It’s been a busy six weeks since my last blog. With a good mixture of things happening with South Gloucestershire Council and also TCV. I have been very busy down at the Tree Life Centre on Grimsbury Farm over the last few weeks and it feels like we are really winning with transforming the site. We now have a re developed and organised shop area as well as a new pond that the corporate groups from the Royal Bank of Scotland helped us design and build. They also helped renovate our wildflower area at the back of the site as well as construct the frame for our new Polly tunnel which a group of local volunteers and myself finally put the roof on last Thursday. It’s proving a real challenge to manage the site at this time of year especially with the weather we have been having and everything growing so fast. So it’s been fantastic to have the continued commitment and hard work from the volunteer groups as with out there help the site would soon be resembling the Amazon Jungle.
As far as working with the Council I was lucky enough to spend an absolutely fantastic day last week down at Manor Farm near Bath last Wednesday. The day was hosted by Donald Macintyre who had kindly agreed to show myself and 20 other lucky attendees from a range of South Gloucestershire Community Groups around his 120ha farm. In true English style the day began with a cup of tea and a biscuit as well as a little introduction from Donald about his farm and the work that he does. We were then treated to a personal tour of a number of his wildflower meadows located upon the exposed slopes above the farm. I personally found the tour very interesting and insightful and it was fantastic to see first-hand a wildflower meadow that had been developed over many years. I somewhat naively thought that if you plant a few wildflower seeds one year then the next year you would have your blossoming wildflower meadow. Unfortunately I soon learnt these wildflower meadows take a significant number of years to mature. Nonetheless it was great to see the variety of wildflowers on show and experience the fantastic view on offer. I also believed Donald’s advice and information on the meadows to be really beneficial for us guys at the Council, as well as the Community groups in South Gloucestershire who are thinking about having a wildflower meadow on their sites. The weather was also fantastic and that really helped us make the most of a great day. On the downside being out in the fields all day caused me to have the worst heafever I’ve probably ever had, by the end of the day I was literally foaming at the mouth and must have sneezed well over 100 times.
While working at South Gloucestershire Council I have been working hard on a questionnaire that I have designed for local community groups in South Gloucestershire. The questionnaire will give the community groups the opportunity to have their say and to tell the council know what support they will need from us to help them look after their community spaces.
The results from the questionnaire will form part of my project that I guess you will all have started by now. Well hopefully anyways ha-ha!! As with any questionnaire I’m sure getting returns is going to be quite a challenge so I’m gonna have to start thinking quickly of incentives to provide people with in order to ensure I get plenty of data.
Anyways that’s it for now I know the next few months are gonna be proper busy so best get to it. I’ve just booked onto a surveying course in Pembroke in Wales in August so can’t wait for that. Let’s hope the weather is great!