Birthday Party on Sunday 6th June

Sunday 6th June is the 7th anniversary of the opening of the Visitors' Centre @ Bedfords Park. Please come along and join in the celebrations. There will be live music, craft stalls, childrens' activities, and much more. This is a free event but donations are welcome. Let's hope for some more of that sunny weather we had recently. We did, didn't we, or was I dreaming ?

June work day

Our next work day is on Sunday June 13th @ Bedfords Park Visitors' Centre. 10 am start as usual.

Hope to see you there.

Work Party Sunday 9th May 2010 - report

The dipping platform before ....................

And after

We had our first task determined for us by nature as a large hawthorn tree had 'fallen over' a week before onto part of the dipping platform. Fortunately no pond dipping was planned. we removed as little as we needed to enable access to the platform once again. The tree was still alive so it should carry on growing even though it is on it's side .The 'prunings' were used to reinforce the 'dead hedge' by the bridleway.

Our second task was to clear the ditch along the bridleway. It had become clogged up with dead leaves, branches and rocks/bricks. This was the sort of work we like - getting wet and muddy, and in this case, smelly as well. In addition one of our team carried on with our last month's task of removing saplings from the meadow.

Men at work ....................

and, men at play - if their kids did this they'd get a telling off !

Bi Monthly meeting in The Town Hall

Our next meeting is on Thursday 13th May 2010 @ 7.30 pm and finishing @ 9.30 pm. All are wellcome but to ensure seating available please advise us of your intention to come. Phone 01708 704619 or email fobp@hotmail.co.uk .

Sunday 11th April work day

Apologies for this 'report' being late.

This Sunday we cut down, pulled up or dug up oak saplings in the meadow. This may seem to be a bit destructive but if they aren't removed then the grass cannot be cut, and eventually the meadow will return to woodland. In the afternoon we did a litter pick around the main pond area. The litter situation appears to have improved but this is only due to a small number of dedicated people who take time, their own time, to pick up litter whilst walking in the park. So a very big THANKS to those concerned - I won't embarrass them by mentioning names but they and other regular park users/dog walkers know who they are! Just one additional thing to report - towards the end of our day we spotted a RED KITE over the meadow area. It was quite low and could easily be recognised with the naked eye. It flew over towards the east then turned northwards over Nursery Wood.

Our next work day is on Sunday 9th May 2010.

Successful Easter Event

We are very pleased to announce that we made a total of £72.16 on Sunday 4th April at the visitors' centre. We had two tables selling home made cakes and bric-a-brac. Many thanks to all those involved in 'manning' the tables but special thanks go to Carol and Francesca for baking all those wonderfully tasty cakes. Thanks also to Fay at Essex Wildlife Trust for allowing us to have the tables for the day. Fay's cakes were also very nice !

Official 'Friends' Status attained

We were extremely pleased to be told at this year's Parks Forum, that we had successfully achieved official 'Friends' status. Many thanks to our chairman, Nick, for all his hard work in getting the paperwork, and 'us' organised in time to achieve this.