let Gordy B know

just a quickie - been a bit light on the blogs of late - we're going to do another clean up day in May, but in the meantime you can help by signing Surfers Against Sewage's E-petition on the 10 Downing Street website. Digital democracy in action.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/marine-litter/sign

While you're there you can, if you are so inclined, sign the one calling for his resignation too.  You never know....might work http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/

bluebells, trees and regeneration

The blubells have started to poke through the scrubby woodland in Westfield Common that backs on to the beach - a sure sign of imminent May and warmer air. I spent the last week on a small boat bobbing up the Irish sea, with plenty of time to plan and scheme, and got back to news that Eastleigh council are looking to 'offload their assets'......including the common. For once this is good news. The plan is to give it to the local parish council who, in turn are keen to restore the woodland and to make it into a nature reserve. A decent and a proper approach to the beach that hopefully will get back to being a haven for wild flowers, rare shrubs, birds and invertebrates. ilovemybeach is going to get involved and we're going to try and make it something really special. Plans are forming and all will be revealed here first.

in the news

obviously, our beach clean has spurred the MCS into action - they released a new survey today that shows that the amount of beach litter has

increased by over 100% in the last fourteen years. No surprise to us but the government spokesman's reaction was predictably vapid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7987149.stm

pictures of clean up day

Chris the Utopian, dmtw and Christian rip the couch up for transport off the beachlitter pickers as far as the eye can see
Titch and Charlie - ace tyre movers
One of the impressive/frightening litter piles....it grew!

pictures of the day

Lucy has filled flickr with pictures - in reverse order - of the clean-up day, which did end in the King & Queen, but started at Hamble point....you just have to work your way back backwards.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovemybeach/sets/72157616283178327/

and the sun shone

So a massive thank you to all the forty-odd people who gave up their Saturday afternoon to come and show an unloved beach some love.

We were delighted that so many turned up; young and old, and together we hauled off one couch, ten tyres, one shopping trolley and over fifty bags of rubbish. I'll write a full report tomorrow, but the only sad thing was that we could only make it about half way down the beach. We knew it was bad, but I don't think any of us appreciated the scale and sheer volume of trash we would have to collect. There's so much more to do.

This is just some of the rubbish we pulled from less than half a mile of beach....

why are we doing it?

just a quick reminder why......because it's a lovely beach. And because it's covered in litter. Simple

Thursday update

Just a quick reminder that the beach clean-up is this Saturday! We've had great weather all week, but it looks like we may get a spot of rain on Saturday - typical! Please don't let this put you off though, it's still going to be great fun with free tea, coffee and cakes from Bonne Bouche and a BBQ at the King and Queen afterwards.

Please remember to bring some gloves and bin liners - unfortunately the council didn't deliver the bags and litter pickers today as promised.... hopefully they'll turn up tomorrow but it would be better not to count on it.

There is parking at Hamble Point but it is limited so we would encourage those that are local to walk down. There's always plenty of space in the marina if it's super busy.

Many hands make light work (and there's a lot of work to do!) so please persuade your friends and family to come along too.

Look forward to seeing you on Saturday.
Tim, Lucy & Harly.

all dogs welcome

Only a few days to go until our first little clean-up and it seems that we might get quite a few people......lots of requests to ask if they can bring children/friends/dogs. The answer is of course yes. The more the merrier. The weather forecast is looking a little dodgy, but we're hoping that the rain gods will look upon our effort as a good thing and take their clouds elsewhere.

In other news I was saddened to read that parents in the UK are now too scared to let their children play outdoors. To quote the BBc website "Natural England produced the survey, called One Million Children Outdoors, to launch a project encouraging children to visit the countryside. It found fewer than 10% of children played in natural places, compared with 40% of adults when they were young.Poul Christensen, acting chair for the organisation, said: "Children are being denied the fundamental sense of independence and freedom in nature that their parents enjoyed.

"Our research shows that contact with nature has halved in a generation and that the overwhelming majority of children now want more opportunities to play outdoors.

"Whether through pond-dipping or tree-climbing, nature-based activities can play an important role in the educational and social development of children."

He added: "The natural environment is there to be explored by children, it is their right. The memories they collect from it stay with them as adults and inspire them to pass on a healthy environment for future generations."

Chris Packham, naturalist and television presenter, also welcomed the new programme.

He said: "If a generation becomes detached from the natural world, it is in danger of becoming indifferent and whilst some skills are learnt in the classroom, others only come from being knee-deep in mud and elbow-deep in frog spawn.

"It is these early years of inspiration that set in motion a life-time passion. Today's young explorers are tomorrow's naturalists, biologists. If they don't learn how it works, how will they look after it for the future?"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7977065.stm