Island 2000 Trust Blog

I have just returned from a family trip to Frankfurt’s Christmas Market, where we spent much time marvelling at tat from a different culture. I was very taken however with the fantastic painted bird boxes on offer at one stall. I now feel we have done the poor old Grey Wagtails and House Sparrows a dis-service with our 1960-esque concrete carbuncles. I wonder if we may find tiny burned out cars lining the Troll Trail before long, and the better off birds emigrating to Germany where they can buy a stylish pad for a few Euros.

Three Enlarger Logs are now in place along the Troll Trail between Shide and Blackwater. Bring your berries and beetles and see them magnified enormously beneath their lenses…

Keep an eye out for these next time you go down the Troll Trail between Shide and Blackwater. The Enlarger Logs will enable you to see the intricate beauty of bark,beetles, seeds, crisp packets, or anything else you place in the viewing space under the lens.
They have been made from recycled plywood donated by Vestas Blades (swiped from their recycling skip) and given a more natural look by sanding through the layers of wood to create wobbly, contoured patterns. With a bit of luck, the posts should be in place during the coming week.

Well, the first day of the 2007 County Show is over. We very nearly didn’t make it into the show as we had been allocated an outside plot for some reason, and as you can see our display wouldn’t work too well outside, but fortunately space was found for us in the food tent (yum yum) making our Food Trail leaflets and postcards our most relevant publications (the picture shows Rebekah hard at work behind the stand during a quiet spell).

We tried out a “listening post” idea, with some of Ian’s audio tours playing back over headphones - not as widely used as I hoped but Rosie seemed to like it! Shame really, because the tracks being played make great listening (all are included in our Friends of Nature membership packs) so I might try speakers tomorrow and inflict Ian on everyone!

Our free seed give away was popular - if you want to join in catch us on Sunday (12th) at the County Show or in September at the Wolverton Garden Fair in September. We also hope to make seeds available via the Gift to Nature website in the near future.

After the disappointing vandalism of the new suitcase sculptures at Merstone old railway station, harmony was restored as they were heroically rebuilt like the phoenix rising from the flames. Ok, that is very slightly over the top but you get my drift.

Famously “not looking for retribution”, Mr George is now said to be merely waiting for his train home.

He may be waiting some time.

Spot the difference

Nige

Troll

Our Wetland Walk down near Sandown has always been one of the most popular of the Gift to Nature project sites, visited by thousands of locals and visitors alike each year. It’s also a great place for hands-on conservation tasks and that’s just what went on last week with the excellent Newchurch Scouts. Here you can see them stuffing new wetland plants into old socks pre-filled with stones before hurling them into the pond and watching them sink to the bottom. This is our patented method for hard-to-reach spots and it works a treat.

And here’s a set ready to go:

The Scouts also made some excellent mining-bee homes:

All in all much good work was done for the Wetland Walk and Mother Nature and great fun had by all; and what would a Scout event be without something tribal too?