The CVCG committee were delighted to receive a donation recently of £33.00, courtesy of Jake Raad (age 7 and a half).
Jake had decided to raise money over Christmas by making mince pies and selling them around the village. And very successful he was too, as he sold all of them. The word on the street was that they were ‘exceedingly good’.
The money will go towards our winter bird feed supply; many thanks Jake for your idea, effort and support!
The coffee morning on Saturday 28th to coincide with the RSPB bird watch weekend was a resounding success. Children from Clara Vale and Crawcrook made bird feeders to take home to attract birds to their own gardens. Wildlife artist, Jonnie Foker demonstrated using pastels to draw bird shapes. Children and parents joined in to produce a colourful frieze which will be hung in the hall for all to see.
Thanks to everyone who came along, to all the people who baked scrumptious cakes and especially to the team in the kitchen. We raised around £150 towards bird feed for the birds in the nature reserve.
Thanks also to all the parents and children for taking part in activities and allowing these photos to be shared, we are so glad you enjoyed yourselves! One of the youngsters, Jake Raad, declared it ‘…the best coffee morning ever!’.
Click on any image for a larger version.
The January Clara Vale Village Hall Coffee Morning coincides with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, so the CVCG are joining forces with the Village Hall Committee to make a little event out of it.
Alongside the usual tea, coffee and delicious home-made cakes, if that weren’t reason enough we have opportunites to:
All funds raised from the activities will help us to purchase bird feed for the Nature Reserve.
*Jonnie Foker is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and Bearpark Artists Co-operative, specialising in birdlife. Jonnie will provide a taster art activity and bring some of his work to view or buy. Find out more at bearparkartists.co.uk
When: Saturday 28th January 10:30 – 12:30
Where: Clara Vale Village Hall
CVCG members and local villagers turned out for our burn-off of cuttings and coppicing, left over from task days during the last year or so in the Reserve.
Some piles of cuttings were retained as habitat for small birds and other wildlife. The fire site was carefully chosen and burning area closely controlled.
Tea and cakes were on hand and a good natter was had by all. A successful first community event of the year!
As renovation works get under way at Clara Vale Village Hall, CVCG founding member Gordon Pollinger spotted men with a cherry picker machine used for accessing the roof and saw an opportunity to have some stock nestboxes for Swifts put up. The contractors were obliging and so we now have seven nextboxes fitted.
S
wifts are fast, agile fliers with a similar silhouette to a Swallow or Housemartin, and although looking black against the sky, are actually dark brown in colour. They spent almost all of lives on the wing. Swifts generally visit the UK from April to August.
The next boxes are specially designed with the entrance porthole at an underside angle, which will hopefully attract the Swifts to the sheltered position on the north side of the Hall under the eaves. The narrow, angled nestbox entrance also has some deterrent effect on other small birds.
You can find out more about Swifts by visiting the RSPB’s Swift information page.
The CVCG are delighted to announce that following an extensive review and with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund within our Flowers in the Vale project, new educational resources are now available to download. The resource has primarily been created with the purpose of encouraging more schools to bring children to the Reserve and benefit from all that it has to offer.
A total of 18 Activity sheets are available, to assist childrens’ outdoor engagement with the natural environment in Early Learning, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. The activities can be applied in many educational outdoor environments, not just at Clara Vale.
All of the educational material can be accessed from under the ‘Visiting the Reserve’ tab and going to ‘Educational Visit Resources’.
Here are links to the individual resource elements:
If you would like to get in touch about arranging and educational visit please use the contact form on the Planning Your Visit page.
Volunteers got to grips with a giant privet hedge along the southern boundary of the Orchard last weekend. The hedge had become overgrown and was taking too much light from nearby apple trees. The hedge has been cropped but not taken out, as you can see from the photos.
Some time was also spent tasting different apple varieties in the orchard and drinking tea!
Orchard Update
Annual Tree Allocation
After 16 years Granny Smith (Jenny) has finally handed over responsibility for overseeing the annual tree allocation to Scrumpy Steve (Hilton). Thanks to Jenny for all the hard work she has put in over that time, from the founding of the orchard at the Millennium until now.
Orchard Action Day – Saturday 9th October
A working party will be at the orchard to strim grass, cut hedges and generally tidy the orchard ahead of Apple Day. Everyone is welcome. The orchard only works by people working together, so please come down and help, even if you can only spare a short time. We start at 10.30am and there will be tea, coffee and cake aplenty.
(Note that we are not pruning any apple trees, pruning day will be in March next year.)
Apple Day – Sunday 16th October
This takes place in the village hall from 2-4.30pm. There will be an opportunity to pay rents, discuss orchard matters and of course sample apple related products with afternoon tea/coffee. Another great social occasion in the village calendar.
Budding naturalist Ella Pollinger is a frequent visitor to the Clara Vale Nature Reserve and enjoys taking photos of the wildlife she sees. Here we have a small gallery of her photos, demonstrating both skill and patience!
We thought you might like to see a gallery of photos from our wonderful Family Picnic Day, held in July, along with some of the feedback received and even some poetry too!
Photos – just click on any to enlarge and scroll through them….
Feedback – Here are some of the wonderful comments we received about the Nature Reserve in our Visitors’ Book on the day:
‘It feels like such a magical place…’
‘… one of the best things about living in Clara Vale.’
‘We liked the moths, the pond life and the scything.’
‘A lovely, tranquil place…’
‘Really enjoyed the moths, guided flower walk and lovely atmosphere!’
‘What a wonderful family-friendly day.’
Thanks to everyone who contributed, we loved receiving your feedback!
And finally… here are some reflections on the picnic day in the nature reserve by Hannah aged 7:
Sun, fun enjoyable days are beautiful
And green and wet and gleaming,
Clear pond ripples in the lovely atmosphere,
Being able to have an enjoyable chat, meet up with friends,
Music plays from my favourite films,
While the nature obviously absorbs interest thanks to strange plants and
magnificent moths and beauty
Admiring pond weed
Nettles tower over the transparent stream
Bunting hangs over the wooden bridge
Tiger moths on display are a real hit!
Stoats may be shy but when no humans explore, stoats are sure to roam the
clearing, birch trees stand straight and tall.
Thanks again to everyone who came along and made all the efforts of the Conservation Group worthwhile.
Clara Vale Conservation Group 