The year 2023 is turning out to be a good one for both buttercups and poppies. Here are some photos of our poppy meadow, part of the orchard garden, and our buttercup meadow, next to the tennis courts.
Heron and Friends.
Herons are daily visitors to the park. One person has even suggested you can set your clock by one heron, who always visits Coston’s brook around 09.15 each day. This is a snap of possibly that heron, or another, with two friends, sent in by Ros. Thanks Ros!
A new river bridge in the park.
Depending on how you define the park boundaries, we have four bridges – two crossing the Brent and two crossing Coston’s brook. A fifth is now taking shape, crossing what might be called Perivale Brook. This latter feeds the ponds in the area next to the children’s playground and previously crossed the path there in a pipe. A pipe that proved too small in diameter and was constantly blocking with leaves from the trees there. Now the pipe is being replaced by a custom built bridge.
May along the river Brent – and our new stream is now a river!
I noted on March 16 an unintended river appearing in the park. Clearly a burst water main, the leak has expanded and now the footpath to Greenford is a proper river. This has been reported to Thames Water, so we might expect it to be fixed soon, if only to save on our precious water. Let’s see!
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Dandelions – a stunning spring flower!
Every year, it seems one flower or plant in particular is favoured by the conditions. Dare I say it, this year it is Tulips and – yes Dandelions.
More splashes of seasonal colour.
The raised beds in the park orchard area are again devoted to spring bulbs at this time of year. Following the annual top-up last November, they are now in full flower – rather later it has to be said than most daffodils!
Seating galore from which to view the wildlife in the ponds.
Are you one of those walkers who likes to see a bench to sit on when you visit a park? Fear not. The meadows to the east of the railway viaduct have lots of seating, in the form of nicely shaped rocks arrayed along the banks of the small stream that flows through the meadow feeding the largest pond. From which you can observe what is happening in the ponds themselves. Such as the marsh marigolds which are making a welcome reappearance; they were planted about four years ago, but last year’s show was very minimal. This year its a bit better, but too soon to say whether they will become permanently establish.
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Heron vs Frog: nature in action
We caught a young heron in the process of swallowing a frog it had just caught. We often see herons in this location, the ponds near to the bridge across Coston’s Brook. This one was very fastidious, dipping the frog in the waters several times before swallowing it.
Friends activities during February 2022-February 2023.
I attach here the report of park activities and projects presented at the Friends AGM yesterday.
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The frozen ponds of perivale park.
From Chobham common back to Perivale park. Yesterday the temperature was -6C and the large ponds east of the railway viaduct were artistically frozen. Here are a few snaps, very different from the Chobham ponds.
Final winter colour for 2022 – and some rose mulching
As the year comes to an end, it is still a very unusual one. Roses in early December in such abundance? And they have been given a nice winter blanket of mulch which should set them up for next year.
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Raising the Green Flag in Perivale Park
We had a wonderful turnout for the Green Flag ceremony on Saturday 26th November, and the weather did its bit as well.
Raising the (Green) Flag: Saturday 26th November 2022, 10.00 – 10.30 am in the orchard
The park now has its own flagpole, with a green flag ready to be flown from it. This will first be raised on Saturday 26th November 2022, 10.00 – 10.30 am in the orchard and James Murray, our local MP has very kindly agreed to perform the ceremony.
The periodic lake festival in the Park
A few times a year, especially at this time, the golf course adjacent to the park transforms into a lake. This area is a flood plane, and when the Welsh Harp reservoir gets too full, its sluice gates are opened and the excess water flows down the river Brent until it reaches the park golf course. IThe water then enters the course and exits further down. This turns the golf course into a temporary lake. Today more like a river, since you can see the flow from the videos below. Meanwhile the placid Coston’s brook transformed into a river, footpaths flooded and the ponds next to the children’s playground overflowed. Very probably more to come!
Free five-a-side football training for 8-10 year olds on 26th October – the event!
As part of the MUGA (Multi-use-games-area) restoration project, we organised a day of football training for 8-10 year olds from local schools, run by the Brentford FC community sports trust.
Autumn color in the park – and herons galore.
