Identified flying objects

Happy New Year!
I noticed recently how busy the sky can be over the Green Patch. Private planes, helicopters, international airliners(high up and late at night), but also seagulls, pigeons, birds of prey and flocks of little birds.

In the news

Last week we had a visit from an "Evening Telegraph" team who later published an article about Groundwork. They took several photos of volunteers. Some students were painting fences and making an ingenious greenhouse out of plastic bottles.
Next Tuesday at 6 30 we are having a Christmas drop-in and hope to see some friends.

ploughing on

The main plot is looking very tidy as it has been ploughed over. Of course the plants which have been ploughed in including comfrey will act as"green manure". Leaves from the trees are useful too, many people put them in their broad bean trenches at this time. but there are plenty of leaves still on, due to the mild weather.

Free for all

The hedges at the Green Patch are full of birds helping themselves to the berries and the insects. They like the spindle tree berries ( poisonous to humans). The bees continue to visit the nasturtiums. A few days ago we had an evening party when lots of children dressed up and carved pumpkins.

New residents

Last week we obtained some more hens, ten battery hens from a refuge and ten point-of-lay pullets.
The battery hens tend to be a little aggressive with the young ones, but they are settling down and are growing new feathers where they were very bare. The point-of-lay have no combs yet, but one laid a tiny egg today, so they're getting the idea.
On Saturday we had a lecture and demo about poultry by a lady from Bedfordshire. She talked about diet and disease in poultry and showed us how to make nutritious treats for the hens.Then we inspected the pen and practised holding them.

Summer events

We had some nice community events in this area in the Summer, carnivals, scarecrow festivals, band recitals and cream teas.
In a few days we shall have an Autumn celebration at the Green Patch.

The paddocks

There are paddocks with horses across the river, and one year we had some manure from there. The resulting compost grew some lovely blewits, they were very tasty fried. As you will see, the nasturtiums have been a picture and we've grown lots of purslane, which some folk like for soup. I have pickled nasturtium seeds and made some grape jam.
Our volunteers are continuing with the great tidy-up.