There are some tree maps in the park near the Coed Bach and Gwynfryn road entrances.

Take a look at them and have a walk through the park itself and see how many species you can find. And also keep an eye out for the wildlife that live in, and amongst the trees.

Volunteers and Our Place team members are clearing pathways of nettles throughout the woodland areas. This is making the pathways wider and easier to negotiate, and as usual woodchip top up programmes run throughout the year to keep the pathways in full working order.

February Roundup

Hooray!!!!!!!! It stopped raining (for now) but now the park is drying itself out, however we are left with muddy patches in several parts of the pathways through the woodland areas.
Luckily we have volunteers on the case and work has begun to return the pathways to their former glory.
And we also thank Andrew and his team from Our Place with their help in putting things right.
But it all takes time so please be patient as we go about our work, and we advise if you are walking through the woodlands to use sensible walking shoes or wellies.
The worst affected areas are around the second woods near the Rugby pitch towards the Friendship tree area.

But on the good side Spring is showing the first signs of new life in the park with the Bluebells starting to poke through the ground.
Unfortunately the weather has been mild and the plant life seems to be coming through a little early and also the added wet weather meant we could not cut back as much undergrowth as we usually do so we will have to wait to see what kind of display we have this year.

Bluebells Grass

The springlike weather has been great for the animals and birds that use the park and the woodlands are full of birdsong and the sounds of cuckoos can be heard on a regular basis. And one of our regular park users has photographed a Stoat at home in the undergrowth.

Goldfinch. Photo Brian Lloyd

This February's issue of the SA4 Magazine has a large article written by myself about what the park has meant to me over the years. (It really is a riveting read even if I do say so myself.)
We are looking for peoples stories about the park and if you know anyone who would like to submit an article or help you write it, you can contact us at the email at the top of this blog.


Working closely with the local PCSO's over the last few years has led us to having a great relationship with our local police force, and whenever we get the chance FOCBP members bring them up to speed on events and what we are up to in the park ourselves.

Myself and PCSO Collins 

As usual we hold our meetings on the last Wednesday of every month in Pontarddulais Cricket Club at 7.30pm and everyone is welcome to join us.

We have heard of two wheelchair users being able to access the Boardwalk in the last few weeks and this is fantastic to hear. And several people from other areas around Swansea heard about the Seasonal pond and have visited us to have a look at the work we have done.


Our FB page is in full flight as is our Twitter feed (Links at the top of this Blog.)

We hope to hear from you soon.

December

We at Friends of Coed Bach Park would like to congratulate our founding Member Christine Thomas for her recognition in receiving a Fields in Trust Award.
Chris has done a lot of work in getting this project of ours started and has been absolutely single minded in sorting the Park out and plenty of people are now commenting on how much more friendlier and welcoming the park is now looking.
And we must give a huge Thank you to Swansea City Council for their help and guidence over the last few years.

Chris you are a true Community Champion and it's a well deserved award we at FOCBP are proud of you.

We have a few new benches around the park one by the Coed Bach entrance, Two by the Tennis court and one in the second woods near the bridge.
There are a few more to go in by the football fields. so you can relax and enjoy the games in more comfort.
And a big thank you to Pontarddulais Council Comittee for allowing us to have the benches.

Also the main seasonal pond in the Second woods has attracted a few more ducks to it. At the last count there were 6 of them swimming about. And that is great news.
We will be reshaping the pond slightly in the new year as there is still a little work to do in that area and it will help hold more water in the area.

We have completely sold out of our Calendars and people are still asking us if we have any left. So we will have a bigger production for them next year.

On Saturday the 20th December members of the park will be hanging personalised Christmas tags on the Christmas Tree in the second woods. This will take place about 11am.

We will not be meeting until January 2015 so from us at the Park.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Community Orchard

Our Community Orchard has grown again (pardon the pun) earlier this week the tree planting team from the City and Council of Swansea added five new trees to the park (Thank's chaps).
They are :- 2 Conference pear trees, Malus Elstar (eating apples) and 1 Bramley seeding (cooking apples)
They are now in place by the avenue of trees leading up from Coed Bach into the park and are located near the ones we planted a few weeks ago.
So if you see any Bees working away in the park please don't swat them away, as they are pollenating the flowers to help the fruit grow.

January 2014 News

Happy New Year to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I know it's been nearly a month since Christmas and New Year but better late than never ;-)

Over the last week or so in the park the boys from the City and County Council of Swansea have been working on clearing a drainage ditch that runs from the small woodland near the Gwynfryn road entrance around the back of the play area and into the old boating lake. Or as a regular user of the park named it "The Riverside Walk"
We hope this will be a help with the flooding we are experiencing in the park due to the weather.
There are other things that also need seeing to which can help things further and they are being tackled one bit at a time. So as usual we offer our thanks to the Council for their help and time.

