Picnic in the Park - 2-5pm, Sunday, Sept 1

  

Redmond Park plays host to its annual Picnic in the Park on Sunday next. This family fun day, the last in what has been a fantastic Summer for outdoors events, is hugely popular and always attracts good numbers.
All you need is a picnic basket full of goodies, a big rug and a couple of free hours to chill out. Bring a book, a guitar, bongos, a frisbee, a baseball ... whatever. There will be live music, break-dancing, arts and crafts for children, a puppet show, obstacle races, football skills, boules display and more.
We look forward to seeing you!
(The photo was taken by Niamh Mahon at a previous Picnic in the Park.)

Leaf Composting at Redmond Park

Redmond Park will be getting even more brownie points on the green front when they start composting leaves from this Autumn. The plan is to install some composting bays in the fenced off area in the corner of the park. Here's the dream team that is working on getting the project off the ground.

Sun Shines Brightly on Neighbours' Day

Last Friday's Neighbour's Day event at Redmond Park was a great success. Of course, get the weather right and you are always off to a great start, and this was a perfect early Summer's day. In twos and threes they came for this, the third successive Neighbours' Day get-together in the park. There was tea, coffee and delicious pastries from D'Lush Café. Following refreshments and chat it was over to our gust speaker, writer and historian, Liam Gaul. Liam has just launched a book entitled "Wexford: The American Connection". This provided the basis for wht turned out to be a wonderfully informative and interesting lecture which Liam delivered in great style. He focused in particular on the visit of JFK to Wexford fifty years previously, and how the US President's cavalcade travelled up Spawell Road before coming to a halt at Loreto Secondary School where he delivered a short address. We were even treated to a recording of a speech given by JFK on that famous trip. The Mayor, Councillor Jim Allen, was on hand to officially launch Neighbours' Day and to welcome the efforts of the local community looking after Redmond Park so well. All in all this was a lovely, relaxed occasion which all present both contributed to and benefitted from in equal measure.

Celebrate EU Neighbours' Day at Redmond Park

The last Friday of May is EU Neighbours' Day, the day when neighbours all over Europe come together to celebrate the community glue that binds. And, you will be glad to hear, Wexford is no different. We at Love Redmond Park are delighted to be hosting, once again, hosting a Neighbours' Day get-together in Redmond Park. We invite you to join us on Friday next (May 31) at 10.30am for a complimentary cuppa, a chat and a bit of craic.

The raison d'etre of Neighbours Day is a simple one: get to know your neighbour. Why? Well if for no other reason than “the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know”! On a more serious level a strong community spirit is only as good as the links between individuals in the community. All it takes is a little more friendly communication and a willingness to lend a helping hand when its needed. Maybe think of your neighbourhood as an army and apply the maxim from Aesop's Fables: "United we stand, divided we fall"!

This year’s Neighbours’ Day event will be officially launched by The Mayor, Councillor Jim Allen while local historian and writer Liam Gaul is this year’s guest speaker. As author of the recently published “Wexford: The American Connection” Liam will focus, in his talk, on our links with the USA.

Note: If those nice people in the Met office don't deliver on the fine weather they have forecast the event may be postponed. Fingers crossed, however, that the sun will be beaming down.

Crab apple trees in bloom

The park's nine crab apple trees (Malus "Red Glow") are all sporting lovely pink and white blossoms. While the bees and other winged creatures are the main audience for these blossoms right now there should be a nice little harvest in the Autumn for our feathered friends.

People Power ... Making a Difference

What I like about Wexford Tidy Towns? The camaraderie, the craic, the lovely shiney bib and my very own litter picker, the fact that folks smile and say hello and say "fair play hun", the fact that no one lets their dog crap on the footpath when they see the yellow bib, the knowledge that I am actually helping to make the town look better, the way I can sidle up to the Town Clerk and tell him how I would do things if I was the boss, and, at the end of the morning, the hot cuppa, scone and chat.

 http://facebook.com/wexford.tidytowns
http://www.wexfordtidytowns.com

Redmond Park to experience The Tempest!

