Ealing parks have just installed three new Fingerpost signs in the park and an information sign for Longfield meadows.
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?
Free five-a-side football training for 8-10 year olds on 26th October – book now!
As part of the grant we obtained from the Freshwater foundation, we are organising two sessions of free five-a-side football training for 8-10 year olds on Wednesday October 26, 2022 (half-term). The training will be done using the park MUGA (multi-use games area) by Brentford FC community sports trust, who have many years of experience in running such programs.
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The MUGA (multi-use games area) has lines again – The RedGreen group inaugurate!
About three years ago, a group of youths attempting to play five-a-side football in the MUGA court in the park, next to the tennis courts, handed me a list of things they would like to see fixed in the park. Top of their list was to have the MUGA lines repainted. This had last been done at the time of the 2012 Olympics, but the lines had faded badly, making competitive games difficult. This was about the time that the Friends of the Park group was being formed, and we added it to our list of projects. Earlier this year, we became aware of the Freshwater Foundation, a charity operating in Ealing and Hounslow that gives grants for exactly this sort of project. We put in an application in May and in late August we heard we had been successful. This Monday, contractors from Centurian turned up to revitalise the lines. Rain paused their activities but they came back yesterday and finished the job! You can see the results below.
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Perivale Park Summer event, Sunday September 25th, 14.00-16.30
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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Unusual happenings in the orchard.
This year, the spring and summer has been very dry with little sustained rain. July is turning out to be one of the driest on record. No wonder the trees everywhere are suffering. The walnut tree planted as part of the Queen’s Jubilee is looking quite stressed for example.
Coston’s brook safari.
Coston’s brook is a tributary of the river Brent, joining it at the south west corner of the park (red arrow on 19th Century map of the area).
A Nature walk with Neil Anderson – 30 July, 2022.
Neil Anderson will be looking for Dragonflies, Damselflies and no doubt interesting invertebrates on July 30 (Saturday), starting under the arches at the Stockdove entrance to the park. Do come along!
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.
Perivale Park orchard after three years
Twenty four fruit trees were planted to create an orchard in 2019. Three years on they are now having their fourth summer – which promises to be a scorcher! I have taken photographs of all 24, shown below.
Explore historical georeferenced maps of the park area.
Jon has sent me this fantastic link for exploring georeferenced maps with historical overlays. Click on the map below or use this link.
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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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Roses.
The last addition to the orchard area was the planting of roses about two years ago. It been a good year for roses in general and the orchard roses have really grown and flowered this year, with only minimal pruning last year.
Perivale Park – Contributing to the Queen’s Green Canopy on Platinum Jubilee day.
On Jubilee day, June 2, 2022, we capture the park with the new Walnut tree planted by Ealing May Councillor Munir Ahmed in March as a contribution to the Queen’s Green Canopy. It is looking very healthy indeed!
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A little bit of oak maintenance.
The oak processionary moth can be a scourge of parks with lots of oak trees. And Perivale park has quite a few mature specimens. Almost three years ago we highlighted what can happen when a tree becomes infested. So it was good to see that the parks department continues to regularly spray the trees to avoid any resurgence.