Our representations of winter twigs and buds
Saturday Morning Nature Explorers held their first meeting on 1 October. We had lots of fun looking at some of the plant, animal and insect species that can be found in the Park and special thanks to our visiting bug expert, Darren, and his microscope! Some of the species we saw were fox, frog, male and female jays, robin, great tit, nuthatch, magpies, the inevitable pigeons, a colony of yellow honey ants, devils coach horse, 7 spot and 22 spot ladybirds, 3 different species of woodlouse, and lots of different spiders. Have a look at a short video of our resident frog taken by Raphael and his dad, Adrian.
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Our second meeting on was Saturday 5 November, when we were looking at spooky nature with a special focus on all matters arachnid greatly assisted by some fabulous props courtesy of the British Tarantula Society. Our final meeting of 2011 was Saturday 3 December when we took the opportunity to get into the festive spirit by propagating some mistletoe and making table decorations using natural materials from the Park (oh and some baubles and stick-on jewels, it was almost Christmas after all!).
We turned over a new leaf for our first meeting of 2012 with an in-depth look at the new life concealed in winter twigs. This session also produced some fantastic twig art.
Last month we met on a freezing cold February morning but luckily we were going on a trip to (the centrally heated) South London Botanical Institute to have a look at their Herbarium specimens and pick up some expert tips to help us create a Herbarium of our own. Everyone enjoyed the change of scene, the opportunity to explore a different garden and to have a look at some of our findings under the microscopes.
Our next meeting will be Saturday 3 March when Jamie from London’s Amphibian and Reptile Group will be coming along to talk to us about amphibians. We will be doing a spot of pond dipping in the Greenhouses pond and maybe our resident frog will come out to say hello. Come and join us!
Twig art 7 January
For more details contact Beth on projectdev@brockwellgreenhouses.org.uk or 07427 685714