A half a dozen of us met up on a sunny, but slightly chilly evening by the BBC Tower. The visibility was good so we took the opportunity to have a good look at the general view as well as specific new builds.

On the local new build front, we could see the progress of the Altitude N8 development by Hornsey station.

Further away there was, of course, the new Tottenham Football Ground (left). Another tower going up is the new APEX building on the corner of Tottenham High Road and Seven Sisters Road. Also there are cranes visible at Tottenham Hale for the Ashley Road development.

Down at our feet was wall barley growing, but annoyingly someone pointed out a very soft grass which after looking up was found to be Annual Beard Grass (not a native).

We continued our walk with a look at some of the flowers planted in the beds below the Palace. There were a mixture of wild flowers and more ornamental annuals including Poppies, Borage, Vipers Bugloss and Californian poppies. (left pic)

We crossed the road and walked to the top of the old Dry Ski Slope were there were plenty more wild flowers to be seen. Red clover might not produce much excitement, but from an ecological point of view it was good to see a lot of Yellow Rattle (bottom picture) which should keep some of the vigorous grasses in check and allow more wild flowers to prosper.

Waves of Ribbed Melilot were perhaps prettiest show on offer...

We walked to the Rose Garden to have a last look at flowers and views. There we spotted some cultivated yarrow that contrasted quite well with the wild version seen earlier. In the fountain was a good collection of different coloured Water Lillies (and even some small fish). 

We ended our walk dead on time at 9pm looking at the insignificant flowers of the Honey Locust tree at the top of the Rose Garden.

Robyn lead our popular Beginners' Tree Walk starting from the Bedford Road entrance. She picked on just about half a dozen of our common trees to tell us more about them and how to identify them.

First stop was the Sycamore. This tree is a maple - its name sometimes puts people off from identifying it with others of the same genus. Robin showed us the leaves and the seeds (helicopters).

Next stop was a Field Maple. This is our only native maple tree although not the only maple tree you will find in the wild. The leaves are more elegant and the seeds are angled very different from the Sycamore.

We moved onto the Oak, probably the country's iconic tree. We  heard about its longevity and use and how to recognise its bark and leaves.

The Horse Chestnut was the next to come under scrutiny, we inspected the large leaves and developing conkers.

To give everyone a change, the next stop was, probably the tree that nearly everyone can put a name to the Holly. We heard how males and female are on different trees. Berries will only be seen on the female trees.

Next stop was the fallen old field boundary oak which came down in 2014. Counting its rings, it was just over 200 years old pre-dating the park.

Hornbeam was our next stop, the most common tree in our local woodlands, but little known outside the tree-friendly world. It has very hard wood.

Lime came next on our list and Robyn pointed out that there was almost a circle of lime trees close to the old Blandford Hall site. These trees have heart-shaped, asymmetric leaves which often have colourful nail galls on them.

Last stop was a look at a final maple, the Silver Maple with a whitish underside and also often with galls on the leaves.

Family Activities Day Perfect weather brought lots of youngsters and their parents to the Park Information Centre for scavenger hunts and outside for Xplorer challenges.  Spring is in full flood now with several butterflies coming to admire our work. Common Blues were seen for first time (earlier blue butterflies were Holly Blues). There was a pair of Brimstones mating (left) looking a little tatty this time of year. The food plant of this caterpillar is the Alder Buckthorn and it was good to see a few saplings of this tree on the edge of the meadow. We also saw both Speckled Wood and Orange Tip butterflies.

The area is transforming now with increasing patches of Red Campion (left), a brilliant patch of creeping buttercup and a large number of other wild flowers brightening up the area.

There is still bird song in evidence with Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Song Thrushes proclaiming their territories. This can be expected to die off in the next few weeks.

As to the work, even with the good turnout again this month, at this time of year, we have to work hard to keep pace with the growing bramble and tree saplings. With this effort, we hard succeeding in making this little 

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