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Yesterday I got round to installing a plug-in to stop the spam comments that kept accumulating for approval.  Unfortunately, in clearing these all out, I managed to delete all bu one of the real comments.  Apologies.

My birder expert neighbour Paul told me yesterday that that single pitch note we could hear was a chiffchaff - a marker of an English summer. I’ll add it to the SE26 bird list.

I’m feeling a mixture of apprehension and excitement as an idea I had a few years ago seems to be developing a life of its own. The idea is simply to fit gardeners looking for bits of garden to bits of garden looking for gardeners, and the tern ‘LandFit’ will for the time being serve to fit the idea. But I make no claims for originality, not least since as soon as I started bouncing the idea around a few weeks ago, I was put in touch with someone (Bronwyn) who’d had much the same idea herself. Being very much a self starter, Bronwyn has organised a meeting near where she lives in Brockley, and it is this meeting that I am most immediately looking forward to, with aforementioned mix of apprehension and excitement.

For me the idea goes back a few years to when:

1. I saw a friend looking after a bit of ground in front of Penge East railway station. She wanted to put some plants in it, and the station operators were happy to give her a space to leave some tools
2. I read or saw something about Guerrilla Gardeners
3. I was managing the waiting list for my allotments

In simple economic terms, supply and demand weren’t matching, and the solution would amount to working out how to get permission for A to grow something on B’s land. Or rather on B’s land, but taking into account any number of other parties - neighbours, residents, managers, etc. But in addition, the problems of managing such a relationship would be significant, since many new gardeners - may be most - don’t have a very good idea of what gardening involves. This I know from my allotment experience.

The immediate trigger for reactivating these ideas was an announcement about Lottery grants for promoting local growing of food, so one evening I wrote up a few sides outlining the idea in more detail. Having done so I felt I had to test it in practice, so went round to a house three doors away - where I didn’t know the occupants - and proposed taking over there rather neglected front garden on an allotment like basis (i.e. I can grow things on it for myself). As much as anything I was interested in how they would react, and how the negotiations would proceed. The first question was how much I wanted to be paid - which made me think that this sort of scheme could at least be self financing. Subsequent (eventually successful) negotiations confirmed that these matters would generally take time. But I do now have somewhere to put some plants which otherwise would have gone to waste.

I don’t know exactly where we go from here. There clearly is a demand for space to grow things, even here in London, and policy makers make friendly noises. This won’t just be a Guardian reader fashion - a friend of a very limited income told me recently that the price in Peckham of a 10 kg bag of rice had recently gone up from £10 to £13.99. The more I think about the big picture, the bigger the picture seems to become, and yet whatever transpires, locally there is something to be done matching gardens to gardeners, and supporting would be gardeners. I’m not sure how much I can do, but it’s an interesting subject, to say the least.

A couple of conversations recently have reminded me of one of my dear departed mother’s activities, as described here in a contribution submitted to a scrapbook I compiled about her life:

Heather was always interested in teaching, but would never have been able to accommodate herself to any National Curriculum.  John Purves writes:

“A memory I have … is from the 1982 when I was deputy head at St. Barnabas School in Oxford.  Heather approached me one Wednesday night … saying “Look here, John, I’ve got loads of apples in our orchard, would you like me to come in and do something with them with the children?”  I replied “Well yes, Heather, that would be very good of you”, envisaging her turning up with a carrier bag full of apples and doing some cooking with a group of children

Imagine my surprise on the day appointed, when Heather turned up at 8.30 am with a very large Volvo full of sacks and sacks of apples.  By 10.00 am the whole school and nursery of approx. 180 children had been taken over by Heather, staff relinquishing control in amazement as this woman flew from class to class setting in motion the mass production of apple juice, apple pulp in Kilner Jars (of which she appeared to have an endless supply) apple pies, apple cakes, apple rings and apple cubes packed into jars and topped with Vit. C. solution, and the vegetable waste organised into a compost heap.

With no national curriculum to worry about no other work was done that day other than that required by the weighing, recording, timing and labelling of the apple products, tables full of which greeted the amazed parents as the collected their children, plus products at the end of the day.

The de-conversion from a fruit-processing plant back to a primary school was accomplished with equal efficiency and cleanliness under Heather’s firm instructions.  The sacks in which the apples arrived were washed and stocked in the back of the Volvo and it drove out of the school gates at 4.30 pm; an eight hour day immersed in apples.

The teachers recovering from the onslaught agreed that it was as if some wonderful whirlwind had hit the school for eight hours and then gently placed it back where it had found it.  But perhaps the experience was best summed up by a little lad who came up to me the following day and said “Sir, when is that mad-apple-lady coming again?”

