Woodland Fayre

The plans for our Woodland Fayre are going well and we have had a tremendous response from individuals and companies that we have approached, for support, in one way or another.

For visitors, the day will start at 11 o'clock. There will be plenty to see and buy, in and around the Village Hall and Buckle's Wood. You will be amazed to discover that being green covers such a wide range of activities.

There will be a BIG ECO-RAFFLE.
Games and prizes
Locally grown strawberries for summery refreshments.
Examples of solar technology.
Chickens and eggs.

While the Steering Group is busy adding to this list, our bit of hedge laying is busy recovering from its experience!

Progress Report

The preparations for our Woodland Fayre are growing apace, with offers of support arriving nearly every day, from people and companies that want to get involved. Green living and taking care of our environment is such a vast topic!
To date, here are some of the things that you will be able to see and buy.

• Wild flower and tree growers.
• Sustainable uses of wood. (wood burning stoves, wood turning and carving)
• Bags of compost to buy and win.
• Gifts of goodies from Ecover (UK) ltd and James White Drinks Ltd.
• Home made produce from the WI.
• A barbecue using locally sourced meat.

A gift of little oaks

Earlier this year, the Green Light Trust advised all woodland groups that the Dedham Vale Project had Surplus Oak saplings to give away. After one or two phone calls, Richard Parmee delivered a very generous bundle of 100+ trees, fifty of which were planted by the school, before the dry weather set in.
The rest are heeled in and doing very well at the edge of our veggie patch and will be included in our last planting session in November.
Thank you GLT for sending us details of this offer and a special thanks to Richard for delivering the trees ~~ the elms on the way into Elmsett from Ipswich, look great with their new growth of leaves.

Our Summer Woodland Fayre

We shall be holding a Woodland Fayre on Saturday 21st July.

EGGS has asked everyone at Elmsett School to help make this event a fun day out with an eco-friendly theme - a celebration of green living!

There will be a barbecue, stalls, refreshments, prizes, demonstrations of basket weaving and wood carving, and lots more. If the weather is good, we shall spread out into Buckle's Wood, amongst the newly planted trees.

We would like to hear from people or companies that make or sell environmentally friendly products and would like to be part of our day. Just leave your details and we shall get back to you!

Much Mulching in March

Another lovely day for our mulching and Easter Egg hunt.
All the green compost was distributed around our trees by 11.30, so we were able to enjoy a relaxed coffee and cake break, before doing some tidying up work . We finished off the morning with delicious homemade soup and rolls, provided by Blanch and her refreshment team.
The Easter Eggs hunters mingled with the mulchers, searching for "eggs" and returned to collect their bounty, red faced and gleeful!
A BIG thank you to everyone for making it such an enjoyable occasion.

Mulch Mountain

Thank you John Jewers of Ashbro Feeds for providing the FREE mulching material for our next working party session (Saturday 31st March) and James Seeley, who brought it back to Elmsett
from the Foxhall landfill site, via diversions, back lanes and lots of traffic heading the other way!
If you have ever wondered what happens to the contents of your brown wheelie bin, well, it's composted and some of it will be helping trees to grow big and strong in Buckle's Wood.

The Next Working Party

We shall be mulching and tidying up at Buckle's Wood on Saturday 31st March between 10am and 1pm.

Refreshments in return for hard work!

Come along and join us if you have time to spare.

Ingredients for a Novice Hedge Laying Day

A bright, sunny day in February, with rooks flying overhead and ladybirds creeping about, enjoying the weather

A challenging length of hedgerow.

Expert help and advice from hedge layer Adrian Walters, who trained at Otley College and now manages the Sudbury Common Lands Trust and is a wildlife advisor to Suffolk Wildlife Trust and the Green Light Trust.

Grenville Clarke, from The Green Light Trust, who supplied tools, knowledge and encouragement.

Add a break for a generous helping of home made soup.

Mix it all together with an enthusiastic, hardworking group of green volunteers.

Brilliant!

Broadcasting EGGS

On a bright, breezy Saturday morning a few members of the steering group and younger tree planters gathered at Buckle's Wood to meet Rachel Sloane from BBC Radio Suffolk. We looked at the trees and talked about beginnings, good fortune and future plans. Not without some trepidation, we all rose to the occasion, having been reassured that blunders would be edited out.

Our contribution to Rachel's early morning breakfast show will be broadcast on Saturday 27th January - it starts at 6 o'clock! If you miss it, you can listen again during the following week via BBC Radio Suffolk's website, where you will be able to see some photos and information.

