March round-up: Making space for nature

This month’s talk was entitled ‘Wild Spaces - making space for nature’, given by Simon Saville of Butterfly Conservation also a London National Park City Ranger. He explained what many organisations are trying to do to encourage people to plant for wildlife by leaving parts of their gardens less manicured but more floriferous and therefore more attractive to pollinators. Not paving over gardens is also helpful in preserving habitat and preventing water runoff, flooding and pollution. Gardens and window boxes can make a huge contribution to making space for nature.

On the Common, our volunteers are helping Enable with two citizen science projects: one to monitor the Common’s bat population and another to identify any hedgehog activity. 

Our birders have noticed several new species on the Common. This is the time of year when spring migrants start to arrive, and some very uncommon visitors have been recorded, including Cetti’s warbler and the wheatear. The month ended with another of our regular bird walks, recording almost 40 species , including sparrowhawk. 

The tree planting season has come to an end with 51 new trees on the Common, five of them funded by the Friends. Attention will now turn to watering them.

February round-up: Spring into action

Early in the month a very well attended talk by Philip Boys heard stories from the memoirs of war poet Edward Thomas and his wife Helen, who both lived near the Common, about their life on and around the Common at the end of the 19th century. 

Later in the month a few of our Heritage group were treated to a view of the nursery rhyme tiled friezes in the former Bolingbroke Hospital childrens’ ward (now the ARK Bolingbroke Academy library). It’s amazing how easily the words to Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill still trip off the tongue!

Exciting news from the Common itself - a newt has been spotted, the first for a long time. It was very timely therefore that this month’s Tuesday volunteer session built a dead hedge around the amphibian pool to create and improve habitat. Looking forward to more sightings as spring gets under way.

We ended the month with a spring in our steps after a talk by physio Julia Bott on the Myths and Magic of Movement and Mobility. This taught us why exercise is so important for us and why it’s never too late to start. The more the better. A definite must see. By popular request there will be a follow up talk on how best to exercise. Julia was instrumental in encouraging the Over 60s Fitness classes on the Common run by Open Air Fit that are so popular. 

All are talks are filmed and can be watched at the News and Events section of our website

January round-up: Bird and train spotters

The year began with our usual ‘walk off the wine’ tour of all 12 parts of the Common. It was wet this year, but ten of us stepped out undeterred, including some new members and non members. 

Birds featured highly in January, with the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch inspiring two events led by local birder Barbara Littlechild. A bird talk to describe what we might find, and then two walks to do the bird count itself - 16 species identified (out of 70 regularly encountered). We organise regular bird walks throughout the year.

Staying with nature, for its first meeting of the year the Management Advisory Committee (MAC) - our sister organisation - heard from Enable about plans for citizen science projects in the borough and how decisions are made to deliver and improve woodland areas in Wandsworth’s greenspaces, including streets and hedgerows. As if to prove the point, a new mini forest was planted at the end of January - funded and planted by private individuals who also did much of the planting, under supervision from Enable. 

The month’s climax was a very popular talk by Sue Demont about the history of the railways on the Common. ‘What a Carve Up’ explained how the Common came to be intersected by two railway lines and narrowly averted having a third. A fascinating backdrop was provided by David Cooper’s Wandle Valley model steam railway which entertained the audience before and during the talk. Ed Potter brought along two of the original signs he rescued from Wandsworth Common station many years ago.

A film of this talk and the talks to the MAC are available here

December round-up: Lost houses

Our ‘lost houses’ talk was one of our most popular events ever, with over 60 gathering into the Nature Study Centre to hear members of our Heritage group describe their research into ‘The Lost Houses of Wandsworth Common’ - large, characterful buildings that surrounded the Common in the 18th &19th centuries & the people who lived in them, including.....

Bolingbroke House - one of the 'Five Houses' on what became Bolingbroke Grove
Stanton House and Wilby Lodge - two houses that straddled the Falcon Brook on Nightingale Lane
Fernside - whose gardens once stretched between today’s Ravenslea and Endlesham Roads
Burntwood House - which occupied the area now covered by Lyford, Multon & Loxley Roads
Bramblebury House - once the southernmost house on Westside and in use as a school in the late 18th century
Mulberry Cottage - which later became divided into two houses known as ‘The Gables’ on Northside

Watch the talk here. We’ll do another talk in the New Year to update on progress and how we will present the project to a wider audience.

