Today marked a glorious day for local tenants and residents who turned up in force to plant a long row of crab apple and amelanchier blossom trees along Derby Street. We were even joined by our local PCSO, Cathal Berney, dropping in on his day off, as well as a resident passing through from the Arbourthorne area. The effect of our work today is sure to create a beautful avenue of colourful blossoms along the street each spring, creating an eye catching entrance for visitors passing through the area in years to come.
This work was the culmination of several months of planning starting from when the T.A.R.A. was first formed in March of 2008. Ed Thatcher, Community Forester became involved in our meetings to advise on the varieties we could consider, and after consultation via our tara newsletter as well as a letter from Ed, we decided that November was the right time to go ahead to order our chosen trees and get them planted.
The day arrived, it was both sunny with some blue skies, along with a huge splattering of a cold wind chill. It was the kind of day which meant that if you didn't keep moving you'd quickly get cold. One tenant, Trevor, who is close to reaching his 70th, spent the whole day digging up and planting a number of trees; clearly a fit man who never stopped getting on with life. Carl, who is ex forces, was found recounting his wonderful stories on exercise doing daily marches and digging in trenches chest high every day for 5 days in a row. Fortunately, it was the trees we were digging in, and there were no tenants or residents to fight. Meanhile, Celine our secretary, seemed to be maintaining some sort of aikido stances whilst she was punching in the tree posts with the slammer whilst Krystyna, our Chair, idly watched by, recovering from her last ailments of a difficult bug.
In all, a wonderful day and a feat accomplished, there were a long row of trees in the open grassy area and no longer did Derby Street look bare as you cast your eye up the road. It wasn't hard to imagine how the street will look in years to come when the leaves blossom into wonderful colours of reds, pinks and white.
