Friends of Rowntree Park -April newsletter

Happy April everybody!

Rowntree Park is full of the signs of spring!  The Cherry Plum blossom near the lychgate won't be with us much longer but the Blackthorn blossom and Cherry blossom won't be long!  If you take a close look you'll find a range of wild flowers popping up including Dog Violets and the Snakes Head Fritillaries - so much to see!

Read on to find out what we have been up to and what's still to come! As always - thank you so much for being a member and supporting our charity who help look after the park and run community events and activities.

The next public FRP meeting is Thursday 27th of April 7-8.30pm at the Park cafe - all welcome.

Make Space for Girls - June programme of events

The Rowntree Park 'Legendary' Easter Trail and Rowntree Park Rocks!

Join us on Thursday 6th of April for Easter fun in the park. Search the park for clues to help the Easter Bunny find her missing pal and earn a reward for all your help. Children will collect a trail sheet to find hidden clues around the park to help solve the missing bunny mystery. Once solved, they can return to find the bunny and receive a small reward for all their hard work. This has always been a popular event as a lovely way to have fun together with family and friends exploring nature -bring a picnic and make a full day of it!

In order to cut any queuing for sheet time - we are advising people book in advance. Trail sheets can be returned any time up to 1pm to receive a prize. Only £2.50 per child. Book here.

We also launched 'Rowntree Park Rocks' on Saturday 25th of March and it is running until Thursday 6th of April.  You can find painted rocks hidden around the park - take a photo, share with us and re hide.  If you find a GOLDEN ROCK then hang onto it and bring it to our Easter Trail on Thursday 6th of April to claim a prize (2 golden rocks hidden each day!) We hope you enjoy this fun project created by our Thursday night craft group. All ages welcome to get involved.

Rowntree Park in Virtual Reality - we want you to be part of a 'tester' focus group?

Adult Nature Walks

Branching Out - free nature writing workshops

General updates

• Celebrating Seasonal Shifts - Spring Equinox/Ostara event - We had a lovely time celebrating the spring equinox with a range of adults crafts including spring wreath creating, egg candle making, making smoulder sticks and Hapa Zome (nature printing) -a couple of photos below. The next event to celebrate seasonal shifts will be in on Tuesday 2nd of May (a day after 'Beltane'). You can book now.
• Craft group -  our Thursday craft group have been busy painting rocks for Rowntree Park, and they will also be hosting a cake stall at the easter Trail event on Thursday 6th of April. Pop by and pick up some cake! 
• Tree Planting - we have had some new trees going into the park planted by the Environment Agency. However, a few of your have noted some are unsupported and on angles and others not quite central. You are right! The council is in chats with the EA about getting this sorted. All the species being planted are native and flood resilient .
• Wildlife Area - our small group of volunteers meet some weekends and always welcome new people to help with this area. We need to focus on the pond, bog garden, rockery and wildflowers. You can sign up to get involved here.
• Plant donations - thank you to the kind people donating plants to us! If you have anything you'd like to see if we can take- drop lead volunteer gardener, Stu, an email : gardening@rowntreepark.org.uk
• Seed swaps - if anyone is interested in a potential 'Seed Swap' or 'Plant swap' sessions - get in touch.  This is something we could host at Rowntree Park and could be a great way to get new things and chat with likeminded individuals. If any one is interested in helping organise such a thing - even better! ( Abigail at hello@rowntreepark.org.uk)
• Pond life - you may have noticed a range of frog spawn in the ponds and lakes. Just a reminder not to remove this - please look at it and enjoy the changes though. We tend to run some pond dipping sessions, so keep an eye out. Also there are resources in creatin to help you learn more about pond life.
• Gardening - our gardening volunteers are meeting again regularly. we welcome new volunteers to come along to the Monday, Thursday and Friday morning sessions. register interest here. 
• Goose update - Our newly formed goose team and working on ways to try and encourage less geese to make the park their home. Less geese means less poo.  A gentle reminder to please not feed the geese. We have opened up the option to volunteer to join the goose volunteers on our volunteer registration form.  If interested in volunteering, register here. 
• Monthly Neurodiverse Family Forest School  -  These small group outdoor sessions are running monthly and are aimed at families experiencing neurodivergent conditions such as autism, ADHD and anxiety (diagnosed or otherwise).  The April session sold out fast,  but May and June are open for booking.

Events and Activities in Rowntree Park 

Forest School (2-5 year olds) - Friday's
We are operating a waiting list for Friday Forest school places (age 2-5).  If you'd like to be amongst the first to find out when spaces become available, then get in touch with Christine at education@rowntreepark.org.uk 

Events with outside providers:

Tai Chi
Takes place every Saturday and Wednesday morning in Rowntree Park - in the Friends Picnic Garden 9-10.30am.  For more information contact Richard - siwiaks@hotmail.com 

Move the Masses - wellbeing walks
The second Tuesday of each month 1.30-2.30pm, you can join MTM for a free wellbeing walk around Rowntree Park. This is aimed at older or less physically able people who want to get some fresh air and get moving, all with some good, friendly company. Meet under the cafe. For more info contact: libby@movethemasses.org.uk

Music with Cath Smithson
These popular music sessions for children are taking place on Thursday mornings in Rowntree Park. For more info contact: cathsmithson@live.com

Would you like to run events in the park? You may want to hire the space and run an event/activity, OR may be you want to run an event in conjunction with the FRP.  More info contact Abigail to find out more - hello@rowntreepark.org.uk

Key information regarding Rowntree Park.

The council manage Rowntree Park. That means they have overall responsibility.  Things like health and safety, toilets, opening/closing etc are down to them. The Friends of Rowntree Park do fund and maintain some areas of Rowntree Park, run a volunteering programme and a range of community events and projects, as well as overseeing bookings for the park. We are the link between the community and the council.  

Please note that the Tennis Club, and York Explore Café and Library are separate from the Friends and they operate their own areas and generate their own income. Please contact them directly if there are any questions about what they do.