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With snow on the ground and the temperature hovering around zero, you might be forgiven for thinking that late January 2013 was not a good time to be wading thigh deep in the murky waters of the Stonehill pond – but the members of TMAEG are built of sterner stuff.

Although it was literally necessary to break the ice before the work could commence, the envisaged problems of getting cold very quickly did not materialise and tremendous progress was made with a very early ‘spring clean’ for the Ashbrook Pond.

Twelve months ago we did the first clean-up of the pond and it was decided that we should repeat the exercise this year, rather than allow debris to continue to accumulate that could block the inlet pipe and cause the pond water to stagnate. Dates were agreed for Milton Keynes Green Gym to join us in the exercise, with members of both groups turning out on both the Thursday and Saturday sessions.

The Thursday turnout was sufficient to allow a number of different activities to be tackled. In addition to making a start on the pond clearance, the brambles and vegetation along the line of the brook were thinned to allow more light in around the pond, and additional glades were created to attract wildlife.

However, it was the pond clearance team that raised the greatest “stink”. The vegetation that had fallen to the bottom during the last twelve months had decayed sufficiently that at least one worker was reminded of the smells emitted from school chemistry labs, when “bad egg gas” (hydrogen sulphide) was being created.

In addition to the accumulated vegetable matter, we unearthed (if such is valid for water) the usual collection of bottles and cans, plus an electric drill – which probably needed more than a new fuse to return it to working order.

Although some additional scrub clearance was completed on the Saturday, this session concentrated on the pond work when, as well as completing the bottom clearance, we tried to remove as much of the surface greenery as possible. This entailed scooping the weed (Lemna minor, common duckweed) into butterfly nets which, with the addition of icy water became very heavy, very quickly. While piles of the green weed were quickly added to the vegetation debris around the pond, there looked to be just as much on the surface afterwards as there was when we started – although that is probably just my imagination.

Many thanks to everyone who turned out to help. We look forward to seeing you again on the next event.

Dave Barratt

The TMAEG committee has drawn up an exciting events programme for 2013.  This is a combination of opportunities for practical environmental conservation, visits and social events.  As we become better known, our membership – which currently stands at 140 – continues to grow and, in response, we are developing our programme, hopefully to provide something for everyone.

For details, please view the Events page of this website.

On environmental conservation, we are building upon the successes of last year.  As one area of emphasis, TMAEG will continue to work on the opening up of that hidden feature in TMA, the Ash Brook, initially from the Stone Hill pond end to the play area in the Local Park.  A new feature will be the planting up of the newly revealed banks and margins of the Brook with primroses, cowslips and other native wildflower species.

Open Gardens

As another innovation, we plan to complement work on public land – the public realm – with an opportunity for residents to show off their own gardening efforts  under an Open Gardens Scheme;  this is to be held on Saturday July 6 in conjunction with the Two Mile Ash Celebration.  Contact Pavla on 561365 for further information.

Visits and social events

On Wednesday 6^th March we have scheduled a visit to the Materials Recycling Facility in Old Wolverton to follow what happens to those pink sacks once they have left our homes.  This is a truly fascinating experience in which we will view the very latest in recycling technology (March 6).

In the autumn, we plan two celebration events;  the first will present our achievements to date (combined with the AGM) and the second will be an end of year meal at a local restaurant – watch this space!

It is likely that additional events will be added in due course.

Please keep a close watch on this web site – see  both  ‘Latest News’ and ‘Events’.

 

 

On the morning of Monday 19 November two groups were converging on the green semi-circle of grass that lies across the High Street from Ashbrook School.

One comprised some 28 Ashbrook pupils, for the most part clad in red waterproof suits and wellies, together with their teachers and classroom assistants. Two by two they crossed the road and waited for the Landscape Men from Milton Keynes Council – Tony Higgins and his colleague – who were approaching with spades and a sackful of daffodil bulbs.

