Mersey Basin Campaign Blog

The Cheshire Floating Garden Festival comes to Congleton Borough!!!

The British Waterways heritage boat Lindsay, will be florally decorated in an Alice in Wonderland theme using the talents of Chris Harrop a Bollington based floral designer and hanging baskets and tubs donated by local clubs and societies. It will depart from Bollington on 8^th June to arrive in Congleton on Monday 9^th June.

Come and join us at the first stop on the journey at the Queens Head Hotel in Congleton (Park Lane) on Tuesday 10^th June for an evening of folk music, CAMRA Award Winning Cask Ales and locally sourced guest beers, from 7pm onwards. Everyone is invited and encouraged to come down to this traditional English pub to soak up the atmosphere, visit the florally dressed boat, listen to the music and sample up to 7 quality cask ales.

The boat will then head down to Rode Heath for the fun filled Odd Rode Festival on Wednesday 11^th June from 4pm onwards. Activities to be confirmed are a bouncy castle, a brass band, refreshments, a tea party, dance troupes, stalls, music with much more in the pipeline.

For more details about the event and various events enroute from Audlem, Bollington, Sale and Trafford please see www.visitcheshire.com/floatinggardenfestival.

Manchester is my planet survey

Manchester is my planet are currently running a second survey to gauge what people across Greater Manchester think about climate change. The campaign surveyed the area last year, and now hope to compare the original results with this year's findings. To respond to the survey, CLICK HERE - there are some great prizes up for grabs, too........

BBC Bloom

The BBC have launched a new website aimed at encouraging people to make the right choices and lower their carbon emissions. 'Bloom' suggests actions you can take in every area of life to be more climate conscious. You just choose the action you're going to take, plant a 'seed' on your page, and watch the resulting flowers grow. Or bloom, I suppose.

You can search the actions based on easiness (the easiest is washing clothes at 30 degrees), cheapness (a cheap option, for example is to 'use your dress sense' to make your existing clothes last longer, while a more expensive action is to invest in an electric car), carbon rating (installing a biomass boiler wins on this front), and popularity on the site.

The site also aggregates BBC news on climate change-related issues, or you can search for audio or video content.

You can create a login for yourself in order to save your actions and watch your collection of flowers grow, and the fact that you can see what other users have been doing adds a nice sense of community. The site's in beta at the moment, so there aren't a lot of other 'bloomers' to compare yourself to, but it will be interesting to see how the site develops.

VISIT BLOOM AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK.....

Bethany's fishy poem

Pupils at Thorneyholme School have written poems with a fishy theme.

We are promised lots more, but here are the first few for you to enjoy:-

Canals 

Canals are quiet, canals are great,

Sometimes they have ducks sitting straight.

I saw a silver fish swimming by,

Then it said to me goodbye.

I heard a bird in a tree,

It sang a lovely tune for me.

I saw a frog saying Hi,

Then it caught a juicy fly.

The sun was setting.  It said goodbye,

It is time to go home I thought with a sigh!

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Billy's fishy poem

DOWN A RIVER

I saw a boat that actually sank,

I am upon the river bank.

I heard a splish and a splash,

Then a big bang and crash.

In the water I saw a frog,

It was sat on a river log.

I saw a shiny fish,

That wasn’t on a dish.

I saw a fish that did not fly,

Looking up at the bright blue sky.

The sun was going down,

Now my child do not frown.

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Oliver's fishy poem

The life cycle of the trout

Hello I am an alevin.

I only have a small fin.

My Dad is bigger than me.

I am smaller than a flea.

Hello I am a little fry.

I can hear a boy cry.

Now a car whistles by.

And I jump up for a fly.

Hello I am a parr.

Look at that man with the jar.

Look at that car over there so far.

Oh no I’m in the jar.

Hello I am a smolt.

Look at that man saying halt.

Oh look at that float.

Now I’m near a boat.

Hello I am an adult trout.

On no my son is in that boat.

Come here my smolt.

It’s not your fault.

You could swim down to the salt.

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Porpoise spotted on Bank Holiday Monday

Thanks to Paul who has emailed to let us know that he spotted three porpoise at Pickering Pasture, swimming upstream towards Runcorn Bridge. Good spot Paul. If you see any interesting wildlife on or around our waterways, let us know by emailing [email protected]