January 2023

A happy new gardening year to you all!

It is bitterly cold right now, so I hope you have protected any precious tender plants.

Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ looking decidedly chilly…

We have already had our first meeting of the year, with wildlife expert Paul Knapp, who showed us many of the birds, butterflies, orchids and other wildlife that we might find in and around our gardens. This was well attended, it was lovely to see so many of our members again. If you would be interested in joining Paul on wildlife walks, you can find him on the Facebook group “Lot Wildlife”.

Celebratory meal at the Café de France

We also had a super celebratory meal at the Café de France in Montcuq. We missed some who had planned to come due to the road conditions, but we would definitely be happy to go back and have another meal there, so perhaps there will be another opportunity.

Coming up in February (Tuesday 14th) will be our all-important AGM, when you get to elect the members of the Admin Group. A number of us are stepping down from our roles, after many years of service, and some will be leaving the team, so we would welcome anyone who would like to get more involved. Our secretary Edwina will be sending out a invite, but you can also find all the information and forms here on the website, just visit the page https://www.cjl82.fr/annual-general-meeting/

Our guest speaker will be our member Tricia Geary, who will be talking to us about “Planting for Pollinators” another important topic in line with our theme of “Encouraging Biodiversity”.

From Actu Lot

Don’t forget to get your bird boxes ready for new occupants, also it’s a great time to think about creating a bug hotel .

Mésange bleue (Cyanistes caeruleu) – Crédit photo : Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)

We are certainly receiving lots of visits to our bird feeders right now, so am looking forward to participating in the annual bird count. – you can join in by visiting the LPO website

We look forward to seeing you at the AGM – if you can bring a home made cake, that would be fab!

Belinda xx