Friday 21 June 2013

The Big Pull

Foolhardily, I challenged @TimSykesEA to a Himalayan balsam pulling day on July 2nd. I then asked if Richard Weaver, Keep Wales Tidy's Cardiff Officer if he'd like to join in too. So at 6 pm anyone is invited to come along to Henllys LNR to see if we can pull up loads of Himalayan balsam and make the tallest pile, hopefully not finishing last, the more the merrier. Just bring gloves and suitable clothing.

Meet: 6 pm July 2nd 2013.
Location: Car Park off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

1st Henllys Scouts will be coming along too and now they know what they are doing after Monday's efforts, we may well get a bigger pile this time for pics see here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjG93kWv .

 
 
 

Sunday 9 June 2013

Next Event, this Thursday 13th June @7pm and some other useful information.

Thursday 13th June at 7 pm, meet Car Park off Birch Grove, NP44 6EP.

Event: Himalayan Balsam pull
Date: Thursday 13th June at 7pm.
Meeting Point: Henllys LNR Car Park

We'll be tackling Himalayan balsam for the first time this year and looking at where we have had success over the last 4 pulling seasons.

Bring gardening gloves if you have them, sturdy good gripped shoes or wellies/waders if going into the stream.

Contact Chris on 07824504813 or friendsofhenllyslnr@gmail.com for more details or if you are planning on joining us.

The pond is starting to look pretty good regarding pond life, the picture shows a beautiful blue darter dragonfly, which almost met its Waterloo to a sparrow. The lower pond also has tadpoles, late stage, and loads of different types of diving and skating beetles.
 
There are lots of nice flowers around at the minute to take our minds off the Himalayan balsam which is creeping up in height in many places of the reserve. One such plant is ragged robin, which really enjoys having its feet wet.
 
There are some places which are recovering very nicely after our previous 4 seasons of pulling the balsam and they are looking pretty good:
The lower streams of the reserve look particularly bad this year and we may concentrate on these sections this year, hopefully with some help from Coed Eva and Henllys Church in Wales Primary Schools and the Henllys Scouts. However, anyone is welcome to come along and either join in with us, or pull some up on your own. Just remember, pull it up cleanly, bend it in half, Chineese burn it and put it in as big a pile as possible.
 

Thursday 6 June 2013

Iolo's plea about the Welsh countryside

If you have a little time, watch Iolo's talk. It is great to hear someone talking about something that they care so much about without fear of the political repercussions. Embedded from http://youtu.be/FnJQjtvngqA



We are so lucky to have our nature reserve on our doorstep. We have a big old wet meadow here, and you can see the orange tip butterflies fluttering around at the minute. We are too small and have too many dogs for nesting skylarks or lapwings, but you can sit on a bank and watch and listen to the birds and you may get a dark bush cricket jump on you. I hope you are enthused as I was after watching this clip.