Riverside Walk behind the Play area.

And Next Wednesday the 29th January at Pontarddulais Cricket Club we will be holding our first meeting of 2014 as usual everybody is welcome to join us.

Seasonal Ponds Day 4

Not much to report today as weather wise it has not turned out to be the nicest. But the workers and volunteers (More needed please!) are now on site.
As you can see below the ponds are now starting to take shape and the team are expecting wildlife to flourish in this are next year.

"It looks like somebody has taken a clump of clay and is now forming the sculpture"

The ponds are forming.

Pond are from 2nd woods.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/sets/72157637441654904/ Our Flickr page.

Seasonal Ponds Day 3

There were plenty of people on site this morning moving and cutting bits of tree and anything else they could lay their hands on.
Also a new drainage pipe was added by the pathway in the 2nd wood and we had the big guns in today with a tractor and chipping machine. And more importantly the weather was spot on :-)

A big thank you to all that helped especially all those that had travelled from Swansea we hope we can repay you one day.

By the time I arrived on site everyone was having a well earned break (just in case your wondering why there is no one in their machinery)

Removing tree stumps in the boating lake.

The Chipping Machine

Now people in the swings can keep an eye on their kids on the BMX track.

Pond drainage.

Brodie hopes this is not a permanent obstacle on his walk (It Isn't)

Volunteering is about friendship and making new friends (and FUN)

Break time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/sets/ 

Flickr Images.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/sets/72157637419428975/ Todays images.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/10730132943/in/set-72157637419428975 Video view from the swings.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/10730043426/in/set-72157637419428975 Video Tractor at work.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofcoedbachpark/10730424683/in/set-72157637419428975 Video Pathway workers.

Sat 28th September.

Bug Houses & Muddy Pond Dipping

Sat 28th Sep 2pm—4pm

Visit the Bug Houses we created a few weeks ago and see whose moved in with Dawn Thomas - meet at children’s play ground and children must be accompanied by  a parent—please wear sensible shoes  - thank you

Signs

Our resident artist Gaynor Fuge has been busy making a few signs for the trees around the park.


We have so many different varieties of tree around the park these little signs will tell you what we are looking at.
Gaynor has spent a lot of time making these for us (and the public) so we say a big Thank You to her.
We also give thanks to Wyndsor Clarke for helping in identifying the trees and helping Gaynor to stake them into the ground.


Gaynor has a website which is currently under construction.
http://plumsumit.com/

And a Facebook Page.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Plum-Sumit/271851799569176

Images taken by Martin Hanson.
http://mph-photo.blogspot.co.uk/

February 11/2/2012 2nd woods pathway

Some Images from yesterdays work on the pathway in the 2nd woods.

A big thank you to Brian Lloyd for taking the pics as out regular photographer turned up late and decided to get stuck in and get his hands dirty (again!)

The Gang (Happy as always! :-)

Martin on the right wondering how to get stuck in and not get his hands dirty. (He managed a few barrow fulls and did some shovelling

The finished product

Snookie grabs a lift with Andrew.

All Images taken by Brian Lloyd.

 http://youtu.be/e6e8swOOzY0 Video by Andrew Clarke.

February 2012 New Trees

We are pleased to say we now have four new trees in Coed Bach Park. A big thanks to Martin Bignell the Assistant Manager for the tree unit in Swansea for allowing us to have these.

Two new Oak trees have been placed next to the cleared gorse bush area behind the seating near the football field.

And two new cherry trees placed by the avenue of trees as you enter from Coed Bach road.

One of The cherry trees by the Coed Bach Entrance.

One of the Oaks by the cleared gorse area.

Friday 27th January News

Today Gareth Davies a Community Development Officer  and Helen Grey a Countryside Connections Officer came to the park to meet us and to discuss us putting in for a grant  for the Ecology Survey which needs to be done before we can start work tidying up the old Boating Lake.
Five members of FOTP turned up to meet them and to guide them around the park.


As FOTP members we showed them the lie of the land and what our long term plans for the park and woodland areas were. And we are pleased to say that we have their support and will be working very closely with them in the future, as there is a lot of GRANT money out there and they can help guide us in the right direction to obtain some.

                              WILDLIFE NEWS


While on our walk around the park we noticed that 2 mallard ducks have made the lake their home which is great news and we also observed that a blue tit was using one of the newly installed bird boxes by the swings. Unfortunately we could not obtain any images of these events as my camera lens was not long enough for me to keep a good distance from them and not disturb the birds. 

Pointing out the park boundaries.

Win (left) Gareth (middle) Viv (right)

Viv explaining to Gareth that the car park was once part of the lake.

Helen joins in the discussion.

Another bright glorious morning around the 2nd woods.

Standing at the lake edge. (NOT HAVING A PEE!)

The lake.