The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good –

We have a lovely new bench on the hill towards Mayeswood Road entrance, paid for through local assembly funding. It is situated in a great spot for a view across the park and offers a welcome resting place for those struggling up the hill to get back home after enjoying the park.

 

The Bad – We had a pollution problem in the Quaggy on Tuesday, noted by one of our vigilant dog walkers early in the morning. It was quite localised and luckily, with the rain coming at just the right time, it seems to have been washed away without doing too much harm

 

 

 

 

The Ugly – Like so many of our local parks we are having real difficulty keeping the litter problem under control. While it is great to see more and more people use the parks we really want to cut down on the litter problem. We have put up some posters to encourage people to take rubbish and recycling home if they can. I’m not sure if it will help.

We still have many open bins and foxes and other wildlife love to get in and rummage around for food scraps, the result is not pretty and encourages more littering as people can’t see the point of bothering to get to a bin.

 

Yoga in the park

Peer through the vegetation on a Saturday morning and you will see a yoga session with Geny. These sessions are organised by ChART Big Local and are FREE so why not come and give it a try over the next few weeks    They take place on the following dates; July 1st, 15th, 22nd, 29th, August 1st  from 10.00 – 11.00

3 Rivers Clean up

Come along on Thursday 22nd June at 16.30

Here are some photos from previous 3RCU in Chinbrook Meadows to entice you.

 

 

This year we come in at the end of the three week extravaganza for a bit of bug sampling and water testing to go alongside our river clearing.

Float Your Boats

A Great Get Together event in the park organised by QWAG. We created a flotilla of home made boats on the Quaggy on 18th June. People from many different parts of our community came together for a fun event, some brought boats they had created with care and dedication at home and others came and had a go at creating one on the spot with materials provided. I think Manor Park and Ladywell Fields, who also had events over the weekend, may have had better water flow than us but we didn’t mind, just getting our boats to float was cause for celebration!

A water related event was a fitting tribute to the MP Jo Cox as she had lived on a house boat on the Thames. Our event made its own contribution to the nationwide pronouncement that we have more in common than divides us.

Orchard Care

Twelve of us worked on the orchard again yesterday. We had great weather for most of the time with a heavy rain shower appearing right at the end. Glendale provided some new guards for us as the branches had been rubbing badly on the old tall, narrow cages. We weeded and mulched the base once more and, since Glendale had recently cut the grass, the end result was very satisfying. Apples are forming well and we have begun to plan our Apple Day event in October, joining up to celebrate and make a day of it with the Chinbrook Allotments Orchard group. We have had really helpful advice from our mentor Alona Sheridan and the Orchard Project.

Park Events May-June

Date and time	Event	Organised by	Information	Meeting place
22nd May 10.30 -11.30	Walking Group	ChART	Gentle walking Runs every week	WG Grace Centre, Lions Close
27th May 10.00-11.00	Boot Camp	ChART and Downham Health and Leisure Centre	Free fitness class with a trainer	Tennis courts
3rd June 10.00-11.00	Boot Camp	ChART and Downham Health and Leisure Centre	Free fitness class with a trainer	Tennis courts
3rd June 10.30-12.30	Nature Club	ChART	A half term event for families, open to all	Boardwalk
6th June 11.00-14.00	River bank conservation	Rivers and People Nature Conservation Lewisham	A session working on the river banks, clearing nettles etc	Look for blue van by river
10th June 10.00-11.00	Boot Camp	ChART and Downham Health and Leisure Centre	Free fitness class with a trainer	Tennis courts
18th June 11.00-13.00	Float Your Boat	QWAG	Part of the “Great Get Together” Bring your own mini  boat/raft or come and make one before launching off down river	Arched bridge over Quaggy
22nd June 16.30-18.30	3 Rivers Clean up	FOCM and Thames 21	A chance to explore the Quaggy as it goes through the park, clean up litter and remove any invasives. Also some citizen science, water testing and exploring wildlife	Arched bridge over Quaggy
24th June 11.00-13.00	Conservation/ Clean up	FOCM	Our monthly session to clean up and improve areas in the park for people and wildlife	Café at pavilion

Conservation/clean up session

Come and join us for our next conservation session in the park  on Saturday 20th May, 11.00 -13.00. Meet at the cafe. Lots of different jobs, come and lend a hand.