Tree Planting with Moor Trees! (12.02.12)

A cup of tea in the Moor Trees gazebo looking out at all the trees already planted!!

Rob plants an early morning tree...
The girls get planting in their 'patch'
Moor Trees site at Badworthy... wonder what this will look like in 30 or so years time.... hopefully a beautiful woodland!!
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Plant identification with OPAL

PEA met Alison (OPAL community Scientist) at the University of Plymouth to learn to identify some of our common wild plants... Here were the first 10: (20 more to go!!)

Not by the ordinary taxonomic key way though... by ways of word association and games!! Great fun for us, very successful, and we contributed to scientific research too!

Remember this little Pennywort (or Navel wort as they sometimes call it)?? 'Round like a penny'...

And the long thin leaves of the bluebell.. 'tall like a church steeple, shiny like a bell'...

After our session in the classroom, we went out to Central Park in Plymouth to spot lichens for our sir survey. We have quite good air here in Plymouth - the lichens were very diverse!
Getting that identification right takes concentration, determination and.. a good eye (or hand lens)...
You can't call that a boring bark, with all that lichen diversity!!!
Thank you Alison for teaching us 30 plants today! We have learned so much and will keep up the good work!

Insect Hotel Contruction at Antony House 4th February

Tea and cakes was first on the agenda in the morning after arriving at Antony. Charis baked some delicious cakes for us - Thank you!!!
They even had edible glitter on them!! :D
Off outside to make the Insect 'hotel' in the Garden of antony! After collecting and drying all the natural materials from Burrator last year we set to fill the pallet crates to make the homes for insects...
We were kept busy sorting all the materials and making the homes as cosy as they could be!
Our (nearly) finished product!! The local school are going to add more and make the 'hotel' a tower!!
After lunch in the lovely grounds of Antony estate, we put the bird boxes up in the trees (we made these during our Winter celebration...) Thank you to Brian at Antony for such a great day! :D