Wednesday morning saw a group of ten keen Heath Handers wielding scythes and mattocks alongside the ‘ride’ which runs across Sandy Heath from the Spaniards to North End. The ‘ride’ would have been much more open 50-100 years ago – much more ‘heath-y’ with bare ground, gorse and grassland. However, the wide scale sand digging …
Birdsong may calm anxiety and paranoia
I think that any of us who have walked through the woods in the early morning listening to the birds greeting the day would reckon that that was a no brainer – but it is always good to have a bit of resesarch to confirm one’s hunch. So thanks to Emil Stobbe, MSc, a predoctoral …
Urban Sketchers at Mile End Park
To my shame I had never heard of either Mile End Park or the Urban Sketchers but, thanks to sketcher extraordinaire, Alison Gardiner who sketched the musicians at the Highgate Society concert a few weeks ago – I was introduced to both on Sunday. The park stretches from the bottom of Victoria Park in Hackney …
The 2022 Conker Championship!
Sunday was a very exciting day! The return of the annual Hampstead Heath Conker Championship, banished for two long years by the pandemic. And the figures showed how much it had been missed – over 300 registered competitors and hundreds of spectators. Heath Hands also raised over £300 in donations and sales, launched the new …
On the heath and in the cemeteries
I realise that it is months since I reported on the goings on around the heath and in the cemeteries – so here we go with a quick round up. And while the weeds with which we battled throughout the spring are always with us, I am happy to say that we have now largely …
The garden at Hampstead Lane – stage 3 – autumn 2021 to summer 2022
The autumn of 2021 started well in the garden. My first thoughtless purchase of trellis to separate us from the garden at number 31 was replaced by proper fencing that I painted charcoal grey to match the back wall. Defying the builder’s predictions of destruction, I then splurged on three jasmine officianalis (two white and …
The garden at Hampstead Lane – stage 3 – autumn 2021 to summer 2022Read More