Islington Wildlife

Islington Tree Wardens Easter Event

When: 14 April 2012

Time: 10:30am to 1:30pm

Where: New River Walk, Canonbury

Building on the great success of the Islington Tree Warden launch event on the Westbourne Estate, we are now planning our exciting Easter activities.

There'll be something for everyone with lots of arts and crafts for children to get involved in plus an hour long tree walk for those interested along the beautiful canal. The tree walk will be lead by one of the knowledgable Tree Officers from Islington's Tree Service so promises to be both fun and informative.

These walks always prove very popular so please let us know if you intend to come along and then we can plan how many cuppa's to have ready!

For more information and to rsvp please email Freya.Grummitt@islington.gov.uk

Grow for gold

To commemorate the Olympic year, Capital Growth has launched “Grow for Gold” to encourage and support community groups who want to start a food growing space in 2012. Support includes training, events, monthly competitions and much more and is designed to help people start their food growing space in time for the Olympics and Paralympic Games, when the Grow for Gold competition will be judged. The final winners will win additional prizes from Capital Growth sponsors.

To celebrate the launch of Grow for Gold, we are giving away five cash prizes, each representing the popular Olympic running events (£1500, £800, £400, £200 £100), to community groups and schools who want to start a community food-growing space this year, plus the chance to win training and vouchers to help you get growing ! To find out more visit Capital Growth.

Cast your vote now and help Freightliners Farm

Freightliners Farm have been shortlisted to recieve a green grant for £10,000 for a bee club.

To find out more and vote please visit green giving.

Capital Growth Funding

The Capital Growth Funding programme is administered by Capital Growth at London Food Link. It is intended to enable Londoners to benefit from a higher availability of affordable local food by maximising the use of land for food growing activities across the London area. Funding is available to help community groups develop new food growing schemes that will be sustainable and of benefit to communities in London. In particular, the scheme is eager to fund training and skills support to develop new sustainable projects. Projects should be focused on bringing more food to market in London, and be involved with a new food-growing space (not established before 1st January 2009) or an extension of a current food-growing project. It should be for wider community benefit, not solely for private or commercial gain. The next grant funding round has now opened and will close on 16th January 2012. The maximum grant available is £1,500.

The Brushwood Sculpture Workshop

The Wild Places Project and the Islington Ecology Centre hosted a Brushwood Sculpture Workshop on 24 October led by Wild Places Artist in Residence Marilyn Collins.

Children from three local playschemes came together to make some eye catching sculptures made out of brushwood which are firmly they collected from around the Ecology Centre. Marilyn Collins explained to the children the concepts of sculpture making and encouraged the children to think of ideas of what they should make.

They were all full of energy and loved being outdoors. They collected the materials from the surrounding Gillespie Park and worked in mini teams. There was even a competition to see who could get the biggest sticks and branches!

There were two sessions one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning session included 14 children from Sunshine Kidz Zone from Hornsey Rise. They made a large birds nest. The afternoon session included 5 children from Whittington Park Playscheme and 12 children from Caxton House wild places out of school club. They made a tall and sturdy sculpture of a horse, (some called it a giraffe)

Whilst the sculptures were being made the Ecology centre also had some mini activities like habitat making, making dragonflies from willow and making a birds nest. These were all made from recycled material and showed the importance of creating safe environments for wildlife as well as being resourceful with household materials.

Wild Places is an exciting project run by the Octopus Community Network, supported by Islington Council and funded by Natural England as part of its Access to Nature programme, from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme.

Wild Places offers people of all ages from every community in Islington the chance to discover or re-awaken the joy of exploring the natural world

For further information about the Wild Places Project and The Octopus Community Network please call the Wild Places Team on 0207 263 7095 or visit www.octopuscommunities.org.uk

The Wild Places Team

Wild Places Seasonal Celebration - the Winter Woodland Warmer!

Please come and join us for the next Wild Places Seasonal Celebration - the Winter Woodland Warmer!

There's no need for gloves, scarves and woollies - come and warm up inside our friendly and welcoming community centre from 11.00am - 4.00pm on Saturday 3 December 2011.

This free family event will feature a variety of wild places themed arts and crafts activities, including winter wreath making, snowflakes paper chains, twig stars and natural seasonal decorations. There will also be a tombola, a table top sale, a book stall, hand-made jewellery, biscuit decorating and recycled Christmas card making. Other activities on offer include a Zumba taster session and a performance by Groove Your Arts.