Our two pre Christmas bird walks identified over 35 species including winter visitors like siskin and fieldfare, as well as a gold crest and great spotted woodpecker. Look out for our bird talk and walk in January as the Big Garden Birdwatch approaches.

November round-up: Autumn fungi, foliage & Fido

Our annual fungi walk, led by Ling from Enable, was it's usual huge success with two back-to-back walks this year to satisfy demand. Species observed included milking bonnet, parachute mushroom, dead lady’s fingers, gem studded puffball, shaggy parasol, dead man's fingers, stinkhorn, jelly ears and fly agaric (pictured) 

To catch the autumn colour our tree walk had two groups covering different areas of the Common. One took in the six different oaks within a stone’s throw of Skylark and then ventured over the bridge to the elms in the mini forest. Another walked south to see two autumn stunners - the swamp cyprus by the pond and the raythorn ash on Saint James’ Triangle.

A new walk we started this month is a nature walk for dog owners, exploring the trees and biodiversity on the Common with dogs joining in and tips on dog behaviour and training from Rebecca at Super Dog Trainers. Adults and canines were all left wanting more. Meanwhile,  it wouldn’t be autumn without a birdwalk to spot incoming migrants like redwing and red polls. 

Our final event of the month was a popular tree talk by the Enable tree team to mark National Tree Week. Sam, Liam and Catie explained their different roles, how trees are monitored, assessed, planted and protected and what we can all do to help. You’ll see several new trees appearing on the Common in coming months.

October round-up: Pioneers of photography

October saw two talks about the pioneers of photography on and around Wandsworth Common.

The first focussed on the mid 19th century and included Geoffrey Bevington, who took a famous picture of the telescope that used to stand on the Scope.

The second focussed on Paul Martin and Harry Dorrett who worked together from a studio at 16, Bellevue Road. Martin pioneered the technique of ‘shapshots’, taken with a hidden camera, and images taken with very long exposures at night.

Meanwhile, Nick Rutter ran another early morning bird walk, this time to catch early incoming migrants such as the red wing. Nick is also a great photographer and his work will feature in his upcoming leaflet about the Birds of Wandsworth Common.

September round-up: Bats, bowls & wildflowers

Monthly volunteering sessions organised by Enable resumed in September. These are an opportunity to roll up your sleeves and do some outdoor work under expert supervision. All abilities catered for. This month the focus was on fencing off and pruning parts of the blackthorn thicket on the Frying Pan area where brown hairstreak butterflies have been seen laying eggs. The eggs will now be protected from autumn mowing and will hopefully hatch in the spring. Volunteer sessions take place on the third Tuesday of every month - 9.30am to noon. 

Roy Vickery held the third of his very popular wildflower walks, this time focusing on the lake area. A previous walk he did formed the basis of our wildflower leaflet, available from Skylark.

We held a second screening of our highly acclaimed ‘Common Memories’ film. The film is also on our website, to view at your leisure. 

September saw the last bat and bowls events of the season. 

Our two previous bat walks have been cancelled due to rail strikes and bad weather so this one had a bumper turnout of over 30. Iain Boulton did a short talk beforehand which adults and children alike found fascinating. The bats were also out in force.

We closed the bowls season with a well attended social session ending with ‘beer and bubbles’. Maintenance to get the green ready for next Easter’s opening now begins

August round-up: New bird, butterfly & moth sightings

Our Heritage Group organised two  fascinating tours to local institutions - the museum at Wandsworth prison and the buildings and grounds of Emanuel school. Thanks to Stephen Midlane for organising these events and to the two venues for being so welcoming and informative.

Our ornithologist and lepidopterist members are always on the lookout for rare visitors and species new to the Common and have had some major successes recently. Bird sightings included a spotted flycatcher, whitethroat, meadow pipit, green woodpecker and a fleeting sighting of a kingfisher. In the middle of the Big Butterfly Count a brown hairstreak butterfly was spotted laying eggs on new blackthorn shoots. That was the first confirmation of their presence, encouraged by rewilding. And at the latest monthly moth count, a Webb’s Wainscot - more familiar to wetland areas - was recorded.

We said farewell to Enable‘s Parks Operations Manager, Annabel Osborn, who we had so enjoyed working with. She is replaced by former tree officer Sam Morgan, who we wish well in his new role. Completing the new line up is Owen Dodgson - who brings a very useful interest in bats and bowls!!

