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www.bradleystokejournal.co.uk
t: 01454 300 400
October 2021
News By Sara Messenger of the Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group had planned to wax lyrical about nature’s quilt of a thousand greens and of its subtle shift as she gently changes into her autumnal colours of red and brown, but as I stand yet again cold and dripping, peering through the torrential rain I can see no thousand greens, just a few grey blurs. Autumn’s approach has been far from subtle! With all this rain we had hoped that the ‘new’ pond on Bowsland Meadow would finally fill up, but it was not to be and annoyingly it seems to remain one of the driest areas on the reserve. Gill and I took a spade and discovered 8 inches down a very, very thin layer of clay and some white cloth lining. The only phrase I can repeat here is “As useful as a chocolate teapot,” although many others were used. Whilst not wanting to throw good money after bad, I remain tempted for us to just buy a plastic pond liner and be done with it. No woman likes to be kept waiting and five years is far too long to wait for the pond to establish itself.
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Brand New Mama Bear’s Day Nursery and Pre-school Coming Soon to Charlton Hayes This new nursery will be opening in Spring 2022 – for babies from 3 months to children of 5 years:
Community orchard
Before the rains came we were scything the community orchard and tending Colin’s allotment. Like the man himself, his allotment is colourful, productive, exuberant and just a tad untameable! This month, amongst the fruit bushes, we’ve
added onions, beans, potatoes and crow garlic, so next year’s foragers won’t have far to walk before their baskets are overflowing! It’s not been a good year for apples but we still have some fruit to pick and along with the last of the blackberries there is just enough left for a crumble or two. We have two apples trees that are of an unknown variety. Some of the fruit was picked, photographed, measured and finally tasted and next year we hope to be able to name them something other than A3931 and A3932. ‘Green-Gym Gage’ and ‘Bowsland Beauty’ are two of the suggestions so far, but I’m sure you can all come up with a few more. Next year there is a project to test old crab apple trees. We have a beauty close to the skate park but if you spot any others, not just on the reserve but anywhere in South Gloucestershire please note the location, take a picture and send it to us so that it can be included in the project.
Walks and talks
We have this month managed two bat walks, the first was for group members only. As it was the first time Andy Selman had led a public walk, we thought we should ‘test him out’ first. After all, if he can survive the group, he can survive anything. Even though we found very few bats, not even over the lake, which is usually a popular spot, we felt that had more to do with the
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Not retaining water: The ‘new’ pond on Bowsland Meadow
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23/09/2021 14:37