I find untended gardens mildly distressing - a combination of thinking that whoever is responsible for them is missing out, and seeing them as somewhere I could put in surplus plants from my own garden.  Nothing would have come of it, however, if I hadn’t heard from a couple of sources of lottery funding for schemes to promote local food growing.  I’d wondered some years previously about how it might be possible to match people who wanted to do some (or more) gardening, with bits of garden that needed gardeners, but not done anything much apart from bounce the idea around a bit.  In any case, I had a full time job, and so not much time. But no longer, thanks largely to the sub-prime loans crisis, and so a few weekends ago I started trying to work up the ideas more fully.  As I got to the end of a first draft, I started to wonder if it wasn’t all a fantasy - so what better way of finding out than to go three doors down my street and pitch the idea to the occupiers of a house with such an untended garden.  And I really did want to find somewhere to put a dessert gooseberry I’d just been given, and they do have a nice south facing wall it should appreciate …

I wasn’t exactly surprised by the cautious reaction, since this was the sort of thing I had been thinking about - how to present the idea, address likely concerns.  However, I felt that even if nothing did come of it, it was interesting to have made contact, and learned a bit more about my neighbours.  But now I have the go ahead, so I guess next week I’ll be getting down to shifting some earth and rubble, digging out a load of couch grass which has invaded some lawn laid optimistically a few years ago.   As well as the gooseberry, I have a couple of dessert grape vine cutting which have taken.  Well let’s see what happens …

I should hardly be surprised that my postings to date here have got this blog categorised as about Sydenham and local affairs. Maybe sometime I’ll try to break the mould by writing about my super cool Excel Sudoku solver but for the time being, anyone who has been kind enough to bookmark this blog may be expecting something about becoming the Chair of the Sydenham Society. I don’t feel there’s much I can write for the time being except that it really is an incredible honour, and getting myself up to speed with what is going on with the Sydenham Society is taking precedence over blogging. I’ll probably put up something along the lines of what I said at the AGM about how - I think - I came to be the chair, but it’s not quite blogging material.

There’s also the matter of my allotment association AGM last Sunday, when rather more than I really wanted I came across as the Mr. Nasty of the committee - in essence saying that the committee had to be able to exercise powers that many members would not like.  Even though a voluntary organistion, we still have real responsibilities, like managing perimeter fences, tackling problems of theft and vandalism, and dealing with members who are not looking after their plots properly, not making any other reasonable contributions, or generally making the life of the committee difficult. We have to recognise that there will be conflicts, and be ready for them.  Being encouraging and welcoming on their own just isn’t enough.  All potentially sensitive, so I don’t want to say much more - even though it is quite interesting.  It’s liable also to spin off into a whole lot of political theory …

Well, that was a nice way to start a weekend - sunny and not too cold. About twenty five people and several pairs of binoculars. I’m going to leave it to Peter to comment with the complete list of birds seen - he has a record from not just this but also previous years’ walks. Two new species to add to the list of birds seen in Sydenham:

• Stock dove
• Fieldfare

For the rest recently seen in SE26, see the previous post - which I guess I should organise better now, and which might in due course turn into a contribution to the Sydenham Society newsletter / web site.

My favourite on this walk was probably the nuthatch. I’m so impressed by the people who can pick out birds by their calls - great tits, greenfinches, nuthatches. Doubtless not that impressive to serious birders, but to the extent I can identify them, I feel that much more awake when out and about. Of course, while at the front the more attentive of us were peering up, arms stretched out saying - “Just gone behind that branch - oh no, there he is, just flown off!” the less attentive at the back were getting on with their serious SydSoc networking.

Watch this space for another bird walk led by Paul, South Norwood Country Park, sometime in May, with chiffchaffs and warblers guaranteed.

And, thanks to Peter, yesterday’s complete list:

• starlings (nesting in oak tree)
• wood pigeon
• blackbird
• carrion crow
• blue tits
• gt spotted woodpecker (drumming)
• mallard ducks
• jay
• gt tit
• magpie
• greenfinch
• robins
• parakeets
• nuthatch
• fieldfares
• stock doves

Cycling through the Isle of Dogs recently, I got no satisfaction from this TfL poster.

I’d prefer a version where the yellow on the right was a cyclist with a hi-viz top, and the caption ‘Loose your licence speeding … and get fit at last’ A much more positive, healthy message …

Is there something about the British and birds? If there is, it’s something I share, even if not to the extent of real birders - who I seem to keep coming across locally. I recently read the Jenny Uglow biography of Thomas Bewick, and was left wondering about his role in our cultural history. But that sort of wondering would make this post too wordy; let’s just get down to a list of birds seen in Sydenham, which I hope those local birding contacts of mine will expand by posting comments. I did a quick search on the Sydenham Town site and found no evidence of anyone doing anything similar, and the results of the BBC / RSPB Big Bird Watch seem to be broken down only to Greater London. There are some fantastic pictures of SE26 siskins here, however, on a personal Flickr site.