July round-up: Summer party

In mid-July we hosted our first summer party open to all members. In the past, we’ve had parties to coincide with our AGM and last year we had a party to thank all our volunteers. But this is the first time we’ve felt able to invite all our 700+ members. Space constraints meant it had to be ticketed; nevertheless everyone who wanted to come could enjoy the hospitality of Skylark and the Friends committee. A good time was had by all!!

Earlier in the month, Sue Delafons and Stephen Midlane together put on a fantastic talk about local author PY Betts and her childhood spent around the Common during WWI.  Sue and Stephen were character acts and even surprised us by revealing a mystery guest. Well worth watching on catch up.

Another Heritage event at the end of the month was a tour of St. Mary’s cemetery Battersea by Sue Demont which, despite the torrential rain, attracted 25 keen participants, eager to find out about the history of the churchyard and learn something about ‘The Victorian way of dying’.

Summer brings the Big Butterfly Count, and Richard and Laila Tillett organised our first butterfly walk of the season, highlights of which included several skippers and a marbled white. We also hosted our second ‘moth breakfast’ with the help of Les Evans-Hill. In the Naturescope garden we saw a hummingbird hawk moth and a Jersey tiger moth (the rarer yellow variety - lutescens). The moth trap itself attracted several unusual species including a rare Webb’s Wainscott. We were pleased that our audience included a number of very engaged teenagers. Photos of both events are on our Instagram feed @wwcommon.

The month also saw another Barbara Littlechild bird walk, and the start of the Dog Focus Group organised by Enable, which aims to gather views from the Common’s dog owners. Finally, we launched our new Tree Trail leaflet with a walk around three different areas of the Common led by the three contributors Anne, Richard and Sarah.  25 people learned about some of the Common’s notable native and non-native trees and how they are managed. The Treetrail and our butterfly leaflet are available to buy from Skylark café for £3. Something for the summer holidays.

June round-up: Film premiere

An unforgettable highlight was the long-awaited premiere of our Oral History Project film ‘Common Memories’. 120 people gathered in the Fiennes theatre at Emanuel school to watch this beautiful hour long film, distilled from 20 hours of interviews with lifelong residents of Wandsworth Common. The film was enthusiastically received and a great testament to our volunteers, Ros Page and her team of interviewers, Rosa Navas, member and professional film maker, who sensitively edited the footage into such a wonderful film, and of course to the interviewees themselves, many of whom were in the audience. The film is available on our website and is also available to buy on DVD on request.

Another heritage event was a hugely popular tour of the Fitzhugh estate, led by Sharon O’Neill, as part of the Wandsworth Heritage Festival. This reprieved a virtual walk Sharon had given during lockdown and which is available to view on our website. The tour was so popular that additional sessions had to be arranged. 

Last but not least, a second reprint of our book The Wandsworth Common Story arrived and continues to sell well in Neals nurseries, Skylark café, and on our website.

As part of the Great Big Green Week we invited Jackie from SW15 Hedgehogs to give a talk about how to attract hedgehogs to our back gardens and to the Common. This was prompted by the first sighting of a hedgehog on the Common in many years and other recent sightings in neighbouring streets. We hope this is due to the new planting for habitat creation we have been doing over the past couple of years. If you see a hedgehog locally let us know.

Another innovation was a moth ‘breakfast’ which inaugurated formal monitoring of moths on the Common. Led by volunteer Richard Tillett and supported by Butterfly Conservation and Enable, there will be a monthly exercise to trap moths overnight and record the species found in the morning prior to releasing them (we don’t eat them!!). Watch out for future moth ‘breakfasts’ we can invite members to.

One of our committee, Sarah Webley, led a highly popular tree walk for parents and children of Belleville school, which we are happy to repeat for other school groups. Let us know if you’re interested. Other walks during the month were a tree walk, led by Enable tree officer Liam, highlighting some of the more unusual trees on the Common; a wildflower walk led by Roy Vickery on the prison banks which, as usual, identified a plethora of species; and another of Nick Rutter’s ever popular bird walks.

Another busy month

May round-up: Walks, talks, assemblies, volunteering - and a film

So many highlights this month. 

The enthusiasm of the volunteers from Killick & Co on Northcote Rd, who joined our regular volunteers, added some welcome muscle and was amazing to see. Under the watchful eye of Enable’s Mick and Ling, they had great fun donning waders and wellies to clear leaves and branches from the edge of Three Island  pond, then using forks and wheelbarrows to stack the debris to dry out before collection. This helps reduce the concentration of nutrients in the water and will improve oxygen levels and the overall health of the pond, hopefully reducing the risk of duck weed and other problems. 

