The month began with two events to mark National Tree Week, the traditional start of tree planting. Anne Lambert and Richard Fox led a tree walk to catch the last of the autumn colour while Enable tree officers Sam Morgan and Liam Hutton gave a superb talk on ‘Wandsworth’s Trees’ to some of our tree donors. Around 100 donors have given over £12k for tree planting over the last year. Look out for the white painted spots on the Common where this year’s new trees will be planted in coming months.
We sponsored a tree for the St Mary Magdalene Christmas tree festival again, using the occasion to highlight the litter problem as all the decorations were made from items found on the Common. Look closely at our (g)litter tree to see the star made from nitrous oxide canisters, baubles made from wine and beer bottle caps, garlands of discarded hair bands, festive coffee cups and plastic line markers left by sports groups. Hopefully it made people think.
We raised a second Green flag over the Common at a ceremony attended by members of the Council, Enable, Friends and the MAC. This is the second successive year the Common has won the award, an international standard denoting a well-managed green space. The green flags fly next to the new Friends noticeboard which was delivered on Christmas Eve.
Another Christmas present was the arrival of two new swans. Indeed, having got used to no swans for too long, we had four for several days in December. Two adults took up residence in early December, but just before Christmas two more adults arrived, much to the annoyance of the residents. Swans can be aggressive and the two incumbents defended their territory tenaciously. At one point they kept the two new arrivals on land, which is very dangerous for them as they are then more vulnerable to unleashed dogs (the byelaws state that dogs must be on a lead near the lake and certainly shouldn't go in the lake). Local wildlife rescuer Ann Davies decided that urgent action was needed and courageously captured and re-homed the new arrivals. We wish both pairs a happy life together, especially our new pair.