The Fun Day and Bug Hunt at the Dick Turpin and Cuckoo Hall Orchards was advertised widely - and in the William Torbitt Primary School newsletter. Four families joined us as the result of reading about the event in the newsletter - in sunshine and rain. The photographs here show Lily Villaschi with her father, Angelo, and Chichi Lu who enjoyed searching for bugs and then examining them with Stephanie Irvine of the Orchard Project. Both Lily and Chichi spent a couple of hours with us - and did not want to leave! They found a number of different insects which they were able to examine under magnifying glasses. Chris Gannaway, who represents the London Wildlife Trust in Redbridge, gave them a range of materials to take away as they were both clearly very interested and wanted to learn more.
Pupils from the school visited the orchard a few months ago when we started renovating the 100-year-old trees. It was good to have them taking part again last Saturday. Sadly the community did not seem interested in taking part - but the organisers felt it was more than worthwhile just to see the keen interest taken by the pupils from the school.
A good harvest of apples - mainly cooking - and pears will be available for picking in about three weeks’ time. There were blackberries in abundance on Saturday!
This summer we won an Award in the 2017 London Tree and Woodland Awards. We presented the certificate to the Manager of the Dick Turpin who will arrange for this to be displayed in the Foyer.