All children are encouraged to come in their best ‘woodland themed’ costume. All attendees who come in fancy dress will receive a prize and have an opportunity to take part in the woodland fashion show.

These seasonal celebration events are organized every three months by the Wild Places project and aim to raise people’s awareness of the changes and occurrences taking place in nature at different times of the year. Wild Places is an exciting project run by the Octopus Community Network, supported by Islington Council and funded by Natural England as part of its Access to Nature programme, from the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces programme.

It would be great if you could publicise this event through your channels and many thanks for helping us advertise this event in anyway you can.

The Wild Places Team,

Octopus Community Network

Fungi Facts

Spotted any mushrooms springing up in your local garden or park recently? Autumn is the time of year when fungus, present in the soil or tree all year round, produces a fruiting body in preparation for releasing spores. So the mushroom or toadstool that we suddenly see is actually the equivalent of a blackberry on a bush or an apple on the tree – the rest of the organism is under the ground.

 

There are over 3,000 kinds of fungi in the UK. Fungi comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes from single-celled yeasts to the mushrooms we buy in the supermarket. The term “mushroom” is used to refer to fungi which can be eaten. Toadstools only differ from mushrooms in that they are not good for eating. This doesn’t mean that all toadstools are poisonous – many of them simply don’t taste very nice!

 

There are in fact 14 types of deadly poisonous toadstools in the UK, including the Death Cap which looks very similar to many edible mushrooms which is why it is so important to check carefully before you pick and eat.

 

The largest organism in the world is thought to be a species of honey mushroom measured in Oregon to cover 8.9 km² (2,200 acres).

 

Here at Gillespie Park, our mushrooms are (we hope) of more modest size! Around 30 species have been recorded in the park including puff balls, earth stars and funnel caps.

 

To find out more about the fascinating world of fungi visit Funghi facts

Apple Day - Camden- 22/23 October

From:  22 October, 2011 - 11:00

To:      23 October, 2011 - 16:00

Where: Camley Street Natural Park, Camden

To celebrate the 22nd annual Apple Day, the RE:LEAF partnership is hosting this event on Saturday 22 October (11am - 9pm) and Sunday 23 October (11am - 4pm) at Camley Street Natural Park, Camden.

Run by The London Orchard Project and London Wildlife Trust, the day will include beginners' workshops on fruit trees, and expert advice will be available. You’ll have the chance to order a starter pack and fruit tree for only £5 (which will be ready for collection in early December).

Other activities include:

• preserving demonstrations run by Clippy from Clippy's Apple’s
• a chance to try a variety of tasty apples, as well as enjoy local fruit harvested from London
• Ian White from the Campaign for Real Ale will be running cider making and tasting workshops
• London Wildlife Trust will be organising apple related games and activities for children
• an opportunity to enjoy a feast of apple related food and drink.

New Homes For London's Wildlife

Central London businesses are sponsoring a new competition to design new homes for wildlife that live in the heart of the city. Inmidtown, the business development group that represents such areas as the British Museum and the Centrepoint skyscraper, are calling for new designs for beehives designed for urban beekeeping, bat and bird boxes, and planters.

The competition is to be run by the Architecture Foundation, a charity that promotes contemporary design, and is intended to complement Midtown Buzz, a scheme that offers free beekeeping advice and equipment, and increase the diversity of wild animals living on, around, and between the buildings of Holborn and St. Giles. The winners of the competition will see their designs built and used in the area.

Wild Places Autumn Festival

Come along to the Wild Places Seasonal Celebration

Including…

• Autumnal food delights, plus seasonal fruits and nuts
• Celebrating one year of Wild Places
• Celebrating the Legacy Project at Hilldrop Community Centre
• Meet our local Wild Places champions from The Zone who helped to make the pond
• Award ceremony by Artic Explorer Dwayne Fields
• First poetry reading from Hilldrop’s own poetry group Pegasus

Wait there’s more!

• Arts and Crafts
• Opening of the new pond
• Sing along with the Holloway Neighbourhood Group choir
• Performances from the Zone Youth Club.

When:  14^th October 4.00-7.00pm

Where: Hilldrop Community Centre, Community Lane, off Hilldrop Road, London N7 0JE