Ashburnham Triangle Association

It’s Midsummer – and the Greenwich swifts are back in town. In good numbers this year.  These extraordinary birds nest in tight colonies under the eaves of suitable buildings. Extraordinary because, apart from nesting, they literally live the rest of their lives in the air, eating, drinking, mating, even sleeping, all on the wing,  and all at great speed.   And you can see all this happening in and over the nesting colony up in the eaves of Davy’s Wine Shop,  on the corner of Greenwich High Road and Kay Way  (by the red telephone booth).  The swifts come back from Africa every year for 3 months, to breed here.   Their numbers in the UK have fallen heavily over the last ten to fifteen years.   So this year’s relative abundance of occupied nests in the Davy’s colony,  and the size of the immature parties of non-breeders,  the “Screamers”, is good news.      From now till the end of June and through July, the p...

 

Our ATA gardeners have set first date for early planting:  Saturday 28 January 10.30 am at Ada Kennedy Court Please join them if you can.

Please join us on Saturday, October 8th at 2pm. We will meet at the planter on the Play Street.

Well, May, with its green fizz, and its tuneful blackbirds, has gone.  It’s a time when the number and variety of trees in the Triangle always surprises – and excites.  So waking up the other day to the sound of a chain saw was depressing.  We know so little about the Triangle’s trees.  And it would be tragic to lose them while our backs were turned.  When the first Lockdown arrived, in spring 2020, a group of Triangle residents started sharing observations of Triangle birds – which produced a Birds of the Ashburnham Triangle Check List of 35 species.  You can see it on our Green page ).  But how many species of trees do we have?  And what are the stand outs?  The largest, the oldest, the rarest?  Your favourite? I think I may know the tallest.  And the current guardian of what we think is the oldest – a Mulberry that may be as much as 300 years old – tells me that under his care, it’s hanging on. Just. Surely time, in this tree-ori...

 

Spring is on its way, so our Triangle's Green team have set dates for gardening and for the Plant Swap in May. Sara says that they are trying out gardening on Saturdays afternoons at 2pm: 26 March 30 April 14 May  with the Plant Swap at 11am in Ashburnham Retreat 25 June Hope to see you there.

In August the Green Hub bought three swift boxes to support the local swift population. These have now been fitted by St Marks onto the side of their tower. Here’s hoping they are occupied next year .. although apparently it can take a few years. Thanks to St Marks.  Alison Haworth

Three swift boxes have been bought by the ATA and will be mounted under the water Ed at St Marks church, hoping to increase the local swift population in the next few years.

If you fancy a bit of gardening on Saturday morning, our gardening team will meet at the planter in the Play Street at 10.30am, do what's needed there and then go to Ada Kennedy Court.

Aren't the gardens and green spaces looking good at the moment? It would be good to see some new faces, if you are able to join us, on Sunday June 27th to do some gardening. We are meeting at the planter on Ashburnham Retreat at 10.30am. Sara

 This year's ATA Plant Swap starts at 11am on Saturday, May 29th in the play street (Ashburnham Retreat).  Bring your unwanted plants and take away something new. Come even if you have nothing to swap - there will be plenty. All welcome. Social distancing guidelines will be observed.

The ATA Gardening team is getting back into the swing of gardening with a session this Saturday (May 1st) meeting at 10.30 at the planter in Ashburnham Retreat (aka the play street).  They have also set a date for this spring's Plant Swap: 29th May.

Work has begun on Greenwich Park Revealed, the £8 million-pound, 4-year project led by The Royal Parks to restore, protect, reveal and share our park’s natural and built heritage and provide new learning and leisure opportunities for local people.   The project was due to start last year, but was delayed by the pandemic. Work is finally underway with the recruitment of new staff and volunteers. Over the next four years, they plan to: Restore the park’s majestic, 17th Century landscape Protect wildlife habitats Put the community at the heart of it all, by creating new public space and creating new facilities such as a new sustainable learning centre.  Read more about the project here Royal Parks are now asking park users to comment on the revised plans for the learning centre and volunteer facilities, which will be submitted for planning permission this month. The consultation will run from Tuesday 23 Feb 2021 to Sunday 14 March 2021.

Our gardening volunteers will be planting up a small but prominent flower bed in Catherine Grove on Saturday, October 24th, meeting up at 10am. Please come and help if you can. It's unlikely that there will be more than six people, but if there are some can work in other parts of the garden.

From our Environment & Gardening team: It seems like no time since the last gardening session, but the next one is this Sunday. We will be working on the garden at Ada Kennedy Court (top of Ashburnham Grove) from 10am. You should be able to enter using the Trades button, but if not do ring Sara on 07790511557. Please note that we have had to change the October session to Saturday 24 October at 10am.  

If you are free to do some gardening this Sunday , please meet at the planter on the Play Street at ten. Please bring a watering can and trowel and secateurs if you can, if not there will be spares. Future dates are: Sunday 13 Sept. 10am to work at Ada Kennedy Court Saturday 17 October 2pm - Catherine Grove Saturday 21 November - Daffodil planting

The Royal Parks have officially adopted their  Movement Strategy  and the 2020-21 Implementation Plan  for traffic in the Parks, including Greenwich Park, starting on Saturday, 15 August 2020. This strategy sets a coherent framework to help shape and inform the policies they develop and decisions they take relating to how park visitors can access, experience, and move within the parks. Within Greenwich Park this means the full-time closure of the Avenue to vehicle traffic. For a complete list of projects, please see the Implementation Plan and project Fact Sheets on the Parks' website  Project Fact Sheets and more Everyone will have the opportunity to participate in a formal consultation from November – December 2020. The results of the consultation will be published.

Our Environment and Gardening Hub are looking forward to seeing some of you at 2pm on Saturday, July 18th for gardening. We will meet at Lamley House, the corner of Ashburnham Place and Egerton Drive. There is also grass to be raked on Langdale Rd near to the High Road. If you can please bring a rake (or two) and a green bin. Do bring some water to drink as it's going to be hot, this may limit how much we can do. Anyway it will be good to get together  at a distance.

We all know the Triangle is green. But how green? Lock Down has made London a quieter, cleaner place. And it's given us time to pay more attention to what this means for the wildlife in our own neighbourhoods. A group of Triangle residents are using this extraordinary opportunity to find out - and they want more help with recording what's moving, and what's growing, all around us. There's definitely something exciting in it for kids - show them this video of Ashburnham Grove's fox cubs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwaXIbBpLyM But whatever your interests - birds, blossoms or insects - there's plenty more to see: here are some of Egerton Drive's busy bees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSbkAcT3LeA Each week those helping with the Spring Census are sending in a short record of what they have seen - in words, or in pictures like these - to Census co-ordinator, Mick Delap. They've been at it since April. And the Census will continue to gat...