Good morning readers, sorry once again for not posting in a while; I have many side-projects on the go at the moment, one of which I will present to you later in this post.
This post concerns the newly-revamped St Saviour Woodland (officially named Le Jardin des Buttes just recently), which is located just across the road from St Saviour’s Parish Hall. You may remember this deceptively-large plot of land as an overgrown mess with ivy dominating the otherwise healthy trees and wildflower, and that is the way it would have stayed were it not for the work of Graham Langlois, my grandfather.
For many years Graham had been planning to rejuvenate the area, not only for the sake of local wildlife but for schoolchildren and the general public also. In the last few months his plans have manifested as direct action from a growing number of volunteers (the official woodland volunteer group is now called Le Jardiniers); from hacking away the over-confident ivy from the trees to creating many large log-piles for the benefit of much wildlife. Such actions have resulted in an award of £3,500 from Sandpiper Checkers which shall play a great part in enabling us to continue work in the area.
I am myself a volunteer, and I have been surprised not only by the immense effort put in by the other volunteers, but also by the encouragement from the Constable of St Saviour, Peter Hanning. To be perfectly honest I had not heard much of Mr. Hanning beforehand; the only other time I remember seeing his name was on the leaflet distributed at the Anti-GST demonstration; however since then my opinion of him has most certainly changed for the better. But this post shall not be political in nature.
Mr. Mike Stentiford has also volunteered his own expertise on the subject of local wildlife, and has played a large role in identifying beneficial plant and animal species and presenting ideas on how to encourage such wildlife.
Since starting work at the woodland, the ivy is now very much under control, the paths have been well defined, and most of the litter has been collected however there is still much work to be done before it can become a popular leisure destination, with the next problem being the immense mass of what I believe is cow parsley which has become the dominant ‘weed’ during the past week or so. I have already made one attempt at removing this dangerously irritable plant, however after working hard at it for over an hour I had only managed to eradicate it from an area no large than two metres in diameter – I could almost hear the weeds laughing at me. It is at such times that the refreshments offered at the parish hall are very much appreciated, and I can only thank the parish for the use of their facilities.
Side-projects
I am planning on creating the official website for the woodland, which is one of the reasons I have not posted here in the last week. The website will have interactive community features enabled, such as a message board for example, which I hope will be used not only by volunteers but by other islanders also. I am also in the process of designing an official ‘St. Saviour Woodland Volunteer’ enamel lapel pin badge; however this is proving a little more complicated than I first assumed. There is a strong sense of friendliness amongst the volunteers, and I hope that both the website and the badge will serve to reinforce this feeling.
I apologise if this post is in any way incoherent; it is very late (or very early depending on how you look at it). If after reading this post you are interested in either volunteering at the woodland or you would simply like to know of any updates, check back here regularly (or subscribe) and I promise to keep you informed.
I am beginning to ramble on a bit now, so I will say goodnight and I thank you for your patience,
- Benjamin Langlois
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