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