Forth Coming Event

19th

May Dr Francis Dipper talking on Britain’s Hidden Marine Life.

16th

June is the Sutton Gault Walk/ bird spotting trip. Meet at the Anchor at

7.30pm and walk along the bank to the Three Pickerels at Mepal.

2nd

August Tuesday morning visit to Amey recycling facility on the A10 near

Waterbeach. Bookings to be in by 16th

June, limited number of 16 people.

Transport to be arranged .contact Liz, Joy or Kim.

15th

September Dr Martin Brammah bat ecologist

20th

October Glyn Jones. Cambridgeshire Beekeepers Association. Beekeeping

17th

November A G M Followed by a talk. To be announced

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Newsletter May 2016

Committee Members

Peter Saunders President Tel: 778533

Sally White 778963 sallywhite21@hotmail.coM

Vera Wesbroom 77968

Joy Owen 777904

Alan Newnum 777435

Kim Osborne 776278 k.osborne@btinternet.com

Liz Hawkins 777696 LizH101@yahoo.com

Editor Colin Williams 07531279732 colin.williams01@btinternet.com

Working parties take place on the second Sat of every month from 10am to

12noon. All welcome, including children, other family and friends.

We usually meet at St Andrews Churchyard at 10am, please bring basic tools such

as secateurs, loppers, rakes etc if you have them, the society has some hand tools

and a mower. We stop for a tea/coffee and biscuit break half way through

Make Sutton Special

STOP PRESS!

On Monday 9

th May the Scouts and members of the Conservation Society held a

joint working party to improve the orchard area in the paddock between Station

Road and the Recreation Ground.

Further details and pictures in the next newsletter.

30 DAYS WILD

The Wildlife Trust are encouraging people to do something wild everyday for a month in June. This could

mean doing something as simple as listening to birdsong, taking a wild walk at lunchtime, talking to

someone about nature or mixing a wild cocktail.

You can go to their website http://www.mywildlife.org.uk/30dayswild/ or Google '30 Days Wild' to sign

up for the challenge and get some inspiration about what to do on each of your wild 30 days. The Trust are

encouraging all ages to take part and it would be a fun thing to do with children.

BEACH CLEAN

If you are concerned about the rubbish in the sea, The Marine Conservation Society organises beach cleans

each year. There is a beach clean at Titchwell Marsh, Norfolk, on 17 September.

Go to their website and sign up if you would like to volunteer to help on the day. It starts at 10.00 am and

finishes at 3.00 pm.

http://www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch/beach/titchwell-marsh/event/2016-09-17

Notelet Photographs.

With the success of the calendars last year the committee has decided to produce packs of notelets in time

for this year's mid winter festival. We are looking to produce packs of 10 notelets with five different

seasonal images of the village.

So we thought we would throw this out to the membership.

We would like to have a picture for each season in the final set and we hope to feature the areas of the

village that are currently being maintained by the Conservation Society (Churchyard, Stankers Pond,

Plantation Wood and the Play Copse).

If you either have a photograph or would like to take one and send it to the address or email below. The

chosen pictures will be rewarded with a set of the notelets.

All photos by the end of August please.

Kim Osborne

email: kim.osborne@gmx.co.uk

Address: 96 High Street, Sutton

Website

The Conservation Society Website can be found at: http://suttoncs.btck.co.uk/. It contains details of

forthcoming talks and walks, working parties, current and some past Newsletters. If you would like to put

any sightings or items of interest on the guestbook page then please feel free to do so.

A WALK ALONG THE BANK, LATE APRIL

My walks always take me along the banks of the rivers the New Bedford and the Old Bedford but my

favourite is along the Old Bedford on the far side of Sutton Gault towards the Gullet bend, I am told this is

a repair of the bank that was breached in the 1947 floods.

The bank continues on towards Earith. Just beyond the Gullet is a gate, looking toward Earith the banks on

both sides are now a mass of yellow with hundreds of Cow Slips in full bloom

The Chiffchaff, Blackcap and the Yellowhammer were calling several Swallows and Sand Martins were

flying past. No Cuckoos yet although several have been seen in the area and out on the wash lots of

Widgeon are still feeding with a few Pochard.

Have you noticed that large clumps of Cow Slips that are now growing on the river bank alongside the

road from Sutton to Earth this seems to have happened since the horses no longer graze this bank.

