www.hilly.org.uk

I am reliably informed that the contractors are due on site this Monday, 8th February. They should be putting up their signs and setting up shop on the first day.

The blacksmith is hoping to take away the original gates to transform with the wonderful leaves and bugs from our children’s drawings. Can you spot the woodlouse?

Work is planned to be finished in late spring.

We are intending being at the Ladywell Social Assembly this Saturday 6th from 1-3pm, with the layout and other information about future plans for the park.

We are very grateful to APT studios for hosting this wonderful event and giving the children the opportunity to show off all their beautiful work.

The event was very successful and lots of parents took the opportunity to come along and see the exhibition.

We had fine bright weather for our event and lots of interested people taking part. There will be lots of happy birds in the area, feeding on the beautiful bird feeders made by the many creative children who came along. We didn’t match last years twenty species, but had two new species spotted, a coal tit and a greenfinch.

Thanks to Vicki, Glendale’s conservation officer for coming along…and remembering the hot drinks and as ever to Keith, our bird champion.

Young artists and designers from Gordonbrock School were hard at work in workshops at APT studios today getting ready for an exhibition this Saturday, 30th January from around 12.30 until 3pm.

Their designs from last summer have now been cut into metal panels for the new gates.

Our inspiration has been the spider, found in the playground and in the park. There will be lots more to see this Saturday if you

come along to the exhibition at APT studios on Creekside in Deptford.

Our next event will be the big bird watch,  we are hoping to be able to use the park keepers room for activities if there is rain…or wind.

There is an update on last year’s event on our Bird Champion’s blog

http://hillyfields.blogspot.com/2009/01/rspb-big-garden-bird-watch-great.html

We look forward to seeing a few new faces and we will be serving hot tea and biscuits.

The council received the tenders back for the playground last week. They will be appointing SSG contractors who are experienced and have a good reputation. They should be starting on site in late January.

The tenders were over budget and some work has been done to get them on track. This has meant that a few items of equipment have been omitted, for the time being at least. The space will be left to site them should we get more money.

We have had lots of comments about the loss of the 1960s slide, which I do empathise with.  We are replacing it with one of equal height which is currently a double slide (unless someone cost cut without telling me…but I’ll be on their case if they have). We have organised that the old one is taken to a new home and not scrapped. It will go to a supervised playground with staff, which gets round the safety concerns. Once it’s installed I’ll give you an update, so you can always go and fondly reminisce. We have a little continuity with the retention of our quirky spider. There were of course raised eyebrows at its retention.

We have progressed the project for the gates separately. Last summer artist Sally Adams (who took part in Brockley open studios this summer) and I did an artwork shop with a group of children at Gordonbrock. They came to the park and did lots of drawings of the plants and wildlife.

The following week they worked with these drawings to create positive and negative shapes. These were used for the design, which has been put together by Sally.  They are now being forged by the artist blacksmith Heather Burrell in Deptford. Children from Gordonbrock Primary School who have been involved in the design work should have an opportunity to see Heather at work and take part in an art workshop and exhibition in late January. We are very excited at the prospect of showing off their beautiful drawings and the designs at an exhibition at APT studios. So far scheduled for Saturday 30th January 2010, from 12 until 3pm.

I’ve just spotted our bulb planting event on the big bulb plant website.

http://www.thebigbulbplant.com/news/view/looking_for_ideas_why_not_plant_some_allium_purple_sensation_-_2010_bulb_of/

Tipped off by our councillor Sue Luxton, we registered with the big bulb plant and later that month received 250 tulip bulbs. We decided tulips would be best suited to the beds around the bowling green, which was fortunate, because they organised a lovely event including a splendid reward of hot chocolate and cakes.

We are planning a repeat of our successful Big Bird Watch event. So pencil in Saturday 30th January 2010 at 11am. There will be a chance to go bird spotting with Keith our park bird champion or you could put your hand to making a bird feeder. Edit Posts

We are having our missed meeting this Tuesday in the park keepers room, up by the loos at the top of the hill. Big apologies for the last minute confirmation. It is the only date we can squeeze in before Christmas.

If you want anything adding to the agenda, please email to:

hillyfields4@googlemail.com

our agenda will include the proposed works and programme to the playground

and

plans for the RSPB’s Big Bird Watch in the park

Everyone is welcome

The Friends of Hilly Fields have been very busy with their grant application and some of you may have noticed that we haven’t held our autumn meeting.  The date will be set shortly, we’ll keep you all informed.