Reporting from the woodland

There has been so much going on and planned in the woodland.

Firstly, we hosted our Cake and Rake event on Saturday 16 August. We needed as many hands as possible to help rake our wildflower areas. This is an annual task we undertake to keep the meadow condition favourable for the diversity of flowers to bloom again next spring. The key part is removing the cuttings so they do not enrich the soil! We had a keen group of volunteers and managed to get the whole area raked in just under 4 hours, along with a couple of cake breaks (see the header photo)! A HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to help. See pages 20-21 for photos.

Secondly, some of you may have noticed the installation of a new structure in the woods. This is the Remembrance Pillar up by the reflection area. We felt we needed to offer better opportunity for memorials within the woodland given the limited capacity for benches and an increase in requests. As such, a plaque can now be purchased and installed on the pillar to remember loved ones. Plaques cost £20 (cost only covered) and require an annual membership to be taken out (£10 a year). For more information, contact us on fipwlimited@gmail.com

Finally, we are excited to announce our autumn event for this year - Minibeast Mayhem! We have centred this event around insects as we have the children from Launton Primary School designing their own insect hotels. Their designs will be showcased at the event. The winning design will later be built and installed in the woodland! All profits from this event will go directly back into upkeep of the site - this is our biggest fundraiser of the year so we really appreciate your support. See the back cover for more info.

FIPW team

August in the Woodland - reporting on the Rake and Cake event and the Remembrance Pillar

On Saturday 16 August the Island Pond woodland meadows were alive with busy workers, raking up the cut grass and dumping it inside the tree line, followed by drinks and pieces of cake. See above for a report about the event, an update on the Remembrance Pillar, and news of the Minibeast Mayhem event. See at the end of this piece for more about the Minibeasts.