I am looking forward to seeing the Terns fly back up the river to the young with several small fish in their

beaks and waiting to see if the Kingfisher builds his nest hole in the same place again Lots to see and lot of

walks to do.

Since writing this the Cuckoo has been seen and a Marsh Harrier and on the 4th

May the Swifts arrived

flying over Windmill Walk.

Each year for the last 9 I have had a Hobby flying around our little bit of Sutton and the Pipistrelle Bats

will soon be nesting in my roof. Something else to look forward too.

South Africa – part 2!

The temperature change from Botswana to South Africa was really striking, down from 46 centigrade to

26 centigrade. The return journey to Cape Town via Gaborone was only 3 flights this time with the reverse

in plane sizes, each one getting bigger and bigger.

We stayed in Constantia at the Glen Avon Lodge just outside Cape Town. Constantia is amongst the top

wine producing areas of South Africa

We spent a day in the Kirstenbosh Botanical Gardens. This is part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and

is one of the best places to see South Africa’s indigenous flora. It covers over 560 hectares on the eastern

slopes of Table Mountain and has one of the biggest sites of Fynbos .This is a unique area of poor soil

where some of rarest plants grow; they have reproduced this in the gardens.

Fynbos vegetation includes Protea’s (named after the God Proteus who could take many forms) which

include the giant King Protea the national flower of South Africa, lots of Erica’s and interesting to see the

origin of some of our garden plants including Gladioli, Freesia, Geranium and Pelargonium to name but a

few.

Protea’s

A visit to the Cape of Good Hope was a must with some spectacular views. I always thought that this is

where the two oceans meet (The Atlantic and the Indian Ocean) and was the southernmost point of SA,

wrong again. I was told they meet at Cape Agulhas about a hundred and twenty miles south east of the

Cape of Good Hope.

We continued our journey along the Garden Route to Boulder Bay to visit a colony of Jackass Penguins or

African Penguins which they prefer to call them. (Not the Penguins, the locals)

They are a small endemic bird only 63 cm tall that’s just over 2 feet, with most of them in the later stages

of moulting. All the surrounding bushes, boulders and sand were covered in feathers

The loud and raucous calls were like being in a field with a hundred Donkeys and of course the smell, but

this is typical of all the large bird colonies I have ever visited. Three things always occur when

approaching a colony first the sight of birds flying (but not in this case) next is the noise and thirdly the

Again I was under a misunderstanding that these were the only Penguins on the Southern tip of South

Africa but no, out at sea are several islands that are visited by or breed on by Rockhopper Penguins,

Macaroni Penguins, the large King Penguin, the Gentoo Penguin is in a small breeding colony, Chin-strap

Penguin, Adelie Penguin, and the odd one seen at sea the very large Emperor Penguin, it’s a long way

from the Antarctic!

We continue our journey passing through Simonstown home to the South African Navy and then on to

Table Mountain for a trip to the top by cable car. We had spectacular views over the sea and Cape Town

and Robbins Island where Nelson Mandela was held captive for 27 years. The flora and fauna were very

interesting and unusual.

This little fellow popped up out of some rocks we just happened to stop at.

I have no idea what kind of reptile it is, it was about 30cm or 1 foot long. It sat for some time sunning

itself.

From Table Mountain we travelled on to the Lavender Manor Guest House at Hermanus primarily to

go Whale watching but unfortunately they had all moved north so we missed our one and only chance.

Instead of Whale watching we sat in the garden watching Malachite, Great Double-collard, and White-

bellied Sun birds and across the road on the beach walk we had a Cape Sugarbird sitting on top of

some Protea flowers. The drive took about 4 hours as we took the scenic route passing through some

fantastic gorges and large mountain ranges.

One stop we made on the way was at a small cafe run by 2 Hells Angels, they had been running it for

several years and not getting many customers so Johnnie who the place was named after had the bright

idea of adding in large letters after his name the words Johnnies Sex Shop, they have not looked back

from that day now droves of travellers call in . It is not a Sex Shop it is still what it always was a cafe

but how enterprising jus to add those 2 words.

We travelled on staying at La Fontaine Guest House at Franschhoek which is right in the middle of the

wine growing district; we visited about 6 different vineyards on a wine tram.

This is a hop on hop off bus that travels around all the growers with lots of chances to do some wine

tasting. The great thing for us was the exchange rate was so good that it made everything much

cheaper, with a £18 to £20 bottle costing £3- £4 and a 3 course meal costing £12.

