20130521 Visit to the WLA to meet Nils about the CGS
I received a week before a telephone call from Nils about our bid for the bid we made last autumn for the Greener, Cleaner, Safer program with the Borough, Bankside and Walworth Community Council.
I did not hear anything about it and I missed the Community Council meeting on the 22nd of April (the one in which the successful bids where announced). I did not think much of it as our bids in the past have not been successful but this time the telephone call from Nils (that turned out to be our appointed Project director) was a total surprise.
So we won!! (See the pdf file attached for the bid).
Nils proposed a meeting on the site, an so we met.
The WildLife Area was blooming after the difficult spring we had this year, the day was warm and sunny.
The composting space we made with the grass cutting of the wildflower meadow and the clearing of some buddleja bush is wholesome, the paths, in need of some trimming, but still visible amongst the lush vegetation.While there I could not resist a spot of cleaning and added a little long term release fertiliser for the beloved oak.
It is still a young sapling and needs all the help it can get.
The loggery is doing really well and hopefully any season now we will have a viable population of our own stagbeetles.
All together it was a good day to introduce anyone to the special charm of the WildLife Area
I met with Nils with some apprehension but he turned out to be someone one can work with.
I told him that I just wanted to make his acquaintance and I was there on a personal capacity. We talked a little but I made sure he understood that there were only my opinions and that at some point in the future he'll have to come to a FoSSP meeting, where decisions would be taken.
Fortunately I had a print of the CGS proposal because he had only been briefed but had not seen the proposal itself. So I left it for him and talked about the area, its history and what we're doing with the park.
We also talked of what I would like to be doing to the area and all in all I hope he came out with a better understanding of the task ahead.
The program as to be finished in two years and even if the works will have to be carried out in late Autumn or winter (to minimise the damage to the wildlife), a lot of preparation work will have to be accomplished before that.
We were both lucky enough to be regaled with some of the delicate flower offers that out little wild oases never fail to deliver.
(some type of Diplotaxis and ramsons (allium ursinus))
All the while a melodious black birds kept us pleasant company.
