The weather was perfect for an early september day and we had lots of activities for all happening throughout the two hours of the meeting, organised by the park Friends. Below are some photos of everyone enjoying themselves.
The nature walks by guides Neil and Brad were “sold out” almost immediately and I hear spotting a rare moth was one of the highlights of the walks. I hope Neil will tell us more here. For a somewhat shorter stroll, visitors went to the “pocket” orchard garden hosted by its designer Joana and it also featured large in the kids (and parents!) nature hunt around the park set by Carmel. The canine “egg and spoon” races created created great excitement and noise! The aim there, by the way, was that the owner bears an egg and spoon and with the same hand holds the dog’s leash whilst racing the course and urged on by Ben with his “Bluetooth” megaphone. Alphas Canine care were on hand with lots of dog-talk, advice and very handsome looking dogs! The “boot camp” had Shara getting groups of people of all ages performing some very energetic exercises with great gusto .
Meanwhile back at base camp, fetching Friends of Perivale Park badges were being handed out to everyone. They no doubt will become collectors items, so try to get one whilst you can! We had a fantastic response to the park questionnaire. So much so that one of us had to rush off to print off more copies. Thanks Ros! The feedback will be collated and analysed presently. The folks from LAGER Can turned up and cleared the park of litter for us. Hey, only three and a half bags on this occasion, but nonetheless a great many lager cans as you can see in the photos! To put this into perspective, they would not have been surprised if 10 bags had been filled, but on the day the park was relatively well behaved!
Some local groups could not come on the day, but we had an information desk with nice photos of Horsenden farm with the bakers, the brewers and the farm shop. Quite a few people learnt about these recent openings (it has all happened in the last year) for the first time. There was also a detailed map and information about the new Nature Reserve being created at the south end of the park by Ealing Wildlife group.
All in all, a great celebration of (the best!) London Park and how it has helped during these difficult times. Thanks everyone!