They were joined by Liz Ruthven and Pavla Gossop from TMAEG. The children waited while the men cut shallow trenches in the grass and showed how the bulbs should be placed, with the pointy end up and a hand’s width between, to ensure they had enough space to grow

The children worked in small groups around the trenches, each supplied with a container of bulbs. Tony Higgins said afterwards that he’d never seen bulbs planted so quickly before!

The final stage was to carefully replace the cut turves and to stamp them into place. This the children did with alacrity!

‘February Gold’ is the name of the 500 bulbs planted, so children and residents will have something very cheerful to look forward to as winter comes to an end.

A big thank you from TMAEG to Mrs Lin Healey of Ashbrook School, who organised the event for the school, to Tony Higgins and colleague from MK Council, to Parish Councillor Ann Gaunt who liaised with all parties and most of all to the Ashbrook children for helping to make Two Mile Ash a beautiful place to be proud of.

We need to report the sad news that one of our founder members, Antonie Michael McDaniel has recently passed away.  Known to us all as Mac, he was a founder member of TMAEG.  Today, we are a thriving organisation pursuing numerous environmental initiatives, and seemingly going from strength to strength.  But in the spring of 2011 things looked very different.  Our village centre faced the prospect of huge, destructive change which would have destroyed the central garden to the rear of One Stop and replaced it with a major car park.  Had this happened, the double avenue of silver maples would have been removed – looking back it is almost unbelievable that such action was even contemplated.

In that period, just 18 months ago, resistance was growing to that ill conceived proposal, albeit amidst a feeling of considerable uncertainty as to whether our protests could prevail.  Mac was one of those prepared to stick his head above the parapet and support the fledgling environmental group.  He made representations to the Councils and was at the inaugural meeting of our group on 20 March 2011, held outdoors in the midst of the area that we sought to save.

From then on Mac maintained a keen interest in our developing group.  He took part in last summer’s Treasure Hunt, and only a few days before he left us we were able to show him the progress being made on the Stream Project.

Mac was a talented amateur photographer and trees and nature were the main subjects for the  beautiful black and white pictures which he developed himself.  The wintery scene below – of the bridge at the outlet end of the Stone Hill pond – was taken on one of his typically brisk walks around Two Mile Ash.

As was revealed in the eulogy at his funeral on 5 November, Mac was a man of many parts.  He served in the Royal Engineers, spending several years in Germany in the 1950s, a period in which he met Ingrid who was to become his wife.  They became residents of Two Mile Ash in the mid 1990s and took on an allotment which proved a great joy to them.  As if that commitment wasn’t enough,  Mac assumed the chairmanship of the allotments governing body and helped steer the organisation through some difficult times.

Mac was a nice man, always positive, whose fine qualities we will miss.

 

 

TMAEG is making great progress with its work to open up the Ash Brook, the stream and related hedgerow corridor that is such an important feature in our ‘village’.

Volunteers from TMAEG and from outside Two Mile Ash (the Green Gym) have now carried out working sessions on four mornings, the most recent of which was on Saturday 10th of November.

Peter, a first time volunteer for TMAEG gives here his report and impressions:

Transport by Tarpaulin
TMAEG’s volunteers are an innovative bunch. As Kevin’s latest poem relates, we turned the slipperiness of the Park’s grass (after the overnight rain) to our advantage….. and thanks to Sally!

Sally you’re a saviour
With your blanket for the weeds
It made the job much easier
Fulfilling many needs
So many volunteers today
The progress good to see
If we could do that every time
The stream would soon be free !!

How are we doing?
We have now reached the second, middle, section of the hedgerow, the one between the two footbridges. Here, our approach is aimed at cutting ‘glades’ into the southern face of the hedge, openings which provide views of the stream and diversify the habitat of the corridor. Imagine how the hedgerow could look if those openings were planted with wild flowers, and the land managed to support butterflies and other fauna! TMAEG is currently looking into that possibility

There is to be one more session of the Stream Project before Christmas – on Saturday December 15th. As before, this will start at 9.30 and finish by 1.00pm. More work is planned for 2013.

