Following Andy’s excellent review of the first walk, and some people wanting to attend for a second time, we have been oversubscribed on the second walk given current Government restrictions. Therefore, with restrictions on outdoor gathering due to relax on 17th May, there will now be a Dawn Chorus Walk on Friday 21st May with Darren Shepherd.
If you’d like a place email us on parkinsonspark.co.uk
Over the last year the Park has increasingly used the lovely knitted, crochet and even tatted items, made by local people for decorating the Celebration Tree, (mostly ladies, but there might be some men 🙂 ). Well, we now know this art form has a name, Yarn Bombing; and it seems that it is becoming international, with yarn bombing festivals, including one in Hawes. (Apparently the 2015 Tour de Yorkshire kicked off the idea.)
The definition of Yarn Bombing is – Yarn bombing is a street art, a form of graffiti using textiles instead of paint. Yarn bombers might add tags, put up murals, leave messages or cover parts of or whole inanimate objects. The artwork stays up for up to 6-8 weeks.
It is now getting so popular that Yarn Bombing groups are forming so that they can go out and brighten up their local public spaces. The Parkinson’s Park ladies are keen on doing the same – now they’ve got going with Remembrance, Valentines and Easter.
They’ve put together a timetable of themes for the year – to go on the Celebration Tree, or Farm Gate. They’d welcome anyone to join in as well – especially as this is a ‘guerilla’ art form. Patterns for ideas for each theme will be put on the Parkinson’s Park facebook page
June/July - Bees, Butterflies and Flowers. Start June 6th.
September - Space eg stars and planets. Start Sept 4th ready for the Children's Gala
November - Remembrance week collection for Royal British Legion. Start 7th November
Advent - Christmas decoration Start Wednesday 1st December
To stress, this is open to anyone who’d like to join in with the theme. But if you do want more information email us at parkinsonspark@gmail.com
For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 the Park received a Jubilee Oak from the royal estate and Sandringham, which we duly planted; it was later ‘stolen’.
Sandringham, got to hear of this mishap, and in September 2012 the Friends of Parkinson’s Park unexpectedly received another small oak tree from the estate. We have nurtured the Jubilee Oak for nearly 10 years, and planted it in the Park around 3 years ago.
We decorated the tree for VE Day last year, and today we are using it to say thank you to Prince Philip for his years of service to the United Kingdom and to act as a focus in the park for the period of national mourning at this historic time. (We will also be putting a tribute up in the notice board tomorrow.)
If you would like to leave flowers around the tree, or painted stones you are very welcome too. Any flowers will eventually be composted and the mulch put back around the tree. It is our intention that the Jubilee Oak will act as a focus for any national events in the future.
UPDATE
Easter Trail Map to download is here, or there should be some under the Easter tree in a box. Please donate a minimum of £1 in the box on the Farm Gate or £2 to our Localgiving account here for the trail (minimum Localgiving donation is £2).
Spring has arrived and Easter will soon be here: to celebrate we have several events we hope you will enjoy. We’ll firstly be asking everyone to help decorate the Easter Tree, then there will be an Easter Trail for the children, followed by a Dawn Chorus Walk later in the month.
The Silver Birch at the top of the Park has become our seasonal ‘celebration tree’. Over Easter, add your own colourful Easter Egg decorations and ribbons. There’s a crochet Easter egg pattern here but painted, knitted, or other crafts are very welcome. We will have some wooden eggs to decorate in the Easter goody bags linked to the Easter Trail (see below).
It’s Mothering Sunday on 14th March 2021. To celebrate the Friends and Codswallop are inviting people to add a flower to the ‘celebration’ tree as part of the Day In The Wood Activities.
Here’s the challenge.
As the Valentine hearts come down 
, we are very pleased to announce that to celebrate Spring and life stirring again in nature Codswallop CIC will be running some Day in The Wood children’s educational self guided activities to do during daily exercise during March. More information to follow from them.
THEN, as Easter approaches The Park will be preparing for the Easter Bunny . 
Lots to look forward to.
And you may find this map handy to find the places to watch out for different natural events taking place in the different areas of the Park.
Please ensure you follow the latest Government CV19 regulations.
Friends of Parkinson’s Park have decided to publish a 2023 Calendar using the photographs that are left on our Facebook page, as well as any other received. The bank of pictures on Facebook is growing, with lovely photos of the seasons; the activities, the landscape and the events – not to forget the ecology, so we thought we’d put them to good use.
However, not everyone has or uses Facebook, so if people email their photos to parkinsonspark@gmail.com we can put them on Facebook for other to enjoy and add them to the potential calendar collection.
Early next year (2022) we’ll start the process of choosing the photos for the Calendar by asking people to vote for the ones they like best (we’ll do this in a variety of ways). There will be a prize for the most popular.
The displays are now up in the Park to add your own ‘heart’ for Valentine’s week 7-14th February. We have craft hearts on the Farm Gate in a cheerful, welcome display, wooden hearts can be added to the decorative ‘missing you’ tree, and painted stones can join the line of the Parkinson’s Python in the top copse.
Many painted stones are left around the Park for people to find and relocated; it is something children greatly enjoy. So, we were fascinated by the idea of The Tottington Snake – a community project carried out in Tottington Lancashire during 2020.
The idea is to create a snake of painted stones, where people keep adding stones to the snake, rather than move stones around. As stones are added during 2021 they will create a ‘history’ of the year. In Tottington people have painted stones with family news, simple messages, to celebrate big events, or simply giving a seasonal flavour. The Tottington Snake, which goes through a woodland, now has 3,000 stones.
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Friends of Parkinson's Park CIC 
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