Frog, gone

Poor dead frog, lying belly-up in the pond. Last Spring the pond was teeming with frogs and full of frog spawn.

Shortly after, in June last year, Curt began to dig through the builders' rubble to build a bigger pond.

We were persuaded that the new pond would help wildlife because the wetland, as it had established itself, dried up, not completely but quite a lot, every summer.

This new pond, Curt told us, would be much better for frogs.

It is possible that this would have been the case had certain members of the parish council been hell-bent on creating a park out of what is, or was, a wild area.

Poor dead frog.

Niki.

Eddie

Eddie, a Jack Russell, mostly white, went missing from 70 Cedar Road this morning. He lives witht the builder there, who thinks Eddie escaped into the garden and over the Field to the Copse. I looked all round the Copse just now, 10. If you see him, can you take him back to the builder at no 70. I'll try to find out a contact number for him.
Niki.

Fire in the Copse

Robin took some photos and a film of the fire yesterday, 14th March.

He says it was set in the early afternoon and burned for some time before the fire brigade could get to it.

This was predicted last summer by Julia, me and Andrew. Curt said at the time, he was against a viewing platform. TOE did not fund it: you and I did!!

The police visited the site later and said that it should not be replaced and that much of the twigs and branches left elsewhere in the copse were also a fire hazard. Today I found an exhausted Lynx container along with some scraps of burned paper, probably used to set the fire. Or maybe educational books were being burned and it was just bad luck the platform cought too?

Why didn't the Parish Council listen to people who know the area before doing all this work?

Niki.

Meeting on Tuesday 15th March at Brookes

Come and join a Candlelit walk over the Field to a meeting at Brookes!

Meet at Louie Memorial Field carpark at 7.15

Friends of Louie Memorial Field and Copse are having a
celebration of the area on Tuesday 15th March at 7.30 pm at
Brookes Harcourt Hill campus.

Listen and talk to local experts on biodiversity, sports, local history etc.

Refreshments will be provided.

Transport will be provided from Louie Memorial Field carpark
for those who cannot walk or drive. Or go to the sports centre at the top of Harcourt Hill - directions will be posted at the entrance.

Speakers include Stuart McCarroll of Brookes Sports, Ag McKeith who writes about local history in the Sprout, Riki Therivel who can tell us about sustainability and local projects and John Thompson of the Oxford Forest group.