 Thank you to Friend Seekan Hui who has made a beautiful new poster for FOHC! This is a general poster, which we'll be distributing to noticeboards outside of the Common (where we can't easily update them each month). If you would like to help spread the word about the FOHC, please do download a copy below and share with your networks, or email us at [email protected] for print copies. We'd love to welcome new Friends! 
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Friends have worked with the Council and placed the above signs around the Common - you will have likely have spotted them! These are to help guide the Council's mowers as we refresh the cutting schedule for the grass and to make sure the right areas get cut and the right areas are left alone. Why? We're focusing on protecting areas of long grass and wildflower meadow, which in recent years have been accidentally mown. These are mostly areas around the fringes, which won't obstruct ball games/picnics etc. and leave pretty much the same space for recreational use as there currently is. Please find a map produced by our local ecologist here, which is what we're aiming for at the moment: https://wildbristol.uk/pages/horfield-common-wildlife-management-plan/ We've been working with the Council and a local ecologist in order to update the cutting schedule of the Common, which hasn't been amended since at least 2017. We held a consultation in December: https://fohorfieldcommon.weebly.com/whats-on/horfield-common-cutting-map-refresh This is very much a work in progress, so if you would like to get involved, I'd recommend attending our Friends meetings - these are usually every 6-8 weeks and details can be found on the What's On page. So much to celebrate that's happened at the Common in the last two months, we haven't had time to update! Your Park Volunteer Awards Dylan Peters, who is our local ecologist and champion of the Common's wildlife, and Lucy Haslam, FOHC's Co-Ordinator, were nominated for Your Park Volunteer Awards - with Dylan winning Young Adult Volunteer of the Year! Well done, Dylan - so very much deserved for all your hard work!! (Image from Your Park and more info can be found here at Your Park's site)  Horfield Common Wildlife Pond The pond is flourishing! As of April, we're seeing frogspawn, newts and even the calls of toads, so it's wonderful to see that the work restoring the pond has been so successful already! Hedgelaying Joe Aslett and his team, from Parks, have been really kind in undertaking the hedgelaying of the bush to the right of the pond. This lets in more light to the pond, as well as creating a more dense hedge that is great for wildlife. Thank you to them for supporting us with your time, skills and support with extra saplings! We had previously planned for this to be a volunteer activity but due to time constraints and snow, we had to plunge ahead. More hedgelaying of other areas will be arranged in future instead. Sign We have put up a rope and sign to please stay off the mud banks for now, to allow them to recover further.  Bulb planting from October It's wonderful to see the daffodil bulbs we planted at the Common, by the car park and the traffic lights, bursting out! Not quite as many in full bloom as you'd like, but some we planted in 2022 were similar and took a year to settle and show their colours. A promising start and thanks to everyone who joined in to plant them last year!    On Sunday, 17th March, local historian Andy Buchan kindly led another fully booked Horfield History Walk! Thank you to everyone for attending and their interest! From the use of the area as Common land, to the splitting of Gloucester Road, through to the barracks and air raid shelters of WW2, we were treated to a jam-packed overview of Horfield Common! Andy's group 'Bishopston, Horfield & Ashley Down Local History Society' meets on the third Tuesday of every month and always welcomes new members! Find further details of where they meet and the provisional 2024 program at their website: https://bishopstonhistorysociety.wordpress.com/ Thank you so much to Andy, for volunteering his time and energy for the walk! If you'd like to attend similar events in future, be sure to email [email protected] to join our mailing list.   FOHC had our Spring meeting! We discussed:
Full minutes can be found below:
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