20100227 Wild life Area Tidying

There are works going on all around the Wild Life Area.

On the main body of the park there is the Open Spaces Fund works going on with the site main depot at the end of Albridge Street.

It did not affect much the wildlife area apart from some heavy traffic, with lorries and contractors activity to and fro.Much more important was the works going on on the children playground side (the actual end of the Surrey Square Park).There by sheer chance a previous year bid by the Kinglake Tenants & Residents Association with the Walworth Community Council Cleaner, Safer and Greener award.The entire side fence was removed and all the interwoven vegetation had to be removed.There is page on the subject here.In any case the Wild Life area was in need of some cleaning. It was the end of winter when wind, reduced vegetation conspire to inveigle winds and people to go through the area.The additional activity didn't help with some plastic detritus and building material drifted on site.

Some tidying up was also necessary because of the some legacy of the BBC "Breathing Places" program (part of Spring/Autumn Watch television series). The initiative saved the area but it lefts a little leftovers that needed addressing. One was the presence of a number of plastic pots. They were supposed to harbour stag beetle larvæ and made good television.

The attempt was of course a disaster for obvious reasons (we are in a deprived area and anything that is not bolted down get taken away or vandalised) so none survived. But the odiously orange pots were still rolling about and filled with rubbish. So it was hight time to take them away.

Rising to the challenge the Friends of Surrey Square Park organised the cleaning event.

In any case there was not much else to do that at least some contractors weren't already doing, with all the works going around at the moment.

Daniel was there as a matter of routine. An the enlargement of the loggery from the recently felled trees from the memorial garden was generally appreciated (certainly better than the facilities provided by the orange buckets!

All in all was a good session with Phil taking time off from his Ph.D. thesis and his lovely half giving a hand and Julian of course. We had a good haul of rubbish, with the usual odd balls...

We all had a good time and some credit cards!

interestingly , maybe because of the recent freezing we found for the first time in the Area some beautiful example of the poisonous Jack-O-Lantern mushroom (Omphalotus olearius). It is supposed to be bio-luminescent but I failed to come down in darkness to see if it is true.

At the end however I couldn't but fail to appreciate again the area long standing staple the beloved Jew's ear (Auricularia auricula-judae).