So, roughly following journalistic principles of the most interesting first, birds I’ve seen or been told about being seen locally since 2007:

As of lunch time updated with the list of one of those birders, Peter. Some of these I should have remembered myself. Peter also saw a flock of lesser Redpoll - but only in March 2004.

And three new to add by supper time - thanks John & Hilary

And three more following 2008 Mayow Park Bird walk (two seen then, one reminded)

Just remembered that Tom told me he’d seen a snipe, while some years ago Paul saw a crake while in Lewisham Hospital. Could have been the drugs, though.

• Water rail - (Thanks to Tom, who I see along the River Pool with his binoculars for this and the next three)
• Little egret
• Kingfisher
• Snipe
• Reed bunting
• Siskin - (Thanks Phil and Tom)
• Grey wagtail
• Goldcrest
• Nuthatch
• Owl (tawny, I presume) - Thanks juwlz of Sydenham Town Forum
• Pied wagtail
• Swift
• House martin (SE13 - and SE26 too - thanks Peter)
• Green woodpecker
• Mistle thrush - (Thanks to Paul, leading the Mayow Park 2007 Bird Walk for this)
• Song thrush
• Redwing
• Fieldfare
• Cormorant (SE13)
• Greater spotter woodpecker
• Lesser spotted woodpecker
• Moorhen
• Coot
• Mallard
• Heron
• Sparrowhawk
• Kestrel
• Wood pigeon
• Stock dove
• Feral pigeon
• Collared dove
• House sparrow
• Dunnocks
• Blue tit
• Great tit
• Long-tailed tits
• Wren
• Jay
• Magpie
• Crow
• Black header gull
• Herring gull
• Starling
• Blackbird
• Robin
• Chiffchaff
• Chaffinch
• Greenfinch
• Goldfinch
• Blackcap
• Willow warbler
• Parakeet

I nearly forgot the plug for the 2008 Mayow Park Bird Walk, led by Paul, 7.00 Sat 29. March. See you there?

The British Trust for Ornithology has a superb professional site with animated maps for different species, and a local list of the sort I’m imagining here - but unfortunately only as local as the whole of Greater London.

I went to the inaugural Sydenham Assembly meeting last Thursday - about which there’s a good discussion on the Sydenham Town Forum. (There may also be reports of it elsewhere on the web, since I noticed some rather aggressive young man with a film camera saying how he was going to produce the site for Sydenham, and how useless the Sydenham Town site was for having ‘Latest Features’ on its front page dating back to 2004. Maybe he has a point, but maybe he’ll work out one day that co-operation sometimes works better than conflict.  Click here for Sydenham Town on this.)

Going to the meeting made me think about how I moved to Sydenham in 1999, having previously been involved with various civic things where I’d lived in Peckham, and then got rather fed up with organising and attending meetings; when I came here I resolved to stick to cultivating my garden, earning a living, and raising a family. I did attend one meeting of the precursor Sydenham Community Regeneration Partnership (SCRP), witnessed what looked like the same pattern, but now as an outsider, and saw Chris Best doggedly and imaginatively doing the sort of things I’d tried to do. I admired her, but did not feel like going back there.

But I did go back in a small way, being talked into joining the committee of my allotment association, and there found (and still find) an established commitment to doing things in the community (like organising Open Days), and a similar commitment to democracy and openness. How many people will believe me in this? I know some who won’t - people who have been annoyed by some decision we have taken, and will see some hidden forces at work. At last year’s AGM I put forward a motion to deal with polytunnels on the site, for which I’d spent a lot of effort trying to work out a compromise between people who wanted to grow more, and people who wanted the site looking more attractive. We had messed up in allowing somebody to put up a polytunnel, and were getting flack from all sides. When it came to the vote, the motion was defeated overwhelmingly. Somebody then commented that the committee wouldn’t listen anyway - which was the only thing about the whole business that actually annoyed me. Of course we were going to accept an AGM motion. Later I spoke to one of our members who I knew had been upset by the polytunnel and said - “Look - we did listen. Your voice was heard.” She replied telling me how hard it had been for her to get up in front of our 40-50 members there and say what she thought. I thought how easy it is for those of us used to making our voices heard to forget those who don’t, and why, because of this, the traditional formal processes of democracy are a good thing.

On the other hand, we all know they can be manipulated, and they’re not very efficient, which part explains the level of distrust. I can remember as a student being driven by boredom out of meetings at which far left poseurs ended up renaming part of the college after Ho Chi Minh. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them have since become highly paid management consultants, and now prefer a way of doing things whereby those who have wormed their way to the top of some corporate ladder are able to impose their fantasies on the rest - the sort of people New Labour seem to admire so much.