You can read more about the purpose and scope of the Stream Project in the news stories posted earlier

Join Us, Learn new skills, Meet new people

Over the past year, your local environmental group, TMAEG, has been engaged in a number of practical projects, notably the enhancement of the Stone Hill pond, works adjacent to Ashbrook School, including bulb planting by school children and the creation of an all weather footpath through an area of woodland at Milesmere.

Spurred on by the success of these schemes, we are now working within the Two Mile Ash Local Park on our biggest project to date, a major tidy up of the hedgerow and stream that runs through it. While these are fine features of TMA, the hedge has become badly overgrown and the stream (known locally as the Ash Brook) has been lost from view.

So on two mornings in September (Thursday 20th and Saturday 22nd), volunteers from TMAEG and other organisations began work on the first section of this ‘green and blue’ corridor. Our partners were the national organisation, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), Milton Keynes Council and the Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG). The project has already proved to be very popular, especially on the Thursday when our team comprised a total of 17 people – a substantial number for any local conservation project.

The first task was to clear much of the self sown vegetation adjacent to the hedgerow on its southern side which enabled the volunteers to begin the work of trimming the hedge itself. We have sought to retain the fine mature trees that form the spine of this attractive landscape feature, while selectively removing many of the self sown trees and shrubs that have grown up between them. At the same time we have kept ‘understorey’ vegetation where it adds to the variety of species in the hedgerow and/or provides valuable habitat for birds and other fauna.

At an early stage in the work we created safe ways down to the stream bed so that we could operate on two fronts – up and down the length of the stream and from above. Those working within the brook bore the brunt of the litter clearance work, the objects found including bales of free newspapers, a twisted bike wheel and the globe cover from a street lamp. But the main thing to slow progress at both levels was the astonishing tangle of brambles that has risen to the height of the smaller trees. We also encountered dead trees – usually these were cut into sections and taken to a nearby log pile, in other instances, the lower part of the tree was left in situ, if safe. In both cases their wood will continue to contribute to our environment by providing habitat for beetles and other insects, creatures that will, in turn, be a source of food for many birds.

We can all be very proud of what has been achieved so far. Work on the first 35m long section of the hedgerow is now complete and a substantial section of the stream has been opened up to view. This would not have been possible without the dedication and enthusiasm of our dedicated volunteers who have worked incredibly hard. Their work is a heartening example of what can be achieved by committed people towards the active improvement of their area and their city. But the benefits are more than environmental. Projects such as this inspire people and bring them together. They foster a real feeling of community.

Some quotations and a poem

Among the feedback we had from the team are the following:

A well organised and fun event. It was great to meet new people and contribute to an activity that enhances the environment for everyone to enjoy. We all worked hard and shared our experiences over a much needed cuppa half way through the morning. Can’t wait for the next event. Well done to Chris and Monique (Lydia);

What a perfect opportunity to make a huge visible difference to the centre of Two Mile Ash and have a lot of fun, with a great bunch of people at the same time (Dave);

If you go down to the Park today, you better believe your eyes
Some volunteers have been clearing the stream, some Gals and also some Guys
There’s lots to do, a bit of a task, so come on down just phone and ask
The more that help the quicker the next two stages (Kevin R)

TMAEG wishes to thank all the volunteers involved and everyone who has provided support in any way. We are especially grateful to Monique van Assouw of TCV for the leadership and training she has supplied, to Tony Higgins of MKC for his practical support and to the MK Community Foundation for their help in the setting up of TMAEG.

The Next Steps

There will be three further working sessions on the stream project:

· Saturday, October 20th 0930-1300 (TMAEG/NAG)
· Saturday, November 10th 0930-1300 (TMAEG/NAG)
· Saturday, December 15th 0930-1300 (TMAEG/NAG)

To book yourself a place on one or more of these sessions please e mail Chris Gossop on [email protected] or ring 561365.