The Keep Britain Tidy organisation held The Great British Spring Clean 2018 on the weekend of 2nd-4th March.

If you had visited Three Cornered Copse on the morning of Saturday 3 March you may have seen 16 volunteers, suitably equipped with black bags, logo tabards and litter pickers, striding through the undergrowth and snaffling up the non-organic rubbish that had accumulated through the winter. It was a bitterly cold morning, and the snow was still on the ground in places, so a wonderful turnout, given the conditions.

Bottles, plastic bags, lighters, clothing, garden gates and drink cans were some of the items we collectively dragged over to Garry's (our Ranger) truck to take away for disposal. It was a busy weekend for Garry; other similar events were held around the city in other public spaces, parks and beaches included, with the Rangers in attendance.

In all we collected 20 or so plastic bags, encouragingly less than last year, (perhaps littering is decreasing?). The recent snow threatened to hamper our efforts. Only a few days before, the copse was full of families sledging down the slope on all kinds of items, and the ice was still hard-packed in places. It's amazing how much debris is left after a day of sledging. Parts of plastic trays, bin liners and other make-shift snow vehicles are evidence of the fevered desire to find a way of sliding down a hill on ice. Perhaps they added to our litter collection.

The easterly weather kept many regular visitors away from the copse in February and March. The mud froze as hard as concrete and made walking a little difficult on the icy paths. The cyclists seemed to be the only ones to relish the cold dry conditions. Reassuringly, the daffodils are starting to appear around the fringes of the wood, to share the cold ground with the snowdrops.

The bird activity has increased dramatically. Green woodpeckers seem to be active, and can be heard drilling into the high trees, the rattling sound echoing up and down the copse, when it's quiet.

Our Annual General Meeting has been scheduled on 3 May, in The Poets Corner pub (Smokehouse); all members are welcome, self-funded beer will be available.

Finally, we would like to thank all the volunteers who joined us for our Spring Clean day, and swelled our usual numbers; you really made a difference and made sure we weren't out for too long on that cold day.

Simon Baxendale