But now, here in Sydenham, we have Chris Best obviously, sincerely, trying to get local voices heard, and trying to overcome ingrained cycnicsm. This is what I’m sure the Sydenham Assembly will be, and what the SCRP seemed to me to be, even though, with necessary formal structures it had accreted, I didn’t feel up to participation in it.

In many ways the event itself was rather chaotic, but overall I think it was a big success. I don’t think the people planning the devices for getting people to express their ideas know much about the local context, or maybe the number of people who were going to come along - a reflection of the effort Chris had put in over the years in engaging with local groups, and to publicising the event and the fact that there is no room in Sydenham big enough for all the people who turned up. (BTW, apologies to other local councillors and other people if I’m giving undue credit to Chris here.) So it was that the slightly ridiculous system of more or less randomly giving us a label with a table name on to sit at - and there by get us to mix up, and break out of any groups with came with - pretty well completely failed, at least on the table I dutifully went to, which was occupied by a friendly group of pensioners (all women) from a Reminiscences Club, funding for which was under threat.

The facilitators - if that’s the right word - then produced a load a waffle about the wonderful buzz that there was in Sydenham, which was probably their way of saying they were completely overwhelmed, but just sounded platitudinous to me. We were required to appoint a table spokesperson, to administer the opening of three envelopes with instructions about what to do next, and which were designed to identify good and bad things about the area, and what to do about them (with the hope that we’d come forward and volunteer something we could do). I’m afraid I got appointed our table’s spokesperson, and nearly lost my voice trying to explain over the hubbub what we were meant to do - not helped by the fact that the instructions didn’t entirely make sense. At least we had some light relief as the room heated up and I took off my sweatshirt, producing predictably raucous comment from the OAP gang.

I think we managed to make the process work a bit, and what came out from our table was a need for things to help get them out of their front doors - opportunities for company, public space with things to do, and people around so they would feel safe. They didn’t mind the traffic as long as it didn’t go too fast (with particular mention of police cars); I also wondered how they felt about lycra clad cyclist (i.e. me, sometimes); not a problem, although they’d approve more if I’d wear a helmet. But that’s another issue …

So then the spokespersons from each table summarised the table’s concerns, which produced a good overview of the sort of concerns that might be expected - the state of Sydenham Road, provision of youth services, etc. Ours seemed to be the table with the strongest OAP agenda. Other tables reports probably reflected similar biases resulting from groups who all knew each other not having been broken up as envisaged.

Then at then end we had Chris calling for volunteers to a steering group to represent pre-defined agenda headings, such as environment. I think it was fairly obvious that some prior suggestions had been made, and it was a bit embarrassing when volunteers to represent the environment resolved into an exchange between me and Alona of the Sydenham Society, and my impression is that this provoked comments that things were being managed. Someone with a well worked agenda to do with pedestrianising part of Sydenham Road (I’d heard him go on about this at a consultation orgainsed by Living Street) was unhappy about being overlooked when it came to representing transport, which provoked somebody else to get up to criticise him as someone not to be listened to, because he had this particular obsession, which was completely outside the mainstream thinking. It was the sort of conflict which so many people will in the first instance try to avoid (and in so doing allowing democracy to be manipulated). I don’t think it bothered Chris at all, but doubtless the individual concerned has his belief in a local establishment fix up reinforced.

But I suspect that getting a voice for youth was always going to be more of a problem; some kids were putting themselves forwards, but I got the impression that Chris didn’t know them, and couldn’t know how they would operate in the proposed steering group, with its inevitable more formal processes. If they were to drop out - not an unreasonably fear - her group would end up without any youth representative. What do you do about this? Well, you could see Chris thinking on her feet, and a compromise emerging with both these kids and whoever it was to be involved. If, like me, you believe that the sometimes utterly tedious formal processes of local democracy and meetings are necessary, then this has to have been the right solution, and if those kids get to see how these processes can achieve something (probably not as much as they hope) then they’ll have learned what I learned when I first got involved in these sorts of things in Peckham.

Given the table I’d been on, I also noticed that there didn’t seem to be a representative for older people, so I commented on this, and got thanked for it by some of others on the table; like my friend from the allotment who didn’t like polytunnels, they would have found it very difficult to speak up in front of so many people. Why did Chris not have a representative for OAPs? Maybe because the active citizens she was getting to come forward were already mostly over 50 (me, for example); maybe because it matters more to the future of democracy that young people are involved.

One area where the Sydenham Assembly clearly did manage better than our allotment association was reflecting Sydenham’s ethnic balance. I’m not going to get unduly consumed by liberal guilt about this, but I was struck by seeing three of our afro-caribbean members who I rarely see at events on our site. One of them, Caroline, talked about the racism she had encountered on our DVD, and is I guess reconciled to its continuance at some reduced level. Is she right to live and let live? Are we?