Month: October 2022

We have had a busy summer, this month saw our AGM. It was great to see so many people in attendance, but here is a summary of the minutes for those that were unable to attend.

Brief summary of the year from the Chair:
Times are challenging especially with a new leadership team in government
obsessed on growth at all costs. As ever we must focus on the positives and continued local and achievable action.

We have a new County Councillor, Harry, a long-standing GW member who understands the climate change issues and there is lots of action being taken. We have a supportive Parish Council and a meeting is arranged with the new Chair later this week.

By all accounts Green Wedmore remains the most active climate group in Somerset, a huge credit to the team

AGM Business –
Thanks to David Bunt for all his hard work as Treasurer over the past 3-4 years. Welcome to Gail who has stepped up to take on the role and handover plans are in place.

As there are no new candidates standing for positions, the following have agreed to remain in role for a further year:
David Hopkins/Liz Burton – Joint Secretary
Sonya Bedford– Vice Chair
Steve Mewes – Chair

A brief summary from each of our Zero Carbon Groups can be seen below.

AOB

Tessa enquired whether any group was organising ‘warm banks’ in the
village. She stated that the Community Foundation could help with this. Steve explained that plans for this had been discussed and he would put Tessa in touch with the team

Vanessa has led two Cub group sessions at Worthington Woods working towards their Naturalist badge. All children can now identify 6 different species of trees and they were lucky enough to spot bats using the bat boxes.

Anthony has an abundance of empty jam jars if anyone would like some get in touch.

We had a visit from a bat flying around the Lady Chapel and Vanessa suggested seeking permission to put boxes up on the church/church yard.

Upcoming Events
Worthington Woods Work Party – 2-4pm Saturday 1 st October bring
tools/wheelbarrow/bucket
Freecycle – Village car park 10am Sunday 2nd October
Big Tidy Up – Meet at Borough House 10am Sunday 30th October
Repair Café – Village Hall 10am-1pm 26th November.

Next Meeting – Monday 31 st October 26 th 7:30pm at St Mary’s Church.

Following the formal meeting we had an interesting and informative talk from Tristan and Sophie from Food Forest Project about their work to date and future plans.

Plan Bee: help your local bees Honey bees and other types of bees are suffering a sharp drop in numbers, with serious consequences for the natural environment and our food crops.

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Bee Project

Plan Bee: help your local bees Honey bees and other types of bees are suffering a sharp drop in numbers, with serious consequences for the natural environment and our food crops.
Green Wedmore is working with local beekeepers to support bees in the area. We also have a DVD of an informative film called Vanishing of the Bees available for loan – contact Steve Mewes s.mewes@virgin.net or 01934 710530.

Here are top tips for helping honey bees:

• Plant bee-friendly plants – where there are few agricultural crops, honey bees rely on garden flowers for a diverse diet of nectar and pollen. Encourage them to visit your garden by planting flowering plants and vegetables. Go for the allium family, all the mints, beans and flowering herbs. Bees like daisy-shaped flowers – asters and sunflowers – and also tall plants such as hollyhocks, larkspur and foxgloves. Leaflets on bee-friendly trees and shrubs can be downloaded from www.britishbee.org.uk

• Join your local beekeepers – they welcome people who are interested in bees and beekeeping to observe apiary meetings in the summer, and they also run bee-keeping courses. Contact Liz Friend, secretary of Wedmore & Cheddar group of the Somerset Beekeepers Association; 01934 712771.

• Find space for a beehive – ask the local association if anyone would be interested in siting a hive in your garden. You could have a look inside with the beekeeper without having responsibility for the hive.

• Buy local honey.

• Ask your MP and MEP to lobby for more funds for bee health research.

• Don’t leave unwashed honey jars outside your door – honey brought in from overseas can carry bacteria and spores that are very harmful to honey bees.

• Bee friendly – if a bee hovers in front of you, don’t flap your arms about, but stay calm and move slowly away. Bees don’t like the smell of alcohol on people or the ‘animal’ smell of leather, while dark clothing can be seen as a threat – it could be a bear! Sometimes scented soaps, shampoos and perfumes can confuse bees.

• Protect swarms – they are nature’s way of increasing colonies of honey bees. Contact a local beekeeper and they will come and collect it.

• Encourage local authorities to plant bee friendly plants in public spaces.

• Learn more about honey bees – ask a local beekeeper to come and talk to your group, or visit www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk
   
  Pollen and nectar sources for bees

Bees collect nectar – a dilute solution of natural sugars produced by flowers – and pollen. The list below shows which species produce pollen and nectar and when.

The asterisks indicate main sources.

Feb Crocus, alder, laurestinus
Mar Willow*, blackthorn, celandine, flowering currant
Apr Laurel, gooseberry, plum*, dandelion*, cherry*, pear, rape
May Rape*, bluebell, sycamore*, apple*, maple, field beans*, cotoneaster, hawthorn, horse chestnut
Jun Raspberry*, white clover*, many garden plants and shrubs
Jul Lime*, blackberry*, willow-herb*, white clover*, sweet chestnut, fuchsia
Aug Blackberry*, willow-herb*, heather*, balsam, fuchsia
Sep Heather*, Michaelmas daisy, golden rod
Oct Ivy*
Nov Ivy

Finally! If you want to take a more active part in Somerset click here;