The autumn leaves of red and gold

About a dozen parishioners and friends joined St Saviour in Bloom floral co-ordinator Graham Langlois for our Winter Woodland Workout on Saturday 15th November. I have to say that I was not the most industrious of the keen eco-warriers, with their gloves, spades and forks, who set to work on clearing the brambles and getting the woodland at Jardin des Buttes, just opposite the Parish Hall, ready for the hundreds of snowdrops and bluebells etc. we have started to plant. Planned as an opportunity to work out before the Christmas season gets to work on waistlines... about nine of us did do some damage to those same waistlines by tucking into Elaine's hearty winter soup with French bread and scoffing a cake or two in the Parish Hall afterwards. We are planning to have some regular meetings of the Jardiniers in the Jardin des Buttes over the next few months, so do let me have your email address if you would like to join our brambling band.

An eco-friendly day in St Saviour

Building on the success of the last two years’ CRS Awards Ceremonies and Farm Walks, an event dedicated to the Countryside Renewal Scheme and Jersey ’s Countryside took place at Grainville School and St Saviour’s Parish Hall on Saturday 27 September between noon and 4 pm. It was very enlightening to attend the awards ceremony in the morning and see just how much progress has been made over the last year. It was the first time that CRS have held their annual event in a school rather than on a farm and there were eco-friendly stalls, Genuine Jersey, environmental displays, refreshments and events in the grounds of Grainville School and St Saviour’s Parish Hall.
After the events at Granville School, around 40 people met Blue Badge guides Sue Hardy and Peter Double for an educational, historical and wildlife stroll through the school grounds, via the wildlife pond project, Swan Farm, Rectory Lane, St Saviour’s churchyard and not forgetting our own St Saviour in Bloom wildlife project in Jardin des Buttes.
We were so lucky with the weather, which was like a summer’s day, and also with the willing helpers from several parish associations and societies, who threw open the Parish Hall and gave everyone a chance to find out what was happening in St Saviour while enjoying a cup of tea or coffee and a delicious WI homemade cake. My thanks go to everyone who made this such a successful occasion.

Pictures by Chris Carter

Recognition for woodland scheme

After the excitement of the Parish in Bloom competition, there was another surprise in store just a couple of days later when, on 11th July, the St Saviour in Bloom team were presented with a cheque for £3,500 to go towards improvements in the Jardin des Buttes, the woodland area opposite the parish hall. This is a generous amount of money and I was even more pleased to hear from Mark Cox, operations director at Checkers, that the money had been raised by one of their environmentally-friendly community projects. Checkers and the Jersey Evening Post’s ecycle service set up a scheme to encourage Islanders to reduce their use of plastic carrier bags and to improve the environment at the same time. The scheme followed a special offer for Islanders to obtain jute shopping bags for £1.50 each, or £2.50 for two. For each bag sold, Checkers offered to donate 50p to environmental projects nominated and voted for by the community. The sum of £5,500 was generated by the scheme and four projects were out forward for consideration as possible winners. St Saviour won the main award and St Helier in Bloom took the second award of £2,000.
The money is very welcome and will be used wisely, but even more encouraging was the reasons Mr Cox gave for their choice, he saw them both as involving large numbers in the community, they were sustainable and would have major benefits for the environment – and that’s exactly what we are setting out to achieve with our woodland area.
Photo: Elaine Hanning

Cow parsley, croissants and homemade cake

What is the difference between a weed and a wildflower? I am sure there are those who can give me a definition, but suffice it to say that, for me, a weed is sometimes simply a wildflower in the wrong place, but most frequently it is the type of wildflower, or garden flower gone wild, that will if left overwhelm all the smaller plants. Saturday saw the first official meeting of the St Saviour Jardiniers, the woodland volunteers who are bringing new life to the Jardin des Buttes, just below the parish hall. It was a drizzly morning, but mild, and the jardiniers, wearing thick gloves, worked with a will to pull up the cow parsley that has shot up to head height and beat back the nettles to areas where we can allow them to flourish. At this stage the goal was to cut them off at the root and then return in the autumn to dig out the roots. After an hour and a half of steady work, the jardiniers came up to the parish hall where we enjoyed tea and coffee, buttered croissants and delicious homemade cake supplied by Mary Le Brocq. Thanks must go to Parish in Bloom co-ordinator Graham Langlois and the committee for organising the event and to all those who came along to take part: the woodland already looks so much better, the sunlight can get down to the ground, plants and, yes, not a few weeds are flourishing and birds are nesting in the trees.

"Log off" takes on a new meaning

Last Saturday dawned bright but cool and there was an excellent turn out of boys from Diarmid House at Victoria College for their enterprising charity fundraiser. No sponsored sit or leisurely stroll this, the boys set to and moved all the log piles stacked in the Jardin des Buttes, the area below the parish hall which is undergoing a facelift to become a managed woodland refuge for wildlife. Working with St Saviour in Bloom co-ordinator Graham Langlois and the newly-appointed president of the National Trust for Jersey, Mike Stentiford, and under the eagle eye of Diarmid House's Mrs Angela Swindell, the event admirably fulfilled three purposes - to do something to benefit the Island, and in this case particularly St Saviour, to work together as a House and to support their chosen charities. The Diarmid students were working to raise money for their ongoing project at Loldia School, in Kenya, and also to support the work of Jersey Hospice in memory of former Diarmid House member Marc Nieuwberg and Victoria College teacher Ms Helen Blake. The whole group were a credit to their House and school and their achievements in the woodland will be really encouraging to our newly-formed Woodland Volunteers, Les Jardiniers, who will be going down this Saturday, 24th May, to continue the good work.