Bristol Festival of Nature

Bristol Festival of Nature was a big success this year with lots of great stalls. The People and Wildlife tent had one wall covered in pictures showing all the fun stuff the project has done and all the people it has worked with.

In the middle was the Meadow Memories structure. The public wrote their best wildlife experiences on a people petal. Then they stuck them on to sticks and pushed them into the heads to create flowers.



 Here are some of our favourite meadow memories:

"My best wildlife experience is all of the flowers"

"When I counted lots of insects with bug man Pete on the Bioblitz day"

"Seeing a badger in my garden at night"

"When I saw a jay in the trees. When I saw two deer, a mother and a fawn. When 9 bluetits were eating at my birdfeeder."

We were also giving away PAW parcels which are packed full of wildlife activities including a flat-pack bird box.



Chernobyl Children visit Folly Farm

Every year a group of children from Belarus visit Bristol. They stay with local families and do a variety of day trips and activities. This visit is made possible by a charity called Chernobyl Children's Life Line. Yesterday as part of their itinerary the kids did a bushcraft day with the People and Wildlife team at Folly Farm.

Insect Hotel

Members of the 'Thursday Group', among others, have created an 'insect hotel' in the kitchen garden at Folly Farm by stacking wooden crates, roof tiles and lengths of bamboo and twigs. This creates a perfect environment for a whole host of insect guests, including overwintering moths and butterflies, solitary bees and wasps, lacewings and ladybirds.

Goblin Combe by Dave Pearse

Tucked away in the Mendip fold
A beautiful site to behold
Where holly and yew of evergreen
Throughout the winter their beauty seen
Among the branches dwells the dormouse
Through winter’s cold is provided a house
Even above Lulsgate iron birds roar
The songbirds singing does still enthral
For between the noise of each passing plane
The Combe’s peaceful quiet does still magic gain
For magic does its place name assume
The sacred earth magic of Goblin Combe

Pergola

The 'Thursday Group' have built a beautiful pergola in the kitchen garden at Folly Farm to provide shelter  for weary gardeners.

         “These days out make me feel good, give me a sense of achievement whenever I do something which will be semi-permanent for a few years.”