It looks like the park may be playing host to Shakespeare's The Tempest this coming July. Wexford's Travelling Light Theatre has been in touch to say that, all going well, they would love to put the show on here with July 20th being the most likely date.
The initial email on the subject from Travelling Light Theatre contained this stunning image of a painting by pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse (1916) with an accompanying quotation from The Tempest.

"'Oh, I have suffered

With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel

Who had no doubt some noble creature in her,

Dash'd all to pieces! O, the cry did knock

Against my very heart."

Garden of Eden Projects

Ever heard of Garden of Eden Projects? We hadn't until someone pointed us in its direction recently: http://www.wetlandsystems.ie/gardenofedenproject.html

Let the intro blurb from that website take it up: "A Garden of Eden Project is one way to help your community to take local action towards local and global environmental improvement. One tangible way to address climate change is to plant trees. One way to raise awareness of peak oil is to grow food in the community, since much of our current production is heavily reliant on oil for machinery, biocides, fertilisers and transportation."

Now, if that doesn't appeal to the environmental activist in you ...!

Treecreeper

Earlier this month bird watchers in Redmond Park spotted a Common Treecreeper. "It has a curved bill, patterned brown upperparts, whitish underparts, and long stiff tail feathers which help it creep up tree trunks. It climbs up tree trunks like a mouse, to search for insects which it picks from crevices in the bark with its fine curved bill. It then flies to the base of another tree with a distinctive erratic flight. This bird is solitary in winter, but may form communal roosts in cold weather."

Spending a penny behind bars ... not any more!

Further improvements at the park this Spring. Remember that ugly fencing that was around the loo in Redmond Park? It's gone!

"Pocket" bio-park opens on 1798 Street

The beautifully landscaped "pocket" biodiversity park on 1798 Street opened with great fanfare last Thursday. It is probably overstating it to call this a park consisting, as it does, of three separate, relatively small spaces. I prefer the title 1798 Street "Gardens" not least because this is intended as a relaxed and intimate space in which neighbours might converge, but also because of the hugely diverse range of plants and trees which have gone in here. There are fruit trees (crab apple, wild cherry, quince), fruit bushes (blackberry, blackcurrant, raspberry), exotically named plants (Cupid’s Dart, Elephant’s Ears, African Lily Blue), climbers (Boston Ivy, Honeysuckle, Climbing Rose). And that's just a sample. Given time, these "gardens" will prove to be be a magnet for birds, bees and bugs. And that, my friends, is biodiversity in action! Once the granite seating is in you will be able to lig do scíth and watch the World passing you by.

To every thing there is a season ...

View from the rear of the park yesterday morning ...

Winter in the Park

I love Winter in the park. Well, ok, if truth be told I love Spring, Summer and Autumn in the park as well. Right now there is a feeling of great space here, as if the boundaries have been pushed back. Maybe it's that the absence of foliage lets in more sky so presenting one with a more panoramic picture. The first green shoots are showing - crocuses and daffodils. No sign yet of any shoots coming up from the daffs, bluebells and snowdrops we planted just eight to ten weeks ago. Did we leave it too late? Patience, patience! A member of the Tidy Towns' Biodiversity Committee was in the park last weekend and was most impressed with the plant life on offer. She was particularly happy with the rich biodiversity present in the old pond area. Her ornithologically minded son was busy noting down details of all the bird life in the area. A beautiful sparrow hawk presented itself as we chatted. That made twenty one species in total. We are expecting a delivery of trees from the County Council later this month - apple, damson, plum, cherry blossom, hazel. Where to put them? That is the question. Our horticultural advisor will be getting another call! We have already put in a cherry blossom (front) and a beech (mid) to replace some old trees that were removed. Other than that it's steady as she goes. Very chilly weather forecast for the week ahead so we will not be holding our breathes for any further green shoots to show just yet.