A second team helped weed the burgeoning hedge in the St Mark’s area, where a hedgehog was recently spotted. After its winter prune the hedges are growing fantastically.  

Two school visits - first to ARK Bolingbroke Academy Y10 to explain how the Common was saved in 1871 and how volunteers are helping carry on that work today. Then to Finton House Y5 who retold the story of the saving of the Common in a captivating play with brilliant costumes. What a delight!

A walk and two talks. Roy Vickery revealed the proliferation of wildflowers just a few steps from Wandsworth Common station. Emma Anthony gave an insight into how the Common features in the various collections held by the Wandsworth Heritage Service. And our first contribution to this year’s Wandsworth Heritage Festival was a talk by Sue Demont about Lady Allen, at the forefront of the adventure playground movement, including our very own off Chivalry Rd. 

We were delighted to introduce Rebecca and Miranda of local SuperDogTrainers who explained more about ‘A Dog’s Life’ and how owners can help their pets better navigate the modern world. Some interesting and surprising insights, even for non owners. We hope to work closely with the team going forward and members are offered a 10% discount on courses

All our talks are videoed so you can catch them at your leisure. 

Finally, the preview of our new film ‘Common Memories’ - for all those who feature in it. About 20 long time residents interviewed, filmed & edited into a beautiful short film about their memories & tales of life around the Common. More on that next month after the SOLD OUT première on June 6. 

April round-up: Flygirl returns

A lovely Easter Sunday bird walk with Nick to spot the inward migrants that arrive at this time of year. Later in the month an experimental bee walk with Ben to see the emergence of the ashy mining bee. We did see them, by the cinder track, and a host of other pollinators on the nearby wild cherry in beautiful blossom. Follow Ben @benjyhere

We were pleased to have a stall at the ARK Bolingbroke spring fair for the first time. Meeting those who use the Common for sport, learning and play is important, and we now have links with half a dozen nearby schools.

Flygirl, aka Dr Erica McAlister, returned to talk about - flies!! She first talked to us in 2019 about the creatures she is passionate about. As Senior Curator for diptera at the Natural History Museum, Erica is an expert and a vocal advocate for these often misunderstood pollinators and waste disposers. Her talk was just as awesome and inspiring this time, and you can watch it at our ‘news and events’ tab. 

March round-up: AGM, swifts & heritage events

Early March saw our Heritage team visit Finton House and Northcote Lodge schools to mark World Book Day with a presentation and Q&A about our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’. 

Later in the month, we launched our Heritage Trail of Wandsworth Common (pictured), linking 19 places of historical interest on the Common still visible today. Many of them are described in more detail in the book. You can buy a copy of the trail for £3 at Skylark.

Continuing the heritage theme, we were pleased to welcome Robin Akers to Wandsworth Common as he began a 150 mile cycle ride following the route of Edward Thomas, poet and former resident, whose poem ‘In pursuit of spring’ was written after a cycle ride from his home near Wandsworth Common to Samuel Coleridge’s home in Somerset, 110 years ago.

We had an excellent talk about swifts from Pat Gross, chair of Friends of Wandsworth Park, who described their very successful project to encourage swifts to nest around Wandsworth Park. We have identified a number of swift nesting hotspots around Wandsworth Common and are encouraging people to put up swift boxes in anticipation of their arrival in early May.

Finally, we held our fourth AGM - an opportunity to look back on the year’s achievements, events and activities. If you missed it, you can watch the recording here. 

February round-up: Biodiversity in abundance

Biodiversity in abundance

A flying start to the month with a talk by Annabel Osborn, Enable’s Parks Operations manager and formerly biodiversity lead, with a brilliant overview of Wandsworth’s biodiversity and what is being done to improve it. The talk coincided with a refreshing of the Council’s biodiversity strategy which aims to make what habitats there are better, bigger and more connected. This is what the new planting on Wandsworth Common has been focussed on and the now well-established volunteer sessions (third Tuesday of the month). This month saw volunteers complete bramble clearance and other maintenance of one of the glades on the Scope which, as the year progresses, will become a haven for wildflowers, butterflies and other pollinators. 

