The harsh winter weather has been particularly hard on the Micro-Meadow wildlife. But we have been dilligently replenishing the bird feeders and ensuring that their water doesn't freeze with a simple trick. Adding a small plastic ball, such as a ping pong ball to the water amazingly stops the water from feezing. Acording to t'interweb the ball moves about in the water and stops ice from forming and depriving our feathered friends from taking a drink. The squirrels have been regularly supplied with a variety of nuts and fruit and, although they have appeared a bit sad and soggy, seem to be thriving.
The snow has however provided us with a wonderful opportunity to capture some lovely seasonal images of the Micro-Meadow - OL1y, of course, photobombing whenever possible.
OL1-Oldham have provided the Eco-Group with a small budget to buy a few extra plants for the border of the meadow and we are all very much looking forward to being able to get stuck into some gardening again.
The group now have a new logo and will have
some snazzy new T-shirts printed up
- once it becomes T-Shirt weather of course!
Last year's planters are looking rather forlorn and neglected and OL1y has even been seen stashing peanuts in them. We will of course be re-planting
them as soon as the weather improves and removing
any unwanted squirrel snacks!
The yard area is in desperate need of a thourough clean up too, but unfortunately we had our new pressure washer stolen from the centre's lock up facility. Looks like it's going to be back to a lot of hard work with brushes and buckets of water.
We also lost our gazebo during the break-in and will look for funding to replace it. The gazebo was a great asset, not only for the yard area but also when attending other events to promote OL1-Oldham's many projects.
The extra sand left over from the paving project has proven to be a God send as we have used it to grit the road facing the community centre. We have seen several people and also cars struggling and sliding about trying to get up the hill so the sand has really helped. I think there may even have been one or two peanuts in it as well!