The Friends met last night 25th February to listen to an illustrated talk by Mark Hanson on Essex Parks. Mark Hanson is the president of the Essex Field Club and has just published a new book on Essex Parks with an emphasis on Hylands Park, but packed with information on both the history and natural history of parks throughout Essex. Members expressed their appreciation and Mark has agreed to return in the summer to take a guided walk around the park dealing with the parks landscape features and especially it's trees.
Following the talk members agreed to organise a programme of events for the coming summer. It is felt that in the park needs to be brought back into regular use and guided tours of the local flora and fauna would be the ideal method of doing so.
There will be Sunday afternoon guided walks dealing with Birds, Flowers in the meadows, and Don Tait's local history. There will also be a mid week evening visit with John Dobson, a specialist in bats. The next indoor business meeting will be after Easter; this date and all the other dates will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.

We received news from Jeff Stafford that the "Pop Concert" organisers had withdrawn their plans, so there will be no concert this year. Let's hope if they ever consider another concert that they get their PR organised first. We are still waiting to hear from them following a personal promise from the organisers made some two months ago!
We are all geared up for our litter pick this weekend 28th/29th, meet in the main car park at 10.30 on either of these days, spend as much or as little time as you can spare; it all helps.