January 2011

Fund raising quiz night
First, a date for your diary.  Saturday 5th March at 7.00pm, a fund raising Quiz night, always a popular event.  You can form your own team of 8, or come along and meet new friends by forming a team on the night. 

Tickets are £8 per person and the price includes some light refreshments. 
Bring your own drinks and glasses. 
Contact Mick Hedges on 01277 231367 for ticket reservations.


The weather
Now for the rest of the news. Brrr, what a shock to the system the weather has been. It’s ok for us humans, we really don’t have reasons to moan too much because we can stay in our warm homes; or when we go out put on an extra layer, hat, gloves, coat and boots to ward off the worst of the weather.

Some of this is true for some of our resident animals of course – some do put on a thicker coat of fur, others hibernate and hopefully will have found themselves a cosy corner and covered themselves in a thick enough layer of floor litter to ward of the extreme temperatures we have experienced. However, unfortunately not all will have prepared well enough.

Others animals need to be out and about finding some hard found morsels to sustain them and it was a delight to see on the Monday before Christmas exactly where some our residents have been; scattered over the snow-covered meadows, pathways and between the trees and vegetation footprints were plentiful of various shapes and sizes. Their tell-tale signs make you realise how plentiful wildlife is at this time of year.

Tree management at Warley Place
One major task our volunteers have now started at Warley Place is the management of trees to the south of the Conservatory, which used to be a lawn in Ellen Willmott’s time and referred to as the ‘Pleasance’.

Numerous trees have grown in this area unchecked since Essex Wildlife Trust took over the management in 1977. There are some older and rarer trees that need to be preserved and are being crowded out by newcomers reducing their sunlight and ability to spread their branches naturally. Also, for some of the newer trees growing close to each other, their canopies are growing in abnormal shapes as they also vie for the sunlight they must have to promote healthy growth.

The tree management work will include thinning out some of this relatively new growth to allow a healthier environment for the remaining flora and generate some floor space for new vegetation to thrive.

Open Weekends
For those wishing to visit Warley Place we do have some public Open Weekends from 26th February through to 10th April, 10.00am – 5.00pm.

The Warley Place team wish everyone a Happy New Year.

New Website
We are working on a new website at the moment and would appreciate your help. 

We would be grateful if you could let us know if there is anything about the site that you think could be improved and if so how.  Also is there anything you would like us to add? 

You will have seen that the news item is now more of a chatty blog appearing each month rather than three times a year.  Is this OK? 

We were wondering if more pictures should be included, perhaps changed more often?  Perhaps different tabs for Flora, Fauna and general pictures? 

Is the opening page OK or should it be more attractive than informative?  We won't get grumpy if you criticize - well, perhaps a bit - as long as it's constructive so that we have an idea of how we can improve it.

Thanks.  Just email John at john.cannell2@btinternet.com.