Two hours ago, heavy rain fell in the neighborhood and we decided to find out what had happened. We quickly came across not one, but two herons eyeing each other up. One occupied the new stepping stones across the pond and the other appeared to fancy the position as well.
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Costons Brook improvements – reed and iris plantings.
Today a section of the bed of Costons brook (near the bridge in Perivale Park) was planted by five volunteers with Flag Iris, which should flower yellow in the spring. Earlier this month, the Greenwayers had removed vast amounts of Himalayan Balsam from the banks and overhanging branches have been trimmed to improve the light reaching the brook.
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An exciting new feature for kids in the park (tested by an old kid!)
A few years back, some large rocks (and railway sleepers) were brought to the park, next to the footpath at the cross-paths, close to the Cowgate lane entrance. Kids soon started scrambling on them with great delight, but the rocks were soon enclosed with fences to prevent this. Now they have been moved to their final location, as stepping stones to a little island formed by one of the adjacent ponds.
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Gurnell Leisure Centre: a proposal to relocate to Longfield Meadows?
The Save Gurnell site is reporting two new proposals from Ealing council for the leisure centre. One of these involves wholesale relocation of the centre to Longfield meadows (a site of importance for nature conservation, or SINC), as shown in the plan below. This follows an earlier proposal to relocate just the BMX track to a portion of this meadow, which was withdrawn last year. Longfield meadows are part of what we call the “Greater Perivale Park”.
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Perivale park summer/autumn event, 2022.
This year the event held on 25 September was bigger than ever. We had the dog “olympics”, where owners and their dogs participated in various types of races and skills tests. The team from Café Berry, whose home is in the nearby Pitshanger park, came with their delicious home-baked cakes and snacks, and gave everyone a chance to sample their special dog vanilla ice creams. The local girl guides painted faces and the weather was perfect. A chance for all the users of the park to meet each other – and their dogs! And the new Friends badge was distributed to everyone. Those who have all three editions have a collector’s item! The next opportunity to get one will be Tuesday 27th September at the park athletics track. Come and get yours, and join in the exercise whilst you are at it!
The orchard garden – Geranium Rozanne.
The orchard garden was originally planted with four rectangular flower beds surrounding the avenue of Crab apple trees, with four larger almost square wild flower and spring bulb meadows (parched yellow below). Last year those meadows put on a fantastic display of flax. Now, a year on all these areas have all evolved.
Some lovely mushrooms in autumnal park.
This is the 2022 edition of mushrooms in the park.
I would not dare identify them, but someone might?
New orchard fruit (in September?) with sunflowers.
Well, its an odd year this year. In one meadow, sunflowers are making a rather late appearance, whilst in the adjacent orchard, new fruit has recently set on the trees as if it were April. The fruit looks abundant, but whether it will ripen is touch and go.
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The power of rain.
Here is a guest article by Carmel, who has been out and about in the park.
The park has changed so much in the last 24 hours.
Group-led bike rides in Perivale Park -24th September
Unusual happenings (contd.): Spring has arrived (again) in the orchard.
A few days ago I noted that many of the fruit trees in the park orchard were putting out new leaf buds. Well, what happens next? New flower buds!
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Dragonflies and Damselflies walk.
Today Neil Anderson gave a group of 21 of us a masterclass in nature observation. Thanks also to Sean McCormack of the Ealing Wildlife group for organising!
Greater London Green Flag Award: Perivale Park
The Green Flag award scheme aspires to Raising the standard of Parks and Green Spaces and is the International mark of quality. Earlier this year its judges visited Perivale Park, and we walked them around, showing the various points of interest. Now the judging is complete and we are delighted to announce that the coveted Green Flag has been awarded to the park. Thanks to everyone who made this possible, but especially to all the folks at Ealing Parks who pulled out all the stops this year for us!
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The annual June gardening tasks.
A small but enthusiastic band of gardeners tidied up the orchard a little bit this last Sunday. After the copious mulching of the area last year (in preparation for the London in Bloom judging!), the ground cover of weeds was far less than a year ago.
The flower meadow is seeded – now for the rain dance.
The seeder has visited the park flower meadow, after having done Horsenden meadows and Cayton green park.
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