Spring into the Park at the Town Park turned out to be a great success for the organisers and the Friends, what a beautiful day, bring on summer.
The Friends' theme was 'Look after our disappearing hedgehogs'. 36 million in 1950 to less than a million today. Who doesn’t love the old hedgehog, a companion of our childhood? "But hedgehogs have fleas", somebody at the back cries out! Yes, some do - but they are hedgehog fleas that have no interest in dogs, cats or humans so let’s not get paranoid, and give these little guys a break.
The clue is in the name. We have hundreds of metres of hedgerows on the Dothill Reserve that have passed their sell by date. They have become 'lollypop' hedges, lots of growth above 2 metres but nothing at the business end, where the slugs & snails like to hang out. One of the Friends' objectives is to re-invigorate the hedgerows we have on the Reserve and send out a message to any hedgehogs passing through that this is a pretty good place to bring up your family. So if you are interested in learning how to hedge-lay, we are open for business.

(24th April 2017)