Three Pigeons Lockdown Rescue Week 5 w/e Friday 29 May

Not just bumble bees, The Three Pigeons Plot is now alive with ladybirds, damselflys, butterflies and other invertebrates. And we haven't even built the insect hotel yet! Down the steps, the Thames is bringing even more wildlife including a visiting duck family, who seem happy to stop and provide feathery encouragement to our water-carrying.

Here are this weeks mini run-reports, with the focus very much on watering during this extraordinarily sunny May:

Saturday 23 May 6am. Harry & Anita. “No sleep ’til Pigeon”. Insomnia struck so Anita and Harry cycled down to the Three Pigeons at 6am for a couple of hours of early morning watering and weeding.

Sunday 24 May. Evening. Kate. I went on Sunday to do some watering. I didn't even get down to the water before the compliments started, someone told me they'd come down specifically to sit near the 'Poppy Garden' which is lovely. I was happy to see a few ripening strawberries, ladybirds & even a damselfly. Seems the public aren't the only ones enjoying the plants. After 20 odd trips for water, I did a round of the plot to collect stones. When I took them down to the river to wash them the Mandarin duck & her 6 ducklings came to see what I was up to. They weren't put off by me at all & came right up to my feet! :)

Wednesday 25 May 7am. Anita. “Buckets, bags, bins, bees and surfing ducks”. I picked up litter, bagged up the green waste and left it for the daily council collection and did a lot of watering. So many bumble bins enjoying the poppies. I watched a duck and three ducklings 'surf' in on a floating branch but didn't have my phone to hand for a photo.

Thursday 26 May. 8.30am. JP. "Bucket missed". Having spent the last few trips to 3 Pigeons heaving at weeds and poppies, I remembered I had a bucket! After detaching the mop-ringer from the top I headed over to the plot at 8.30am on Thursday with the bucket swinging from the handle of my bike, and once there got down to it (literally, using the steps down to the river to fill it up!. It had been pretty dry over the past few days so I felt a good drenching was in order, and as it turned out that was not just for the plants as many of my swings with the full bucket missed the plants and ended up soaking my legs and trainers - lucky I didn't wear my nice new ones :-) It was lovely to be out on such a bright and fresh morning, listening to a David Mitchell (comedian fella, not novelist) audio book and taking care of our beautiful flowerbed!

Thursday 28 May. Salwa. See Salwa’s Mission Report at https://www.goodgym.org/reports/oh-bucket-might-as-well-do-some-weeding-while-i-m-here

Friday 27 May. (am). Adam. “Bee-autiful”. On another gorgeous spring day in May, the sun beating down and the caffeine of the local Café Mimeo’s successfully kicking in, I set off to help water the stunning patch of flowers by the Richmond riverside.
The bees were once again there to greet me buzzing in earnest whilst on route to the poppies. I even witnessed the cows grazing in the picturesque fields. Subsequently, with the help of the River Thames high tide I was able to successfully fill up the water in my watering can without falling in. I then gave the flowers, most notably the poppies, some much needed refreshment one sip at a time. Overall a bee-autiful start to the day!