Nick Rutter’s bird walk caught sight of the Common’s newest inhabitant - a little owl - as well as a raven. Barbara Littlechild also spotted a number of rare species for the Common, including a tree creeper and green woodpecker. 

We ended the month with a talk from amateur naturalist Ben Smith about wild bees, the sort you can find in your back garden as well as on the Common. There are 10 times more species of wild bees than honey bees and it’s amazing what you see when you look. Ben’s talk also gave tips on what to plant in order to attract bees like the hairy footed flower bee, common carder etc. We hope Ben will lead a walk on the Common soon to spot the emergence of the ashy mining bee. 

As the nesting season approaches we held our final woodland litter pick of the year, clearing the wooded areas of remaining litter exposed by receding vegetation. Once the nesting season begins we confine our litter picking to the more open areas of the Common to avoid wildlife disturbance.

On the heritage front Sharon O’Neill reprised her talk about the Fitzhugh estate, this time face-to-face and with added material, including stories of some of the residents.  And on the final day of the month Ros and Stephen from our heritage group visited two local schools to showcase ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ for World Book Day. We hope this will excite interest amongst the youngsters for things on their doorstep

January round-up: A walk, a talk & a woodland spring clean

We began the year, as we always do, with Trevor‘s ever popular ‘Walk off the Wine’ walk. This year we were blessed with good weather, which guarantees a good turnout, and also the first sight of our new Heritage Trail, which will be formally launched with a walk on March 25th. All 12 sections of the Common were visited in a brisk two hour walk - 10,000 steps guaranteed. A great way to start the New Year.

Philip Boys’ return for part II of his ‘Turf Wars’ was no less vigorous given the amount of information Philip always has to draw on. Catch up on this and all our talks on our events page. 

To close the month, we held the first of our annual woodland litter pics to spring clean the Common’s wooded areas before the nesting season begins. 20 of us fanned out over all areas of the Common, but concentrating on the woodland areas, to reach the litter in those parts we haven’t been able to reach when the undergrowth and leaf cover is thicker. Always very satisfying and to be repeated on February 26 at 1pm. 

If you would like to join our regular litter pics on Mondays at 10, e-mail litterati@wandsworthcommon.org

December round-up: Climax to a big planting year

Late November/early December brings National Tree Week, the traditional start of the tree planting season. Donations towards tree planting on the Common have exceeded £12,000 since our 150th anniversary campaign began two years ago, and this season will see the climax to our planting efforts. 

Following on from the nine standard trees planted at the end of November, we put in a mixture of smaller, native whips, including blackthorn, buckthorn, hawthorn, guelda rose etc as well as several gorse plants to re-establish a species that was once widespread on the Common.

This season’s planting is concentrated at the very north end of the Common - Northside - alongside the South circular, both to create habitat and to act as an anti pollution ‘green screen’, and also in the south-west corner of the Common near the Bellevue/Trinity Road junction. We also infilled the hedging planted in the St Mark’s area last season, where some species, particular grey willow, were not successful.  

Enable’s biodiversity officer, Mick, astonished us by telling us that over the past year we’ve planted around 3,000 whips in these areas, alongside the 100 standard saplings financed by donations - a major achievement and no small thanks to our many donors and volunteers.

We look forward to monitoring the trees’ progress over the coming year  and hope that the weather will not be as challenging for them as last year. 

November round-up: Winter works, walks & talks

At the start of the winter works season, we walked around the Common with Enable’s biodiversity officer, Mick, who explained what he was planning for the next few months. This is the time of year to root out invasive, non-native species like bracken, laurel, rhododendron and sycamore; for rotational thinning of bramble; opening up glades; coppicing etc. An amazing amount of work goes on to maintain the Common, often unnoticed

We have several volunteers who like to be involved in this sort of thing and Enable have started a regular monthly (third Tuesday of the month - the next is Dec 20th) volunteering session to satisfy demand.

We inaugurated the sessions in the pouring rain, raking grass clippings from the eco-grassland in St. Mary’s cemetery and pruning some of the whips in St Marks triangle which were shooting skywards.

November also brings National Tree Week and the start of the planting season. The first nine of this year’s 150th anniversary trees were planted at the top of Northside, including interesting specimens like disease resistant elm, weeping wych elm and the wild service tree. Having dug holes ourselves to take whips, we can only marvel at the abilities of Graham and Grant who can dig a hole and plant a tree in the space of 10 minutes. Astonishing to watch.

