Grasmere

Vicki Jull writes:

A grand total of just over £2,150 was raised at the Fleet Pond Society Garden Party held at Grasmere, Chestnut Grove on Saturday 13th June. This amount broke all previous records for a volunteer-run event for the Society and is a tribute to all the volunteers who put their time into preparing and running this event.

The weather was extremely kind to us and a steady flow of visitors enjoyed the games, and bought cakes, bric-a-brac, books and plants. They then rested their tired feet, eating home-made cakes and cream teas, seated in the wonderful surroundings of Nicolette and Richard Pike’s beautiful garden.

PC Paul Franks and PC Dan Lehec popped in for a chat and showed the children their handcuffs and other equipment – no arrests were made!

The Fleet Pond Society Committee would like to thank everyone who helped make this such a successful fund-raising event, including the Fleet Lions and the Horticultural Society for the loan of the tables and games, respectively.  Most particular thanks must go Nicolette and Richard for opening their beautiful house and garden up for us to share in a little piece of historical Fleet.

Picture: A Budding Young Driver (Sam, I Believe!)

The volunteer event for May focused on mending the protective fencing along the banks above the pony paddock main access (where the water tank is located).  The existing fence had become just a line of posts with odd bits of wire remaining to be removed!

The Ranger, Joanna Lawrence, had made available posts from the workshop storage yard which will be longer lasting than the logs that are usually used and this made an enormous difference.

Picture: Planning Putting Up Posts And Rails

There was a very good turnout on what was an absolutely glorious day and everyone enthusiastically got down to the tasks of digging, sawing and hammering! A variety of passers-by asked about what we were doing and some even wanted to get involved (see picture at top).

Picture: Really Getting Stuck In!

Picture: After the Digging, Inserting A Post

As an aside, just as the task was about to start we were informed by a member of the public that there was a fire burning nearby that needed to be extinguished. In fact the fire brigade had arrived by the time we got there (in other words, very quickly) and were already dousing the remaining embers. The fire engine was able to get right up to the fire due to it’s compact size.

Note: To avoid any possible misunderstandings, in the above photo (‘Really Getting Stuck In’), full H&S precautions were of course taken. Indeed appropriate information on the correct use of tools is given prior to each volunteer event.

Fleet Pond Society will be having a Garden Party this Saturday, 13th June 2009, from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm at:

“Grasmere”, 35 Chestnut Grove, Fleet

The pictures above and below are of this very beautiful setting which overlooks the pond.

There will be alot on offer including

• delicious teas and homemade cakes and sandwiches
• plants and garden sundries
• books and a drawing competition
• skittles, a coconut shy and a football game
• bric-a-brac and ‘guess where the treasure is?’
• many more stalls
• raffle with great prizes (drawn at 2:30 pm)

All the proceeds of the Garden Party will go to the upkeep of Fleet Pond Nature Reserve. See also previous post  ‘Garden Party In June’.

Picture credits: Cathy Holden

Fleet Pond Society organises and runs a series of volunteer conservation activities at the Pond. The next conservation task is this coming Sunday, June 14.

The plan is to follow up on the work by the O2 volunteers to upgrade the footpath from Gelvert Bridge to Coldstream Glade.

If you have never been before and fancy trying it, please just turn up (details here) or else give Colin Gray a call on 01252 616183, who will be delighted to provide additional information.