Nosey Nature Day – with Fungal Punk Dave
20th May 2012
NOSEY NATURE DAY
Join us and Fungal Punk Dave at
Griffin Wood, Hall Lane, Bold, St Helens, Merseyside.
For a great day looking at a bit of this, that and t’other and hopefully ID’ing them at a a great reserve ideal for coming up with an assortment of natures wonders.
We will supply survey equipment such as nets, hand lenses, identification sheets/posters/leaflets and we are hoping to set out some moth traps the night before.
Numbers are limited so please book in advance to avoid disapointment
E-mail - maryw3 @ virginmedia.com (please remove the spaces in the e-mail address)
Xmas Decorations Event – Pictures
The Friends of Griffin Wood would like to thank everybody who attended our ‘making Christmas decorations from natural materials’ event which was organised in collaboration with Paul Bamber of Access To Nature – TMF.
Our first group of the day
A selection of the materials used
The first minibus attending came with ‘Up Ponky’ – a creative over fifties group who meet at the LEAF Centre, Chester Lane. They bravely arrived during the morning when we had torrential rain. Others attending during the day included. Ali a trainer with the Expert Patient Programme (EPP) and member of the Health Improvement Team. The EPP held a get together in Griffin Wood earlier in the year and are looking forward to other events.
Some members of Up Ponky get creative
Ali proud owner of a Xmas wreath
Others who arrived and enjoyed themselves had links with ‘Women Supporting Women’ whom we will be working with in the new year and some members of other Friends groups – Bob and Kelly – who came to support the event. Congrats must go to Reg who Won the largest wreath competition and Declan! who was a great help with his added enthusiasm. Unfortunatly we had a few cancellations due to the weather, which started off wet but soon brightened up, but stayed cold.
Billy gets some lessons from Andrea
Karen shows off her wreath
A special thanks must go to our artist for the day Andrea (Kelly-Lansley). Who didnt seem to stop for the whole day, possibly to keep warm.
Even the horses were interested
Another proud wreath designer
consentration was high
A close look at Bobs wreath
not everybody created wreaths some came to eat them
Some of our visitors and craftwork
Ali, Paul Bamber and Andrea our artist
Reg proud owner of our biggest wreath
A rainbow to finish the day, well done to all
Lottery Fund Sponsored
Xmas Decorations Event
Make Your Own
seasonal decorations
with natural materials
in the woods.
Held at Griffin Wood on
Saturday 3rd December from 10:00am to 2:00pm
This is a Free event complete with an Artist
Shuttle service from The LEAF Centre, Chester Lane, WA9 4DE – 9.45 a.m.;
Clock Face Colliery Country Park Car Park, Gorsey Lane – 10.00 a.m.
Further pick-ups by arrangement. Deadline 3 p.m., 30th November 2011 Contact Paul at paul.bamber@merseyforest.org.uk or 07770735333
Organised by the Friends of Griffin Wood and the Access To Nature Project
Busy November start
Discussing meadow creation and the benefits of GPS
It’s been a busy fortnight at Griffin Wood, starting with our monthly task day (on the first Saturday of the month if you wish to come along). We began by arranging for Ian Wright from Forever Meadows to come along with his petrol brushcutter to make a start on the first cut of our newly designated wildflower meadow areas. This cutting and subsequent clearance gives any wildflowers sown a better chance of out competing the grasses and taller scrub. The cut areas were then left for a couple of days to allow the dried seeds to fall before being raked up and removed.
Our New Meadow
On Monday we took the chance to rake up the newly cut hay and use it as a mulch around the bases of our orchard trees. A technique we had learned on a previous ‘Trees matter’ course held at Trafford Hall earlier in the year. The idea being to suppress grasses around the base of the trees, therefore encouraging better growth. If the weather stays fine we hope to clear more areas (hopefully ours) using Ian’s strimmer. Before spreading some new wildflower seeds.
Bill working hard
Not quite a Haywain
On Friday TFOGW and Ian Wright met up again but this time with added help from some Key Stage Three students and teachers from St Helens Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) who have been using the woods for ‘survival skills training’ with them offering to ‘repay’ this opportunity by carrying out woodland maintenance tasks. Never ones to turn down free labour we began by seeding the previously cut meadow with ‘Yellow Rattle’ a semi parasitic annual wild flower whose roots when coming into contact with grass roots remove nutrients for its own use. In this way Yellow rattle can actively stunt and suppress grass growth. The students then had a go at slashing the taller growth using hand slashers, before stopping for toasted cheese sandwiches around a raised campfire. The group was then split, with one group clearing a section of the stream by dragging out the large logs and debris using ropes. The other group made a start on clearing the brambles growing along the newly planted hedge as you enter the site. The two groups then met up again for a bit of ‘fun’ as some of the students attempted a high ladder climb up a tree while harnessed up.
Seeding the Yellow Rattle
Tree Climbing fun!!
Saturday was our Hurdle Making training day. Organised with the help of BTCV. Don Whiting was our instructor for the day and showed us two different ways of making the coppices hazel wands into panels. The plan is to use these around the site. Splitting some of the thicker wands was especially difficult to master but Don made it look easy. Everybody had a good time and manually splitting the hazel or forcing the Hazel into position helped to keep everybody warm aided of course by the constantly boiling Storm Kettle.
Beginning our first Hurdle
Finished Hurdle MKII
