one grandfather and lots of tea/coffee/hot chocolate and flapjacks. And they did lots of tree planting, too.

Just a small note about how we plant – we put in the large-canopy trees first at a distance of about 2m (that’s four adult paces), and then infill with the smaller, forest-edge plants. Steve will have delineated the areas within which we plant.

We started our tree planting today in Cricklade Field. Two people who excelled themselves today were Scott and Fergus, who planted an amazing number of trees – such hard workers.

We shall be planting again tomorrow, Sunday 8th, also in Cricklade Field, again starting at 10.00. Since the days are now so short, we will be working until about 3.00/3.30.

So 10.00 tomorrow (7th) and 10.00 Sunday (8th December) to start our tree-planting . Cricklade Field is the site to be first planted. Come one, come all to this joyous occasion. Even the weather forecast is looking promising (but Sssh, just in case).

• Saturday 7^th and Sunday 8^th December
• Meet at the car park beside Pinehurst Road, SN2 1RH, at 10.00
• Follow the signs for the tree-planting
• If you’re coming on foot, go straight to the Cricklade Road entrance beside the Chinese takeaway
• Bring stout footwear and a spade (if you have one)

A lot will depend on how many people come each day and how many trees are left to plant.

Therefore, any further tree planting details will have to wait.

The Consultation

Those who took part in this were overwhelmingly in favour of planting more trees and continuing our wildflower meadows. 

In order to give a fair picture of the responses, there was one person who didn’t want any trees to be planted, and seven people who didn’t want any additional areas of woodland near HBUF. 

There were, however, twenty-two people who wished to become members of HBUF (I haven’t yet managed to get your details from the Clerk of the Parish, but will get in touch with you as soon as I have them).

If we look at the questions/responses in slightly more detail, people:-

valuing free natural space in neighbourhood – 95%

visiting daily – 33%

visiting on a weekly basis – 50%

visiting never – 1.2%

valuing having native woodland in neighbourhood – 98%

not valuing having native woodland in neighbourhood – 1.2%

wishing to see additional areas of woodland adjacent to HBUF – 91.5%

not wishing to see additional areas of woodland adjacent to HBUF – 8.5%

Well, who would have thought it?  That which was imminent has now come to pass, and the responsibility for our HBUF lease has now legally passed to the Central Swindon North Parish Council.  Not only that, but with a ninety-nine-year term. 

With the help of the Parish we have set up a consultative survey on our proposed “Towards Ten Thousand Trees” project.  We would genuinely like as many replies as possible so please fill in the survey and share as much as possible.  Your support and encouragement are vital to our plans.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2YGH2BY

Not only that, and also in relation to that same project of ours, the Parish have asked HBUF to plant some trees on Cobden Green, an area of grass and existing trees off Iffley Road.  Steve Thompson measured the area and drew up a plan to plant four hundred and fifty trees.  This plan was approved by the Parish, who have ordered the trees which will be delivered in early December. 

We need all the help we can get to plant these trees.  We would particularly like people local to the area to help us plant, as well as local councillors from both councils.  So please pencil in 9^th December as planting day.

Brilliant news, I’m sure you will agree.  Well, I’m pretty chuffed about it.

I cannot keep on saying how bad it is that it’s so long since I last wrote anything here.  Perhaps I should just put something like, ‘Ditto, more of the same’?

Anyway, we have achieved a great deal over the past few months, with decisions taken on the adoption of a code of conduct and a plan for the next ten years, our ‘plan of works’.  All very well setting out a plan of works, you might remark; now we have to put in the building blocks so that the works might happen.  That’s a way of referring to the ‘so little’ in the title.

Well, with regard to that, we are still in the limbo of not yet having our tractor nor of not yet being taken under the aegis of the Central Swindon North Parish Council, although we know that both of these things are imminent, and have been for some months.  Little joke there, do you see?

There have been some ructions, which is inevitable when huge projects such as ours are in the pipeline, and as you will discover when you read our minutes page for August and September.  We soldier on, nevertheless.

Our wildflower meadow this year was beautiful.  It is all coming together, and we were delighted to see how many different species were coming up, as well as the wonderful comments we received about the grass vetchling lathyrus nissolia – yes, this wasn’t something I had ever heard of, either, and found out that it was a very small, sweet-pea-like plant, but very pretty.  You can see it on our new leaflet; it’s a vibrant cerise pink (odd that cherries aren’t that colour, yet the word cerise is French for cherry – well, it’s a mystery! Although the French word puce means flea, and our colour puce refers to a kind of maroon).  We are the lucky recipients, too, of the gift of some more yellow rattle seeds which we will be able to sow soon.

We met some lovely people at the Pinehurst Fund Day this year, and will certainly be there again next year, proudly displaying our new banner. You’ll be able to see this before next year, when we use it as part of our consultation process. Also imminent. Also imminent for some months. Stale joke.

What more can I say at the moment?  Probably loads I’ve forgotten for now, but will be able to relate at another time.

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 14^th 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)