Happy New Year 2007

Goodbye 2006Last year, with help from a lot of willing volunteers, we raked and heaped up grass from about 3 acres of the field, planted and mulched over 1500 trees and shrubs and managed to select good weather for our working party days! So, thank you everyone for helping to make last year such an enjoyable success.

We shall hope to see you all again this year, heading towards Buckle's Wood, with welly boots on and gardening implements to hand. We shall need to spend some time dong maintenance work, culminating with our last tree planting session in November. There will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to get involved, even the less energetic can help! All activities will be advertised on this blog.

Bird's-eye view of Buckle's Wood

We would like to thank Bob Dewes and the crew of the Sea King search and rescue helicopter, who, with special authorisation from Elmsett and Wattisham airfields hovered over our village, to take some great 'photos of our newly planted community woodland.

I don't believe it!

Another gorgeous day for our working party.

Beautiful saplings from Sandy Lane Nursery, Wattisfield.
Loads of volunteers to plant them.
Grenville from The Green Light Trust helped and kept us on the right path.
Juliet Hawkins, from Buckle's Farm, inspired children to be creative.
Plenty of wholesome refreshments to distract us from our mission.
Over 800 trees and shrubs planted and mulched

Finished by 2.30.

BRILLIANT

Thank you everyone

An essential service

(Left to right) Jackie Parkinson, Blanche Seager, Anne Rivers & Diane Diss kept all the volunteers fed with delicious soup and home made cakes, and provided lots of tea and coffee to keep everyone going on the 18th November Planting Day.

EVERYONE WELCOME

Our next tree planting session will be on
Saturday 18th November,
from 10 o'clock onwards.
We shall have 800+ trees and shrubs to plant.
No heavy digging is required! Please bring
a wheelbarrow, spade and lump hammer
(We have some equipment that people can use).
Please mark your tools in some way for easy
identification at the end of the day.
SOUP AND REFRESHMENTS

for hungry workers.

Hope to see you there!

Still Life?

Grow a tree

Now's the time of year to collect tree seeds. Children from Elmsett school have collected seeds for Buckle's Wood. Whether or not Elmsett children go to the local school, they can still grow trees at home - the BBC provides some simple instructions. However, please don't grow conkers (chestnut seeds) as they're not suitable for our project. Instead, please try ash, oak, hornbeam, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, or elder. The more trees we grow ourselves, the fewer we have to buy.

The Green Light Trust

CONGRATULATIONS!

The Green Light Trust's new, deeply green and environmentally friendly headquarters has received an award from R.I.B.A.

Read all about it at The Green Light Trust website.

"Like a medieval landscape"

Maybe this is the sort of thing Sue meant?

Part of 'Haymaking', by Pieter Bruegel, 16th century.

Well done everyone!

On a lovely warm Saturday morning, starting at 10.00 o'clock, about 60 adults and children raked, wheelbarrowed and heaped the hay into big piles. We were sustained by delicious refreshments, supplied by Blanche, Jackie, Diane, Lorna and Alison and were finished by early afternoon.

The youngsters deserve a special mention, as most of them were under 12 years old. They all worked willingly and with enthusiasm (with a little bit of mischief making at the end!!). We left with the piles of hay intact and the field looking strangly like a medieval landscape.

We are now ready to plant our next lot of 830 trees and shrubs on November 18th. Let's hope the weather will be kind again.

One man went to mow.

We need to prepare the field for our next tree planting session in November, so Russell Goodchild mowed the grass on Monday 9th October, watched by excited members of the playgroup.

He did a good job, but what a lot of hay to rake into heaps on the 14th October! This is just a small part of the field.

EGGS News

At the Steering Group meeting on 6th September, EGGS elected the following people as officers for the year: Chair – Sue Mackie; Vice-Chair – Jackie Parkinson; Secretary – Margaret Nelson, with help from Jackie Parkinson and Alison Grant; Treasurer – Sue Gull; School liaison – Alison Grant and Hilary Furlong.

Hilary reported on the recent visit by Babergh Tree Wardens to the village, which included Buckle’s Wood. The wardens made constructive comments on the management of the hedges to encourage wildlife.

The steering group is going to buy a collection of tools for the use of volunteers on working parties. The first will be on 14th October, when we’ll be cutting and raking the grass prior to the next big planting session on 18th November.

We’ll need a big turnout on both days, so please note them in your diaries NOW –

Saturday 14th October and Saturday 18th November, starting at 10am.