July, 2018:

This spring we were busy planning a new project to involve more children and their families in the natural beauty of the park. So we are absolutely thrilled to receive the letter from the Big Lottery Fund, informing us that our grant application was successful.

From September we’ll be planning our initial events with Chelwood Nursery and Chelwood House for Families.
We will commission a story teller to create a promenade immersive story, set throughout the park and we will be putting together scavenger hunts and running a printing workshop with objects found. Lots more for autumn the winter solstice and beyond.

With thanks to funds raised from our farmers’ market (every second Saturday of the month 10-3pm) we purchased fresh seed for the WWI meadow. Although rather lacking in poppies, the cornflowers have put on a good show. Poppies and cornflowers have become the symbols of the 1914-1918 war.
But just like the British Poppy, the Cornflower ‘Le Bleuet’ only became a Remembrance flower after the war. Suzanne Lenhardt, nurse at the military hospital of the “Invalides” and widow of a Captain of the Colonial Infantry killed in 1915, and Charlotte Malleterre, daughter of General Léon Niox and spouse of General Gabriel Malleterre, both touched by the sufferings of the maimed they took care of, understood the necessity to help them play an active role in Society…They decided to organise workshops where maimed soldiers manufactured cornflowers with petals made out of fabric and stamens out of newsprint. Those flowers were sold on many occasions, and the income of this activity gave the men some autonomy. Cornflower became the symbol of reintegration through work.

We were lucky enough to receive tree saplings from the woodland trust this year and had a fantastic turn out for our planting session at Easter. We welcomed the turn in weather and down pours, but now with the longest hot spell since 1976, we are having to do lots of watering. The planting will help reduce the urban heat island effect, improve air quality and is a 100 year investment for future generations. So if you want to help look out on the notice board by the cafe for our next volunteering event or on our facebook page Hilly Fields SE4 Our sessions are usually set to last for 2 hours, but to those who say they have no time, come and help for 30 minutes, it is good exercise, sociable and oh so worthy.