Although it’s a fairly quiet time of year for birds, Nick Rutter hosted another of his popular bird walks, which was rewarded with a good sighting of a buzzard.

We also had two more excellent Heritage talks. The first, by local historian Dr Sue Demont, one of our book editors, who described the impact of the railways on Wandsworth Common, starting in the 1830s. To close the month Philip Boys returned with more fascinating stories of the huge variety of sports played on the Common, including hopping, pedestrianism, velocipede racing, hare and hound running, trotting races along Trinity Road, even a stag hunt. More to come next year!!

October round-up: Comprehensive recycling on the Common - ACHIEVED!!

Since the Friends launch in May 2018 we’ve campaigned for the introduction of comprehensive recycling on the Common. First, we set up our own weekly litter picks to measure the scale of the problem, asking our ‘litterati’ to separate recyclables from general rubbish. It soon became clear that over half the rubbish collected was recyclable, but destined for incineration alongside general rubbish, unless practices changed. We saved all the recycling until we had enough to make a splash, and then took the opportunity of the 2020 ‘Love Parks’ event to amass it all in front of the huge pink letters, with volunteers and Councillors helping to sort it into plastic, glass, paper and cans.

Dedicated recycling bins followed a year later in July 2021 - not the prettiest bins but a start. The emphasis then moved to educating the public to put their rubbish in the correct bins - we’re still pressing for better signage - and for the official litter pickers to separate recyclables too. After all, they collect far more than we do in our brief Monday morning sessions. We were delighted therefore to hear it announced this month that the official litter pickers - that’s Michael for Wandsworth Common - would from now on separate out recyclables, and not just on Wandsworth Common but in all Wandsworth’s major greenspaces.

We would like to thank Enable for their willingness to engage with us, Continental Landscapes and their litter pickers for their flexibility, our own litterati group for their tireless help, and the Council for getting to YES.

This month’s heritage talk by Philip Boys featured the Black Sea, a beautiful ornamental lake in front of a private estate, sadly filled in by Earl Spencer to provide land for the development of Spencer Park. The windmill was built to feed the lake after its water supply was cut off by the new railway cutting. You can read more about it in our book ‘The Wandsworth Common Story’ and elsewhere on our website.

Finally, it’s the season for fungi spotting and we were delighted to host Ling from Enable who demonstrated her expertise in spotting and identifying all manner of specimens: bonnet and cup fungus, deceivers, stinkhorns and more. Fascinating fungi.

September round-up: From Summer to Autumn

As summer turned to autumn we enjoyed some of our final summer events of the year. Roy Vickery led our third wildflower walk, uncovering another startling array of species on the Common. Iain Boulton led our most successful bat walk ever, with a huge number of sightings brought out by the mild, calm evening. Meanwhile, we held our last social bowls gathering of the year, before the green is closed for its annual renovation, more necessary this year due to the challenges brought by the drought.

The month ended with the annual Great Big Green week, which we marked with a stall at Saint Mary’s, Balham, pictured, alongside a plethora of other green focussed organisations. Good to meet so many like minded people and to hear from some of our newly elected councillors about their plans. A final highlight of the month was a lively and hugely enjoyable talk hosted by local author and environmentalist Isabel Losada who described, in her unique way, all the ways we can enjoy leading a greener lifestyle. Lots of food for thought for everyone, even the most ardent environmentalists, and brisk sales of Isabel’s book ‘’The Joyful Environmentalist’

As testament to all those who work hard to maintain and improve it, Wandsworth Common received a gold award in the annual London in Bloom competition for green spaces. Congratulations and thanks go to Enable, Continental Landscapes, Wandsworth Council and all our volunteers for their many and varied efforts.

August round-up: Tree watering

Pictured are Grant and Graham, the two men tasked with watering all Wandsworth’s newly planted trees, including those on the Common. Watering frequency and amounts were increased during the drought and we joined one of the watering shifts one morning to see how it was done. It’s a very efficient operation but one which relies on people reporting trees in distress, particularly those older than a year which aren’t routinely watered.

Our summer program of walks and talks concluded with three bird walks and a wildflower walk. Highlights included some fabulous sightings of the sparrow hawk family and also a pied flycatcher and the first ever Cetties warbler. Thanks as ever to our regular walk leaders Nick and Barbara

Weekly Monday little pics continue, led by Cathy and Nick, and our Sunday afternoon social bowls sessions have been a feature of the season.