Well, a few folk (167 yesterday) enjoyed the 5K Park run and this is a weekly great outside activity (the 614th run). It shares the love of enjoying the outside in the wonderful setting of the beautiful Grovelands Park

We noticed ‘Enfield Chasers’ tee shirts racing past over the last few weeks and obviously we were unable to chat as everyone is very focussed on their personal efforts.

However, as I am tradititionally the last , I was able to speak to Rachael as I ‘walked’ to the finish yestrday and she had completed her 5k ages before me. Enfield Chasers have expressed an interest in associating themselves with us and we will be delighted to meet them there as it seems such a wonderful opportunity for many more local people to enjoy the establishing beautiful ‘yellow brick road’ through this undulating magnificent local countryside …that many still are unaware of.

As Enfield Chase developes we are so happy to see so much diverse wildlife appearing and if you spot anything that you would like to include here please let us know too. (If you are able to indentify them please also add those details too)

What a beautiful part of our country and slowly the saplings are showing their beauty adding their individual style to the surroundings. All of us look at this new growth with both delight and pride and we can see how this area will look in the future.Again, let the photos tell the story

Well, most of the initial planting has now taken place and we are keen to see how they fared over the drought and then the winter.

We were so happy to see some signs of growth and despite some failures we feel that progress has been made.

If you are reading this and feel the urge to help, it is a very rewarding way to spend your time. You don’t need to commit to lots of work or definite duties. You will enjoy the great outdoors and some jolly friendships spring up from doing this mark on our locality that will flourish and be there as a permanent record for future generations…anyway…enough of the commecials…let the pictures show you where we are at the moment

A few of the ‘ever busy’ Friends of Enfield Chase also assist Thames 21 in foreshore and similar work and we were lucky enough to be invited to a night walk along the foreshore.

Yes, it was carefully arranged to take place when the tide was out and as we walked along we were delighted to see the Nautical College, and the power station on the far bank. A laser light shone high in the night sky marking the meridian.

Rocks gleamed as we carefully made our way towards the O2 Centre. The local vicar treated us to home-made soup and a roll in his wonderful church on the river bank and was full of interesting historical facts about the riverside

We were invited to a splended eveing with Nexus where they put on a great show at The Millfield Theatre and we met a lot of very motivated people doing a great deal of good work locally

Yes, it was raining, it was muddy, it was chilly…but nothing daunted the great team of volunteers who got cracking: spacing out the variety of indigenous ‘whips’ (saplings to us mere mortals). Scraping the mud off both shovels and boots we looked at the fields which were now well covered with bamboo marking the place where the whips were planted….. In our minds eye we could visualise a future woodland here and felt a glow of satisfaction for a job well done.

Many volunteers come and help when they are able to and our thanks goes out to all of the helpers over the long tree-planting sessions.

Friday 3rd March 2023….Smiling faces after a days planting. Spades returned and the bags of whips nearly all empty, so a really worthwhile effort by the hardy volunteers. Thanks so much everyone…tell your friends how rewarding it is and we hope to see even more happy folk in the following weeks.

Remember, we are planting on several days every week now with lots and lots more to be planted while they are dormant…so…no pressure!! (Check out Thames21 website)

http://www.thames21.org.uk/events