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The signs for our local park were looking a little past their best with the Clay Hill one overgrown by pyracantha and an adjacent hedgerow.

So some TMAEG volunteers decided to brave the hot weather and perform a bit of a makeover. Armed with tools, ladders and passion they set to work with some stain provided by MK Council.

Whilst some jumped on ladders to attend to the structure, others tackled that faded ‘local park’ lettering. Step forward Margaret and Roger. Our thanks to Roger for a lot of sanding down and of course to Margaret who has lovingly repainted the lettering in its original colors. She is on the left in the photo below.

Complete with its new lettering two volunteers make the final adjustments to one of the two signs.

That is the High Street sign finished and now the Clay Hill sign.

Well done to the team for their splendid work.  Doesn’t it look great?

Seen from the northwest the sign is particularly striking – for years this face has been largely hidden from public view.

But what inspired this design for the signs when Two Mile Ash was first constructed all those years ago? They look in structure and colour to be vaguely oriental. What do you think?

 

Bluebell Circuit Launch – 23rd April 2022

Setting a suitable date for a launch for the Bluebell Circuit has inevitably been quite a gamble. It made obvious sense that this should coincide with Bluebell time and the emergence of those splashes of blue so characteristic of certain British woodlands. But there is no certainty about when precisely this will happen. So, it was with a sigh of relief that we realised that we had probably got that date right. A comprehensive watering of the woodland floor enabled by a generous local member provided the final tuning needed to bring on the flowering that has so delighted us all.

A focal point for the Launch on the Milesmere/Thorncliffe Green – the gazebo shown above, loaned to TMAEG by MK Parks Trust – provided the base for the catering, pastries from our sponsor Brioche Pasquier, served with coffee and tea.

Our ‘master of ceremonies’ Stan Cohen introducing the Launch and presentations from the Deputy Mayor of Milton Keynes, Cllr Amanda Barlow and Frank Gill, Operations Manager of MK Parks Trust.

TMAEG Secretary Chris Gossop providing thanks to our partner and supporting organisations, also our volunteer teams. He then introduced the walk and specific features to look out for.

Upwards of sixty people attended the Saturday afternoon Launch, local residents and members of supporting organisations. After the presentations, participants began their walk along the Circuit, led by the Deputy Mayor and TMAEG’s Stan Cohen.

Emerging from the first of the two woodland paths on the Circuit, participants walk towards the green ride which runs along the western edge of Two Mile Ash.

Following this ecological corridor that connects two woodlands, we reach the new footbridge.

The Deputy Mayor cuts the tape and pronounces the Bluebell Circuit officially open.

Our many participants can now cross the bridge to enter the Bluebell Wood.

The paths are lined with newly planted trees protected by a new plastic free type of tree shelter.

The swathes of English bluebells can be viewed from many different places along the curving all-weather path.

Interspersed among the bluebells are sizeable areas of wild garlic providing a stunning combination of blue and white.  Shown above and below.

Please publish your photos of the bluebells on Facebook.

 

A Celebration for Two Mile Ash on the
Afternoon of Saturday 23rd April

The Two Mile Ash Bluebell Circuit is now fully open and its use is steadily increasing. Its centre-piece is that 11m footbridge but this 750m recreational way offers far more.

Working with our partner, Milton Keynes Parks Trust, TMAEG volunteers have been enhancing the Circuit, through the insertion of new sections of all-weather path, the upgrading of older paths, and tree and wildflower planting. You can download a map and read more about this project in a new section of the TMAEG website www.tmaeg.org/bluebell-circuit/

Five months on from the completion of the footbridge, we are now approaching Bluebell Time and the time is right to celebrate this new public amenity.

Our Celebration on Saturday 23rd April will provide an opportunity for attendees to recognise fully the contributions made by our partners and our volunteers to this project, to view the bluebells at their best and to enjoy light refreshments and a get together.

Our chief guest will be the Deputy Mayor of Milton Keynes,
Cllr Amanda Marlow; she will provide an initial address and preside over the opening tape cutting ceremony.