Our next destination was Oudtshoorn at La Plume Guest House. This is the capitol of Ostrich breeding

and rearing, producing meat, eggs and plumage, we were staying on one of the farms

Yes we did eat some Ostrich steaks and very nice they were.

We now moved to our final destination and staying at a place called Hog Hollow Country Lodge near

Plettenberg Bay. Here we visited the famous Cango Caves these were the most spectacular caves I

have ever visited. We had a great many friends around us namely a large troop of about 40 Vervet

Monkeys and at breakfast time one had to keep a sharp lookout for commando raids on the contents of

your plate.

So comes to an end our tour of Botswana and South Africa I hope that some of you enjoyed reading

about our trips.

All of the above places that we stayed in I can highly recommend if you should happen to be in South

Africa If your thinking of visiting the Okavango Delta in Botswana (see the March newsletter) the 2

camps that we stayed in come highly recommended.

Colin and May Williams

A site visit to China Life can be strange. Alistair and I have been working as Landscape Architects for too long to remember.

We both met at Horticulture College before training as Landscape Architects and have continued to have a

fascination with plants. We set up the practice many years ago. We have worked on a variety of schemes

including gardens, Care Homes, Business Parks and residential developments, all in this country but fairly

scattered.. Until a ‘Friday afternoon call’.

Our client is a Hong Kong Architect who we met whist working on a building together and became friends.

Family responsibilities meant a return to Hong Kong. He now lives and works in Shanghai and he felt we

would be able to provide the Landscape Architecture advice he needed for a number of projects.

Project management is different in China in that there are many different stages to go through before the

first bulldozer arrives on site. This starts with letting your imagination run riot and brainstorm ideas (many

of which are sent back to cloud cuckoo land). The scheme evolves and the client persuaded. The next

stages refine the layout, get permissions and start building. Skype and email proved to be essential

especially with the time difference of seven hours. We now have a clock in the office on Shanghai time.

The projects vary from very urban buildings and streetscape to more rural housing schemes. The Chinese

have an eye for detail and demand quality. This is most refreshing as projects are about quality rather than

budget. As a designer this is lovely as you have an informed and interested client who is prepared to push

the boat out.

We visited last August for five days for a series of meetings and site visits which entailed more flying from

Shanghai. We visited a couple of nurseries to try and get a flavour for what is available. The trees are all

grown in the ground (including on steep hills) and undercut to encourage fibrous root systems. Trees are

also grown along the sides of roads and transplanted to site as required. On one large development we saw

a novel way of staking the trees. Needless to say they were not very happy!

4 inch nails Gingko well staked Nursery. All trees and shrubs in views are for sale

So many trees were readily recognisable as many trees and shrubs in this country originated from China

having been collected by plant hunters. We saw Gingko biloba, Plane trees, Spotty Laurel (Aucuba

japonica), roses, Aspidistra, Magnolia and clipped box. We couldn’t identify a very pretty evergreen street

tree but thanks to Wikipedia and ‘Google Translate’ we managed with our counterparts to identify it as

Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora).

We visited one of the buildings we are involved with which is under construction. The health and safety

procedure is not what it is here but we were issued with hard hats. At any one time there can be upwards

of 400 workers on site which means a floor a month. There were even ladies in aprons brushing down the

work areas! As building is relatively fast this has meant a number of sacrificed weekends drawing just to

keep up.

From this to this another project we are involved in

Shanghai is a very busy bustling city with a blend of the contemporary and traditional. The Chinese

understand the importance of landscape within the city and therefore there are many parks and building

landscapes with diverse planting of both trees and shrubs. All the planting we saw was maintained to a

high standard where care had clearly been taken in both design and implementation.

The Chinese are a very hospitable people and treated us with such respect. We were wined and dined off

the tourist track (something we were a little apprehensive about having heard horror stories) but were

pleasantly surprised as to the diversity and quality of the food. Apart from a couple of things the food was

lovely. We struggled with chopsticks much to the amusement of our hosts but we did persevere and not

resort to cutlery. We did learn that when flying internally take your own food (Costa at the airport) and the

meal served on board would perhaps not be to everyone’s taste.

We are just getting going on a large park in mid China and will probably be going out to look at the site.

This is an exciting project with ‘great capabilities’ as someone called Brown once said. We enjoyed our

visit so much that we will be going out for longer next time and hope to see more of the country.

We would thoroughly recommend a visit to China.

Alistair and Jane Huck