Branchlines April Updates
BRANCHLINES and OLD SCHOOL WOOD
Working Party. Saturday 25th April
Volunteers will meet as usual at 9.30am by the benches on the main track. All tools provided but you are welcome to bring your own. Bring a hot drink for 11am chat and refreshment break. The tree planting and coppicing season is over and we will be in transition to grassland management
Update. We now have the finished design for the main entrance sign. Many thanks to Helen Senior for her skill and patience. The aim is to have it printed on to a metal/plastic dibond sheet and mounted in an oak frame.
Money raised at the White Horse in memory of David Hilditch has been used to buy a new bench to go by the main pond.
The hedge laying course last month improved our skills.Three of us were able to continue the work without supervision. Much coppicing of hazel has been carried out, providing stakes and ‘hetherings’ for this work. Dead hedges were built up further as a habitat for small birds and mammals.
The first spring flowers (after the snowdrops) are here and many more will appear this month including, we hope, on the chalk bank where we sowed specialist seed last autumn. Frogspawn has just been seen in one of our ponds; please keep dogs out of the water.
Please do not take away wood from the various piles we have made; it all has a use or purpose.
David Taylor
ST. LAWRENCE CHURCHYARD
Working Party. Saturday 11th April. If you would like to help with ongoing general maintenance, meet 9.30am at the churchyard. No special skills needed and we stop for a chat and refreshments at 11am.
Update. Mowing the grass will have started. Expect to see more information on display this spring. Simplified version Graveyard Rules with notification that prohibited items will be removed after Easter. All Dogs to be kept on leads.
We have started to add soil to level up graves which sank during the heavy rains of late winter. Dead branches have been collected up and tidied away. The compost bins are for soft vegetation only so, please, no turf, plastic, woody prunings. There is a litter bin next to the compost bin and dog poo bins elsewhere.
I have watched three kestrels in the big sycamore tree. Birds are prospecting for places to nest and they may choose one of our nestboxes, trees or hedges. There should be plenty of natural food available for them in the churchyard and immediate neighbourhood.
David Taylor
