Horsenden Grape and Honey farm first planted their vines on a south facing sunny slope in Greenford about six years ago. This year the harvest of Solaris grapes was expected to be large enough to hold their first ever grape treading ceremony. As a “townie”, it’s not the sort of thing I would have done in my youth and I suspect a fair few readers here have never trodden grapes either!
A wonderful blush of blue in the park – and its only going to get better.
As I noted before on July 9th, a seed mix containing Flax was planted in the meadow along the Capital ring path. Now, a mere two months later, its produced a fantastic display – and I think the best is yet to come. Do go visit this part of the park and have a look for yourself (its alongside the Capital Ring path).
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A new (industrial-sized) find in the park.
A few years ago, a walk in the park would often reveal small discarded nitrous oxide gas canisters; my record find was 52 of them. Then their incidence started to decrease and they became a less common sight. Today however whilst on my early morning litter round, I came across 19 much larger canisters – each weighing 1.1 kg. Since 21 kg of “litter” was rather too much for me to remove, I left them there.
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Repairs/by-passes to the Gurnell to Greenford path.
As you can see from the map below, a footpath known as the Gurnell to Greenford greenway runs parallel to Ruislip Road, and adjacent to the river Brent. At the spot marked with a red arrow, the footpath is very close to the near-vertical bank of the river, which flows perhaps 3-5m below the level of the path. This bank has become increasingly unstable over the years, possibly because of the occasional flood waters that roar down the Brent when the sluice gates are released from the Welsh Harp reservoir at times of heavy rains.
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Stipa Gigantea
I mentioned in the last post the giant grasses in the orchard area. Here are some photos, that do not entirely show how very tall they are!
Yellow slime mold.
Occasionally, I spot something in the park that I have never seen below. The photos below were snapped in the orchard area, next to the wood chipping mulch pile. iNaturalist tells me it is from the Genus Fuligo, and is probably the delightfully named “Dog Vomit Slime Mold”. With the frequent recent showers, I expect to see a lot more of this sort of thing in the next month or so.
Park nature walk – observations
On July 8th, led by Neil Anderson, we set out on a nature walk, taking in a large part of Perivale Park. Notes of what we saw, kindly provided by Neil, are shown below, along with some photos taken by myself.
The 2023 meadow seed mix goes in – Sunflowers and Flax!
A dazzling variety of high-tech machines were used to prepare this year’s large park meadow for seeding. July is an unusual time to put seeds in, so quite what will happen over the next few months will be interesting to discover. The mix is for birds, and not neccessarily ornamental for humans to enjoy. But this years mix includes sunflowers (Helianthus annum) and cultivated flax (Linum Usitatissimum). The sunflower and flax seeds are 60% of the whole, so in about two years time we might expect a spectacular display of wonderful blue flax, as we saw two years ago in the orchard meadows.
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The scent of July – the Linden tree.
After the exquisite scent of lady’s bedstraw comes the very different but equally wonderful smell of the Linden tree (Tilia or Lime tree). The park has many of these, and they are at their flowering peak right now.
Lady’s Bedstraw.
With all the talk of technologists and virtual and augmented reality, one sense is overlooked – that of smell. And there is no more stunning scent than that of Lady’s bedstraw (Galium Verum) drifting in a peaceful meadow at dusk.
Is the park playground embarrassed?
When you take family to a park playground, you hope the kids will be safe and can run around happily without concern. We in fact visited Perivale park playground yesterday (Friday) at around 14.00 with an infant grand-daughter. We did (sadly) have to check for broken glass and syringes (both of which have been seen there in the past), but at that time it was looking more or less tidy. I decided to visit the area again this morning, and you can see what I found from the photos below.
General nature walk, July 8th, 2023 at 10.00 led by Neil Anderson.
Each year, we normally have a nature walk close to or in the park. Recently these have been organised by the the Ealing Wildlife Group and this year, there will be walk on Saturday July 8th. The meeting place will be on the bridge over the Brent, just past Coston’s nature reserve at 10.00, led by Neil Anderson. He tells me that “provided the weather is fine, the emphasis will most likely be on flora & flying insects such as butterflies & dragonflies. Suspect it will be quiet for birds but I won’t ignore any we come across (Grey Wagtails successfully bred along the Costons Brook in the park).”
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News on meadow sowings – 2023.
Ealing parks will be putting down this year’s bird seed and wild flower mixes in the big meadow in the park, shown below.
The orchard meadows in June – Achillia and Viper’s bugloss.
When the orchard garden project was being planned five years ago, four meadows were created with nutrient-poor soil to encourage a different diversity of flowers to adopt the area. The nutrient-free aspect was achieved by putting down a thick bed of sand into each of the meadows. These were then sown with a perennial seed-mix and planted with bulbs. Of the latter, the gladioli and some dwarf narcissus made a come back this year. So, now in June, what is happening?
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The Litten Nature Reserve
Nestling amongst the back gardens of Greenford centre and not far from Perivale Park is this wonderful little nature reserve.
Cornflower meadow.
Yet another meadow to report on – full of cornflowers. Again, having been missing for a year or two, they have made a great comeback this year.
Meadows of poppies and buttercups.
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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A new (old) park bench – where did it come from?
A park bench has mysteriously appeared near the “four ponds” area of the park, near the Cowgate road entrance. Its obviously old, and clearly has come from another home. But sitting on it, one has a lovely view of the ponds, which in retrospect clearly needed a bench from which to view them. And on a summer evening, it will make a perfect spot from which to observe bats, which we showed last year frequent the area.
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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.
Ice art: the frozen ponds of Chobham Common.
Occasionally other green spaces in London make a guest appearance here, and this one is from Chobham Common, in the south west just beyond the M25 ring. The last two nights have seen an abrupt drop in temperatures, down to about -4C, and this rapid freeze and perhaps wind have created some wonderful patterns in the Chobham common ponds. Shown below is a selection for you to enjoy.
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Friends of Perivale Park. Third annual General meeting, Tuesday February 7th, 2023, 19.30.
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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