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December 2022 Newsletter

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Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership
Feed Barn Pond

The new pond beside the feed-barn

The new pond beside the smaller barn at Noakes Grove and developing into a good pond-dipping pond for the children's groups.

The pond was lovingly constructed by Andrew Urquhart and his helpers, with the pipes, rhat fill the pond with rainwater,from the barn roof, installed by John Bagley.

Unlike our other two ponds, this one is lined and should remain filled with water even in periods of drought.

This pond, and the improvements to the schoolroom, were f unded by a grant from the Education Services charity. The digital microscope is ideal for examining water fleas and other tiny creatures from the pond.

 

 

Nature reserves by bus

Thanks to Essex County Council, there is now a good bus service from Saffron Walden and Haverhill to Noakes Grove and Kings Field.

Scotch Patch (Ellis Green) has a good service from Saffron Walden and Thaxted

Apart from saving petrol and the planet, using a bus means you can bus one way and walk the other or walk from one bus stop to another for the homeward journey.

The bus routes are:

319 – Walden to Redgates Lane north (¼ mile to Noakes Grove) Ashdon and Haverhill. Every two hours in each direction every day except Sundays

320 - Walden to Redgates Lane south (½ mile to Noakes Grove) Radwinter and Haverhill. Every two hours in each direction every day except Sundays

313 & 314 – Walden to Ellis Green (Scotch Patch at end of Ellis Green Lane x metres) then Thaxted to Dunmow every day except Sundays. Until the road works on the B184 (Armitage Bridge) are finished (mid-December) there will be no service on this route.

Top picture: Central Connect bus which serves routes 319 & 320.

Lower picture: Stephensons bus that serves route 313 & 314

320

313
Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership

December Work Party - Less Work and More Party

 work

 As every year, the December work party at Noakes Grove will involve some party time around the bonfire plus festive snacks and drinks (including our Scotch Patch apple juice. Insert date and timings. Sunday 18 December 10.00-3.30

Work parties at Noakes Grovhappen on the 3rd Sunday of every month. You need old clothes, gloves and something for lunch. Tea and coffee suppiled.

At work parties we use only hand-tools but some work needs doing with our brush cutters and chain saw. For safeties sake we only want todo this when more than one person is present. If you are willing to help please contact

 party

Ram news – good and bad

Gaffer (who sired our excellent batch of this years lambs) fell ill and despite the vet's best efforts he remained in pain had to be put to sleep.

The new ram (Romulus) arrived at t Kings Field at the begining of December where he will join his harem of breeding ewes.

The young rams (born this Spring) are now at Noakes Grove. They needed to be separated from their sisters, cousins, mothers and aunts.

 

 

Romulus
Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership

NERIA

Neria lived in the stone-age and helped her clan hunt bison and tame wolves.

Edouard lives now and lives on a small farm in France.

But each can visit the other's world.

Their advenures were suggested by Wild Child members and wrrtten down by their Wild Child leader.

The book would make a good Christmas present for children of 7 - 11 and all the profits go to Walden Countryside.

The shop (or Amazon) price is £6.50 but Walden Countryside supporters may order here for £5.00 including delivery

Paperback £5 inc. delivery in UK

Buy now and support Walden Countryside's Wild Child group

Neria

 Stone-age
Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership

baby at ng

Noakes Grove Children

There are now four different types of childrens acrivity groups at Noakes Grove:

Well-being sessions with Nikki Sammons

Youth mindfulness, outdoor toddler groups, family, and children’s nature-based well-being sessions. 

Mini-mindfulness for toddlers, parents and carers

Tuesday at 9.15. – 10. 15 a.m. or on Thursdays 9.15 – 10.15 a.m. Sessions run for six weeks in term time. 

New year sessions start on the 10th of January 2023. (This is a five week term) 

Please feel free to come for a trial session before Christmas if you would like to. 

Other well-being sessions.

School holidays and after school children’s and family mindfulness sessions run all year. 

For more information, please visit Nikki's website https://www.nikkisammons.co.uk 

or call 07 966 579 345.

...............................................................

Bell Nursery Forest School

Forest school for 2-4 year olds from the Bell Nursery pre-school, on two or three mornings a week.

Only for Bell Nursery School pupils.

 

 

 
into-woods
dino-walk

Wild Child

Wild Child is for a group of children (age 6 - 10) who enjoy themselves learnng about wildlife and conservation work. And playng in a nature reserve.

The Friday group is for home educated children and the Saturday group for at school youngsters. Both groups run from 2 - 4 pm and meet every two weeeks,

Each group s limited to abour 10 children and has been fully booked until recently. A number of children have moved away from this area, so there are vacancies for both groups, Parents who are interested will be invited to bring their child to a "taster session" to see if they wish their child to be a full member of Wild Child. Contact david @ walden-countryside.co.uk.

The Wild Chilfd Club is free, although many parents make donations for which we are very grsatefull.

Picture on the left: the home school group on their "Dinosaur Walk" from Noakes Grove to Kings Field (8 miles).

 
Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership

Kings Field Visits

The new fencing has been finished so will be able to ceate a new sheep psaddock straddling both sides of the brook.

The new footbridge and the wide path outside the new fence means there is now a nice circular route to allow exploration of the of the whole reserve.

Romulus (the ram) and our breedfing ewes are now in the main paddock.

The pond has been dug but needs to be lines before it will hold water.

Thanks to Peter Savic, John Bagley and David Buckley an old shed that we were given has been renovated, given a new roof and is almost ready to act as the new home for our grass-mowing minitractor

The yellow lines are the permissive paths to explore the nature reserve

Kings Field
Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership

Volunteers - news - Sheep team

Our sheep team members share the daily visits to our three groups of sheep. Most members of the group have been our “shepherds” for a few years but we have had some new volunteers recently. We are very grateful to our shepherds new and old.


Volunteers wanted - Website work

As you are reading this newsletter you know what our website is like.

Much of it provides information that does not change very often but the Home Page and Latest News Page (what you are reading now) needs to be updated every month.

We need a volunteer able to create web pages and use an FTP program to upload the new month's two pages. Other members of our team will provide the information content. What we need is a volunteer to share the task with our existing “web master”.

Potential volunteers: please email info@walden-countryside.co.uk

Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership


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Buses to Nature Reserves New Ram Work Party Book for Kids Raise Funds when you shop - its free for you Children's Activities Visit Kings Field Volunteering Membership

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Copyright 2022
Organic Countryside Community Interest Company
Trading as Walden Countryside
Company number 06794848 - registered in England
VAT No: 947 3003 31

23 Tye Green, Wimbish CB10 2XE

01799 599 643

Updated 10 June 2022

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