Ace

Lots of people have pledged to do lots of things:

• Turning any unnecessary lights off;
• Recycling paper as many times as possible and
• Travelling on public transport.

But Beth and Liam Evans and their friends have decided to spend Earth Day with Moh Ahmeddoh, planting the acre of Acers that their father had planned.

Not cutting corners

You expect Moh and Juan to do a thorough job, don’t you? They’re professionals after all. So you might be shocked to discover that they’ve missed a bit!  Deliberately!

They’re leaving several areas of Poppleton Park’s grass unmown, to display carpets of bluebells and lesser stitchwort, and primroses and violets, and celandines and daisies.

Indeed, they’re also keeping the lawns lusciously long this year – it’s quite the fashion!

Sowing seeds…

The staff and pupils of Poppleton High seem very keen to grow sunflowers all of a sudden.

Poppleton Council have given them permission to take over a roundabout,  and Moh Ahmeddoh and Juan Mann have been helping them plant a van Gogh scene right at the heart of Poppleton.

“We’re keen to look at the Fibonacci sequence in nature, and see how it’s used in other areas too,” Murray Merryweather said.

Year 11 Student Maria was unavailable for comment – she was busy listening to her MP3 player and wielding her trowel.

Stake π & peace

Tim Panini had been to a very interesting Gardener’s Question Time @ Poppleton Park yesterday.  He’d got all fired up about hanging baskets and pots and raised beds and borders,  and went forthwith to the garden centre to get everything he needed.

Simon had heard that it was National Pi Day.  He decided to have a π and a pint at the Flying Pig,  and see what was going on there.

And Prue Vidor nipped up to Snodding Hall to borrow one of Lord Rupert’s vests. She intends to wear it tomorrow.  Just in case.

A gala

The first signs of Spring have been popping up in Poppleton Park - Moh’s favourite flower of the year.

He’s a collector.  To the point of being an obsessive.  He’s collected forty varieties of snowdrops – most of them quite rare.

Over the years he’s been quietly exchanging the common varieties he finds in the park with bulbs he’s divided from his own plants.

And he’s created quite a display for a very appreciative park-using public.

All in a spin

Moh and Juan were busy planting up a sharp triangle of Betula Jacquemontaii at the far end of the park. At Morning Coffee time, Juan opened his snap tin to find that the missus had put some home-baked Cattern Cakes in.  He shared them with Moh.

Millie Boinet’s lunchtime fashion show at Poppleton High was going well. The audience found the hats she’d made, errr,  fascinating!  There were, of course, biscuits all round afterwards.

In the afternoon, Emily Appleby took some along to Alistair, and caught him singing to his flock! Honestly!  Sometimes she thinks he cares more about those bloomin’ sheep than he does about her.

And The Spinners (Tribute) were playing at The Place for one night only.

But could Fred fix Catherine’s wheels? :-/

Diggers at dawn

Moh had decided that a thicket of Rhododendron had got rather out of hand, and that the area might be improved with a different variety. He was just about to attack it with his digger, when he heard loud cries emanating from the bushes.

And out from beneath the plants popped Sgt. John Constable and Inspector Force. They were quick to explain that they were on an ‘undercover mission’.

Apparently there’s been a spate of peeping going on. Leaf peeping. And they shall be having words with Tom Bell about it as a matter of some urgency.