Hello one and all and welcome to your regular blog update about our goings on here at the Tree Life Centre. With March bringing the changing of the seasons from winter to spring, and the weather slowly improving, the tasks around the site have also been changing as the trees are starting to bud.
One of our new signs
We started the month as ever with the time of year with one of the favourite activities for the volunteers, grafting our new apple trees. With our preferred grafting method of whip and tongue it only gives us a small time frame of early spring it’s perhaps the most anticipated time, hopefully it’s not just because the guys get to play with knives! As with last year we also ran grafting workshops utilising our new teaching area. Hopefully the majority of the grafts will be successful and the new apple trees will be on sale next year. However we have plenty of previous year’s grafts for sale so pop by and see what we have on offer!
Our new gate
The month has seen the most visual changes to the Centre thanks to the redevelopment. With the tree trail being screened off by six foot high willow fences it really makes the public area very different, giving the trail a very secret garden feel. We have also had our new carved gate fitted with a few new carved signs around the farm so you know exactly where we are (in relation to other things too). In the walkway an obstacle course is starting to take shape with wooden balance steps and logs, wooden stepping stones to jump across with more to be added over the course of time.
The willow fence being put up
Finally, we held an open schools day where a handful of local schools came to the site and helped us finish planting up the walk with trees, wildflowers and seeds. We had woodcarving activities making signs for the walkway, which will hopefully be up and finished soon as the volunteers had a go at it the week after too. The pizza oven was fired up, so those who wanted it had pizzas in the afternoon tried it after making them. If you have a school group and are interested in bringing them to our centre for conservation activities then please do get in touch.
Parish notices:-
On Friday 10th April we will be holding an Easter Fun Day with lots of activities for kids including bug hunting, pond dipping, face painting and lots more! The fun kicks off at 11am until 3pm.
We are always running new events so if you are interested in things such as green wood working and willow weaving (which we have recently run) then keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook and Twitter pages where they are announced.