The provisional timetable for the Celebration is as follows:

Gather at Milesmere Green – 2.15pm
Presentations begin – 2.30pm
Tour of Circuit and Opening Ceremony – from 2.45pm
Social, with light refreshments – from 3.15pm

Call for Volunteers – We are going to need more helpers, particularly
for the serving of the light refreshments.
If interested, please call Chris
[email protected] or 01908 561365

All are welcome but it would be appreciated if those interested in coming could register this with our Secretary Chris Gossop, either by email [email protected] or phone 01908 561365 so we can have some idea of likely numbers.

Please come by foot if you can as parking nearby is quite limited.

Another Eventful Morning for TMAEG.

Just six weeks ago the TMAEG Team dug over an area next to the new footbridge for later sowing with wildflower seeds. We removed a mass of ivy roots, brambles and other weeds – a painstaking task!

This latest Saturday, we returned to the site, gave it a final raking over and then sowed those seeds at a density of 3 grams per square metre – again much patience needed!
We don’t expect instant results, nature takes its time. But hopefully, some of those varieties will be in flower by this summer and the rest by their second season.

Last week we experienced a mini heat wave. Very nice for us human beings but less good for those seeds and also for the young trees we planted a little earlier. So we made sure that everything was well watered, the two sources being a very kind TMAEG member from his own tap and then the stream M169 that borders the Bluebell Wood. With this ‘Chain Gang,’ we soon got that job finished!

 

In February and March TMAEG volunteers enjoyed several busy mornings in our local bluebell wood completing and enhancing the new Bluebell Circuit.

Linking the paths,  two images below – Here our team is laying heavy tree stems to connect the two first sections of raised pathway, prior to the spreading of wood chips between them. The result is a continuous raised path between the entrance to the Circuit off the High Street and our new 11m footbridge.

Our next task (shown below) was some carefully planned underplanting within the bluebell wood that had recently been thinned as part of the Parks Trust’s cyclical woodland management programme.  This project enabled TMAEG to plant 65 new trees and shrubs to provide lower and medium height cover under the high canopies of the existing Norway Maples and other mature trees.

In this first phase we concentrated on planting alongside the new route to accentuate the winding line of this new woodland path.

The path passes between groups of newly planted hazels, wayfaring trees and other species (see below). It also aligns with the swathes of the soon to flower English Bluebells.

A necessary, associated task (shown above) for TMAEG was to remove the storm debris of the past winter, to enable the bluebells to be seen in their fully glory.

One of ten Yews (Taxus baccata),  shown above. These have been scattered around the woodland to add to local variety and provide winter colour. Commonly seen in English churchyards, this is one of the world’s longest-living trees.

Most of the new trees were provided for us by the Parks Trust. They included ten Wild Service trees Sorbus torminalis. Together with the other trees planted by TMAEG, this relative of the rowan will add variety to the bluebell wood, transforming this former limited species plantation into an ecologically rich, multi-species woodland.

Another Sorbus tree in place! For most of our trees, we have been using a new type of tree shelter (in place of the former plastic tubes). These are of sturdy bio-degradable materials and should protect our trees and shrubs through their early years.

A near sunset view of the new footbridge and of the Green Ride beyond.

Whenever TMAEG volunteers do an environmental project we remove and dispose of any litter. We reckon that a cleaner environment reduces the dumping of litter. But litterbugs are still around as we’ve seen at the start of 2022.

Our Ash Brook, the stream which runs through the Local Park was hit by thoughtless individuals who dumped the remains of their ready meals into this pretty, green corridor.
Here (above) is the mess as seen from the High Street.

TMAEG volunteers descended to the stream bed (shown above), helped by that blue rope and retrieved the rubbish.

Here (below) is some of it displayed on the Redway prior to despatch to the Recycling Park.

TMAEG volunteers also do litter pick-only sessions. Here, our team has just completed a morning’s work at the Clay Hill end of the Local Park.

Six Bags of Rubbish to be passed on to Milton Keynes Council. Two years back the yield would have been twice this. Progress by the two Councils and TMAEG – but still some way to go!

Want to help TMAEG?  You can help in many ways,  not just by volunteering.  Become a member for just £5 a year.  Find out more here.