Permaculture and fungi at Galleywall

Last weekend we had the last of the scheduled 2014 sessions at Galleywall (though there's one extra one -- see below), on Permaculture.

Permaculture is a way of approaching gardening, agriculture, and life sustainably and positively. Check out the Permaculture Principles site (and the previous link to the Permaculture Association) for more information. The drop-in session at the reserve was a lot of fun, and we looked at ways of thinking about permaculture principles, and at some of the permaculture aspects and links of Galleywall.

I also had a look around the reserve and found some cool fungi:

 The bottom ones are ink caps but I'm not sure about the top ones (opinions welcome!).

We'll have one more open afternoon at Galleywall, on Sunday 16th November (1:30-3:30pm) before winter. Nothing particular planned -- we'll be brewing tea over the fire, and will do a bit of end-of-year tidying up. Come along to help or just to drink tea and toast a marshmallow or two!

Finding out about bees!

We were lucky enough to have a couple of experienced beekeepers come to talk to us at Galleywall on Sunday - and they brought some of their friends with them.

The bees are temporarily shut into the frame when its out on display like this to keep both bees and people safe. In the bottom photo beekeeper Sharon is in the background.

It was really fascinating to watch the bees busily moving around cleaning out cells and feeding from the pot at the top. The queen - a real veteran at 3 years old (in theory queens can live to 5 but this is the oldest queen beekeeper Sharon has seen) - seemed to be laying eggs.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a clear photo of the queen, who was marked with a yellow dot.

We also got a chance to feel some of the wax comb.

We were hoping to get a hive at the reserve this year but due to illness (of the beekeeper not of the bees!) will have to wait until spring. Bees are incredibly important to the environment, and we already have habitat for solitary bees in various places, and had a bumblebee nest in one of our bird boxes this year, so being able to house some honeybees as well is great.

Check out the British Beekeepers Association for more information about honeybees, and many thanks to the beekeepers who came along to talk to us!

Forest School, and bees this Sunday

Today saw the very first Forest School session at Galleywall, with eight children from Southwark Park School coming to the reserve to explore and get to know it. They'll be back for another five sessions before half term, and we're hoping to run more.

Also this Sunday is our bee-keeping talk, starting at 13:30. Open to everyone and it promises to be really interesting. Feel free to bring along some lunch and explore the reserve a little -- our new Nature Trail should be available too.

New sign installed

After many coats of varnish, one of our new signs is up.

The second (larger) one will go up once the gate has been installed.

We're open again a week on Sunday (Aug 17th) from 1:30-3:30 for our free windowbox session -- take home your own windowbox planted up with seeds.

Summer sunshine

Many thanks to the people who came to help make our new Nature Trail last Sunday! There's still some work left to do (partly because the photos didn't arrive from the printer on time, drat), but we made a good start and enjoyed some more of this lovely weather.

Here's a few photos:


Thistle


Small (but tasty!) plums on the tree by the gate.


Beautiful orange montbretia.

New signs on their way...

Our new signs have had another coat of varnish (still a couple more to go before they're weather-proof).

For the corner of Galleywall Road and Lynton Road:

For the fence by the gate: