March 2010 and there is lots to be done at the Village Pond
After a cold start to the year, work begins again at Hanley Swan village pond. Neil puts out a final call in the Malvern Gazette (original article) early February for more Malvern stone and once again the response is great from the kind folk of Malvern, which is nestled below The Malvern Hills.
Neil managed to organise another 3 days with Will Hall and the Community Payback team at the end of February and nearly all the Malvern stone that had been collected had been placed around the village pond. With so much having been donated Neil was able to place stone all around the village pond even shoring up sections of the Willow Weave th
at had been an earlier attempt to secure the bank along the roadside.
Neil was now looking for some good quality top soil to lay all around the village pond so he could begin sowing grass seed before April. St Gabriels Church came to the rescue as they had a pile of soil in the graveyard and this final job to move around 10 ton of soil was completed by Will Hall and his team completed in March.
The last stretch
The inlet and outlet water pipes were now all working especially after the hard work that was put in to clear the pipe. Malcolm Fare, David Thomas, and Graham Thomas were a huge help in finding the outlet pipe and getting it fixed. Neil then placed a lot of stone at the outlet end to keep much of the rubbish back from entering the outlet. It also does a good job of covering this ugly pipe.
There was a bit more planting to do and Joanna Bowles from the village was a great help. Other village members continued to plant woodland shrubs and flowers such as snowdrops, cyclamen daffodils, and crocuses.
Neil and Gigi had some Nesting Boxes in their garage, so during the month of February got these put up on a couple of trees in the wooded area, to help attract more wildlife to the area.
Sales of floating duck food sold in the Village Shop continues to rise and the village is grateful to everyone who chooses to feed this healthy nutritious duck food as opposed to BREAD, which is not good for any wildlife. Signs have also been put around the village pond to help educate visitors about the downside of feeding wildlife bread and cakes. Read this article as it explains why feeding ducks and wildlife bread is not good for their health.
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