Bishop’s Knoll Volunteer Newsletter April 2018
What a difference from last month- wall to wall sunshine on Saturday and shirtsleeve order for some. For any who have not been down to the wood in Bristol recently you don’t know what you are missing! It has been a terrific year for primroses but hurry or you will miss them as bluebells are already beginning to appear in some sheltered places.
The first bit of excitement we had was to resite the lower gate which local yokels had decided to unship. Fortunately there was no damage and those concerned will find it much more of a challenge next time!
Apart from this, it was a case of more of the same for our working party. George and Heather continued to prepare the Terrace 3-4 retaining wall for rebuilding. (compare below with last months picture).There was assistance from Peter Weeks for tree removal affording a chance for him to demonstrate his New Zealand tan!
On Terrace 5 Bev and Jenny Weeks were back in action, this time without help from Jay , which reminds us to thank all those who let Chris know if they can/can’t come to working parties.It helps to ensure there is enough planned work for everyone to do and enough tools to do it with!
Jenny and Bev at work on Terrace 5– all the ivy on the rear wall has now been removed
Two terraces below in the Kitchen garden Chris and John Hunt finished clearing the footings around the Pergola and with some dry weather forecast we should be able to starting the painting soon. A few feet away Brian was busy in his tree nursery – and it has all been hard graft!
The cleared Pergola and one of Brian’s apple tree grafts
Talking of grafting, one of Chris Stephen’s bud grafts has taken satisfactorily but where the other failed he has now followed Les Davies’ advice and done a Whip and tongue graft higher up – not nearly so easy to do even with a very sharp knife!
As most of you know all the scions have been taken from the existing apples trees at Bishop’s Knoll, some of which are on their way out. In due course the new trees will be planted near the entrance, in the bee hive area and along the pergola where there were originally espalier apple trees.
Chris’s successful bud graft and his unsuccessful one and the re-graft
OTHER BITS ANDS PIECES
- A new badger set has just appeared a few feet above the Monterey Cypress
- On 21st April there is a walk/talk on the WW1 graves of Arnos Vale which include those of the 8 soldiers from Bishops Knoll who did not recover from their wounds. You have to book see: https://arnosvale.org.uk/events/war-graves-tour/
- One bit of further news on the Casa Mia planning application. This is an abstract from a long letter from Laurence Wood Arboricultural Officer (Planning)
“Following our site meeting last week I have read through the updated comments and response from Jim Walker and have the following comments. BTRS The proposed tree removals are acceptable and there has been discussion regarding the Bristol Tree Replacement Standard and how this is applied. The Bristol Tree Replacement Standard (BTRS) takes a wider definition of compensation beyond amenity including market and non-market benefits such as quality of life, air conditioning, climate adaptation. However, it does this without attempting to calculate the monetary values (because this was fraught with difficulty), instead it is based on a ‘reasonable, yet practical interpretation of what compensation means to the community’ The default is that any replacement trees will be planted by the developer within the development sites from where the original trees were lost. In this case replacement numbers have been calculated at 252 trees a number of which are proposed to be planted within the site.”
Full details are at :
NEXT WORKING PARTY
Because of the May Bank Holiday weekend, when many people have said they will unavailable your Committee have decided that the next working Party will be held on May 12th
Thanks to Bishops Knoll Volunteers Chris and Bev for this newsletter
Sarah Shaw
Great work everyone… thanks for the update.