The Library Gardens are Pretty

The Library Gardens, now a nature reserve after the locally famous "Stop the Chop" campaign, has been beautiful this spring and summer, awash with colourful wildflowers and more cultivated species too.

A wildlife pond has been added, where I photographed the broad bodied chaser a few weeks ago, and the wall of flowers on the metal equipment shed has been in full bloom. The bees and bumblebees love the place, with vestal cuckoo bumblebees being particularly numerous. 

Not so many butterflies for some reason, but then it's been a terrible year for them. There's plenty of the low level ground loving species like meadow brown and small skipper about, but the more obvious peacocks and small tortoiseshells have been in very short supply. 

There's been reports of fritillaries locally, which is news to me, so I shall have to go looking!

Anyway, enjoy the pretties I have found for you. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.07.24

Remember the Library Gardens?

 I wonder if you remember my post about the Library Garden, how it was saved by the "Stop the Chop" protests and then earmarked as a community garden space. 

I posted about the protests, and also about how the garden looked in winter and early spring. I thought it all looked a little sparse and wondered how it would all pan out.

This is what it looks like now.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.06.23

The Latest from the Library Gardens

 Having heard that work had now properly commenced on the "Stop the Chop" library garden, I went over for a look to see what was going on there.

I'd seen the plans, and thought they were rather overkill - I would have just created a path down the middle and sown the rest with pollinators, with a few of the seats constructed from the downed tree trunk. But evidently they have decided to go further, to create a rainwater driven brook going through the site to attract dragonflies and a few more birds. 

They've landscaped a couple of mounds - which I think look a bit rough at the moment to say the least but we will see how they bed in, and have planted a large number of bulbs. 

The most eye-catching feature is the beautifully painted container, used to store equipment and which also doubles as a big planting rack for herbs. The goldfinch is stunning!

So, now we wait to see how things progress. Hopefully in the spring, the first flowers will start to emerge and we will see how natural the whole thing ends up looking in the fullness of time. 

I look forward to taking a book there and whiling away the time under a shady tree.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 07.12.22

Just More Bimbling

 It seems crazy that I haven't been around the Blue Lake in such a long time. It was a gloomy wet day, but I got fed up with that stopping me last week, so got out the waterproof jacket and headed out.

As usual, I think I would have ended up drier if I hadn't worn the bloody thing.

I wandered through the library gardens first, the now preserved "Stop The Chop" mini meadow which doesn't have a massive amount happening yet, but there are plans i tow to do a "natural" landscaping job on it. Nearly a year ago all those protests were happening. The years fly ever faster as I get older. 

The cemetery is very dappled and green, and the lake was still with very few waterfowl about. They are still protesting the prospect of canoeing here, a campaign that in my view has nothing to do with wildlife, but is rather a NIMBY campaign that other elements have cottoned on to. 

The birds are at no risk whatsoever; they happily co-exist with boating activities elsewhere. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.09.22

The Chop was Stopped

 So, after the protests I wrote about last week carried on throughout the night and into the next morning, supported by people passing in food, warm clothing and blankets to the final four who spent the night on deckchairs, a dramatic conclusion was reached the following afternoon.

The council and the landowner came to some sort of agreement, the precise detail of which has yet to be revealed, that will save the trees and the land as a public space as long as it is voted through council on November 24th. The council leader made some rather churlish comments about some of the protesters being rather abusive, which no-one else has reported. 

So I really hope that a deal has actually been reached to save the space, and the deal is voted through. Then I hope they do more with the space, perhaps put some wildflower meadows in.

Then it will have been worth it.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 21.11.21

Escalation at Stop the Chop

 Well, the protests down at the trees by the library have intensified over the last ten days or so, with the council clearly getting more and more annoyed with the intransigence of the protestors. 

It started when the council moved in, ostensibly to carry out an ecological survey on the trees, and look for bats despite the fact that disturbing roosting bats - and I haven't detected any down there while others have - is illegal.

The protestors decided that this was an attempt to start work on removing the trees and after being warned turned up en-masse to obstruct. The "ecologist" refused to give any credentials, and an attempt to remove a section of hedge to get a cherry picker in so the bat boxes could be inspected was taken as an attempt to create access for building work to begin.

Supposedly things turned quite ugly according to the local politicians, other observers say not.

After that, the protesters installed a gazebo and a tent so they were on site 24/7, and the situation stabilised apart from some verbal sabre rattling from the council. 

However, at 7am this morning, council workers turned up with the police, announced that anyone staying on site would be charged with aggravated tresspass, and erected a 6 foot fence around the site claiming that as it was private land there was no right of access, a fact they've rather ignored over the last, ooh I don't know, twenty years. 

Immediately more protesters were summoned to the stand off, although most left after being threatened with arrest. A hard core of five, including a woman in her 80s, stayed on although she was encouraged to leave as night fell and the weather began to cool.

As I type, four people remain, sleeping on deckchairs and supplied with food, blankets and other necessities over the fence, including a luxurious toilet bucket each. 

The town has made the news...

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 11.11.21

"Stop the Chop"

 Our local library lies adjacent to the old registery office, which was been bought, leased, resold, leased again and god only knows what else; it's a complex process.

The issue is not with the building itself, it lies with the little green space between the two buildings. Part of the leasehold agreement, indeed a contract, is that this area should be turned into a car park, a car park that the current owners of the building do not want, but if it isn't built the council face a 600K bill for breach of contract with a previous owner. 

I think that's the story; I'm probably miles wrong. It's very confusing. The upshot is that three old trees, a lime and two sycamores, are going to have to be cut down, and local people have gotten very upset. Indeed, they have already organised two daytime protests during the last couple of weekends, and tonight, they organised a third, a candlelit vigil by night. 

They say that the car park isn't needed, there is already plenty of parking space in the town, and it sends out a bad message in an age where we shouldn't be encouraging more cars onto the roads, into a town that is already gridlocked at weekends. 

I went down not long before sunset to take photographs, and told the organisers that I would return later with my bat detector; they have put a couple of bat boxes in the trees, and St George's Bat trust say the recorded 108 calls in 40 minutes a few days ago.

If there are bats roosting in the trees, then that automatically ends the threat for at least until spring. I have to say I'd been twice before and picked up nothing, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 

I did return after sunset to see that a crowd of around 200 had gathered, holding lanterns and the like. I walked around with my detector, picking up no bats again while the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol was played while the crowd waved their lights in the air. 

I hope the bats like bands that make Coldplay sound like Motorhead. 

There was also some chanting of slogans, which was passionate although slightly...something. 

I do wish them well, and I really hope there are bats in there. I've not picked up a sausage. 

Yet.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.10.21