SET-ASIDE
Some years ago, an area at the top of Kestrel Field was set aside from the rest of the field and its agricultural calendar. The reserve would be unmanageable without the help of our tenant farmer, but we also recognise that the twice yearly grass-cut does damage the habitat of some of our wildlife species.
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by Ian Bushell
As promised, a report on the chainsaw course that ran for four days from Tuesday 30th August to Friday 2nd September at Roland Heming, Fox Ridge, Motcombe. Clive Knight, Phil Riddle and myself attended.
Continue reading “Chainsaw”
by Ian Bushell
After the Wednesday Work Party had cleared away the vegetation from both sides of the dam, the contractor soon set to work.
Continue reading “Fixing the dam: part 2”
The dam at the downstream end of the big pond has been leaking.
Continue reading “Fixing the dam”
Wednesday’s work party task for the Friends was to cut back the tussocks in the set-aside at the top of Kestrel Field and to slow down the advance of the brambles from the hedge between the set-aside and The Arboretum.
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Wet Work Party
by Ian Bushell
We had a particularly wet and foul day for Wednesday’s work party. It didn’t stop raining the whole morning. That is two weeks on the trot now and most unusual for the Friends, normally we have good weather days between the bad.
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by Ian Bushell
A miserable morning, cold and very wet, with just the “Three Musketeers” turning up, Frank, Clive and myself.
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A work party report from Ian Bushell
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by Ian Bushell
On February 1st, Clive, Simon, Frank, Phil and I attended a LANTRA Hand Held Hedge Trimmer training course at Motcombe. Our instructor was Roland Heming of Forest and Arb Ltd.
Continue reading “Training day”
by Ian Bushell
We met on Wednesday morning, the 29th of December, in the car park but those third helpings of turkey and plum duff had depleted our numbers sadly. No Joan or Patrick, Simon, David, or Trish.
Continue reading “The last of 2021”
We can’t find nine ladies dancing. Come spring, we will have daffodils fluttering and dancing in the breeze, as per Wordsworth, but feel that the link is tenuous. We will also have ladies’ smocks flowering in the meadows but we used them up yesterday by calling them eight milkmaids.
Continue reading “On the ninth day”
by Ian Bushell
The weather was again kind to the working party: dry but not too hot. Another good turn out, just missing Sarah and Alan who are on holiday.
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Not a bad morning, not overly sunny but at least there was no rain.
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Another great turn out by the Friends on Wednesday and a beautiful morning to boot.
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The park has been so important to so many during this last locked-down year. People have come here for permitted exercise, to run their children and their dogs, to walk off their worries or just to stay sane in an increasingly insane world. Now that we are promised an end to the craziness, it is the park that needs a little help.
Continue reading “We need volunteers”
This is Pat, our champion litter picker; yesterday was her 91st birthday.
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Pat”
Pictures and a message from Clive Knight, long-time Friend of the Park:
Continue reading “To-do list”
There is a Chinese wingnut tree (Pterocarya stenoptera) in the Arboretum.
Continue reading “Wingnut”
Yesterday was FoSCP’s last work party in the park until after this period of lockdown ends. If all goes well, we will next meet on Wednesday, 9th December.
Park users, if you see that there is something to be fixed or damage to be mended, please contact us and we will do our best.
New fencing at Puddle Corner.
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From Wikipedia:
A whip is a slender, unbranched shoot or plant. This term is used in forestry to refer to unbranched young tree seedlings of approximately 0.5-1.0 m (1 ft 7 in-3 ft 3 in) in height and 2–3 years old, that have been grown for planting out.
With the loan of Hope Nature Centre’s mobile water tank (thank you Caroline) and armed with as many watering cans and buckets as we could muster, FoSCP set about watering the new hedge in Simpson’s Field. Not quite a work party, more a socially distanced rescue mission.
Coronavirus or no, trees have to be planted.
Continue reading “Planting trees”
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 