Spring Coffee Morning and AGM

When: SAT 8th April 2017

Time: 10am – 11.30am

Where: AT THE CHURCH HALL. THE HOLY FAMILY CHURCH, NORTH ROAD, LANCING

SPRING COFFEE MORNING AND AGM-colour poster

Some of the Violets in the woodland pathways

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Summer Newsletter

Adrienne would like to let people know that they should be getting their summer newsletter in the next few days and to let me know if it doesn’t arrive either by email or post?  (That way she can be sure that her list is working ok!)

adriennestevenson@gmail.com

If you use the area for walking, exercise, fun or whatever we are your chance to have a voice in what goes on in the Reserve and we provide a link between the people who use it and the Council. Please consider joining the Friends of Lancing Ring. Membership details.

Spring Update

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Adrienne shared these images of her walk around the reserve recently

Also thought we ought to put an update after the AGM.  At the recent AGM, the Committee were re-elected with the addition of Chris Ball, who we are delighted to say has re-joined us now that her health has improved again.  The current Committee are:

 

Henry Heath (Chairman and Treasurer)

Veronica Eltringham (Vice Chair)

Adrienne Stevenson (Secretary)

Sue Crowhurst (Membership Secretary)

Keith Dollemore

Chris Ball

Spring newsletter

Look out for your member’s copy of the Spring newsletter which will soon be popping into your inbox or through your letterbox.  If you don’t receive your copy in the next week or so, please contact Adrienne on AdrienneStevenson@gmail.com or 01903 753977.

For membership enquiries, or if you would like to join the Friends of Lancing Ring, please contact Sue, our Membership Secretary, on  01903 368978
or by letter to 31 Sedbury Road, Sompting.

Winter News

Winter on the Reserve.

Strangely enough, winter is quite a busy time on the Reserve, as it gives us a good opportunity to get some of the maintenance work done before the birds start nesting and the flowers start appearing.  The Council managed to get most of the mowing done before the weather got really bad and there are just a couple of areas to finish mowing before spring gets underway.  At the January task day the FOLR managed to reinstate most of the view from their seat just to the north of the Clump.  This was despite a sudden change in weather at the time to a light scattering of snow.  We hope that people using the seat now will have a better view across to Cissbury.

 

At the moment most of the paths are extremely muddy after all the rain and the Council have recently delivered some bark chippings which will be spread on the muddiest paths by the car park in Mill Road.

 

At today’s task day we managed to thin out some of the hawthorn that has been growing taller by the path just to the south of the Clump.  This is a good, sheltered butterfly spot, but the hawthorns have started blocking out the sun and the light, which is not so good for the butterflies and the area needs opening up a bit again.  We have used the trimmings to put a sort of fence round the main orchid bed in the woods.  We are always grateful to people who come along to help and would like to say a big thank you to the Worthing Conservation Volunteers for their help today.  We welcome any members who would like to come and get their hands dirty and have been very encouraged to have a couple of new helpers at recent task days.  Thank you for all you do.  It can be very rewarding seeing the change that the work makes to an area.

 

Orchids

There are the first signs of the orchid leaves appearing in the woods.  At this stage they are very vulnerable to being trodden down.  We have put a “dead hedge” around the main orchid area.  Please do not step over it and walk on the site as you will damage the orchids.  Please also do not let children play in that area or pick the flowers when they start to appear.  Thank you for your help.  We hope to see a lovely display of early purple orchids in a couple of months time.

Adrienne Stephenson

message From Henry

We have a meeting this week with the council and the ranger from the national park about the clump, so if you have any views on the management of the clump let us know on here or the facebook group and I can mention it!

-Henry Heath

Broomrape – the fascinating parasite

These lovely photos were taken by Adrienne on MacIntyres Field . They show Common Broomrape (Orobanche minor) Its a parasitic plant which means it takes it nutrients from another host by means of a fungal appendage. Broomrape host  plant are members of the pea family.

Further information about this plant species

Report from Adrienne following the Spring AGM

Most of the Committee were re-elected, although, unfortunately Chris Ball has had to stand down for health reasons.  We would like to thank Chris so much for her contributions on the Committee and we will miss her and hope she might think of coming back when her health recovers.  So the current line-up is: Henry Heath as Chairman, Veronica Eltringham is Vice Chair, Sue Crowhurst is Membership Secretary, Adrienne Stevenson is Secretary and also Keith Dollemore.  We currently have no Treasurer, so Henry is doubling as Treasurer.  However, if anyone else would like to join the Committee or would like to offer themselves as Treasurer, we would be delighted to hear from them.

Sue Crowhurst has moved and changed her phone number.  The new details  are:

31 Sedbury Road, Sompting. Tel 01903 368978

Correction to Summer Newsletter

In the published Newsletter it was incorrectly stated that the September Task Day has been cancelled.
This should have stated that the August Task Day has been cancelled.

Instead of this there is going to be an event on the 31st August to coincide with the Shoreham Airshow

FAMILY DAY / AIRDAY – SUN 31st AUGUST

This year we have decided to have a presence on the Reserve on Shoreham Air Day. We will combine this with our Family Day when there will be activities for children, demonstrations of bush craft skills by FOLR member Mark and information available about the Friends.

There are usually a lot of people around and about during the Air Show, so we hope this will help to raise our profile in the community.

Why not come along and say hello between 10am and 1pm?

Butterfly walk on the Clump – 19th July

Another Friends group in the area, the Friends of Whitebeam Wood, are holding a butterfly walk and survey on the Ring on Sat 19^th July between 10am and 1pm.  They would like to extend a welcome to any FOLR members who would like to come along and join them.