

The website for Tewkesbury Lodge Estate Residents' Association
Today, February 14th, I saw my first butterfly of the year. It was large and lemon coloured and against the clear blue sky it was a thing to behold. Or that is what its behaviour was intended to impress upon male rivals and female potential mates. The Brimstone is usually the first butterfly of the year to emerge. Today’s one would have hibernated through the Winter in evergreen cover such as Holly or Ivy and then the sudden warmth of today’s weather would have awoken it from hibernation.
When the female is eventually fertilised, she will lay her eggs on the leaves of a buckthorn bush or small tree. These have small white flowers, thorns, and later in the year simple leaves and then black berries: beneath the bark the wood is yellow. The next time you wonder about removing a small inconspicuous shrub that is growing at the back of a border look out for the tell tale yellow below the bark. If it is a Buckthorn keep it, for the sake of the Brimstone.
And as our climate changes for the hotter, more of these delightful insects will survive the Winter and so become part of our Spring time garden life.
Stuart Checkley
A Cleaner, Greener, Safer Estate
How do we stop rat-running through the Estate?
Join us for our AGM at Horniman Primary School to discuss possible options and solutions, as well as hear the latest on our street tree initiative.
Light refreshments will be served. Doors open 6.30pm
TLERA Members should recently have received the December 2017 Newsletter through their letterbox. If your copy didn’t arrive then please contact your road representative. If you would like to join and support the association please email the membership secretary at membership@tewkesburylodge.org.uk.
Back by popular demand! Our second Carols by candlelight event will be held on Sunday, 10th December in the Triangle between Horniman Drive and Rocombe Crescent.
Our first Carols by Candlelight last year proved to be a great success with more than 100 TLERA members attending. A collection at the end raised £210 for the charity Crisis at Christmas. We were delighted that the feedback was overwhelmingly positive and that members were very keen for it to become an annual event.
So that is exactly what is happening! On Sunday 10th December, we will once again be gathering together to sing carols and other seasonal classics. The event will take place in the Triangle which will be festooned in festive style with fairy lights and candles. Mince pies and mulled wine will, of course, be provided.
Calling all songbirds and minstrels: -To ensure a rousing chorus, the singing will be led by a small group of songsters from the Estate and we are looking for vocalists and musicians who would like to join them. All abilities/levels of singing/playing are welcome – the only requirement is to enjoy Carols and other winter songs! There will be a meeting in early December to go over the programme, the date of which will be confirmed.
If you are interested in joining the group, do call Bea Jackson on 020 8699 7143.
Are you feeling listless, tired and bored? Lacking motivation and stimulation in your life? No reason to climb out of bed in the mornings? TLERA has the answer to your problem and can solve it at a stroke by enrolling you as one of their fully authorised and highly respected Tewkesbury Lodge Estate Residents’ Association road representatives, which will put you at the heart of the action in your corner of the Estate and restore your joie de vivre.
You’ll get to know all your neighbours, be first to hear the local gossip, news about social activities, prospective property sales, renovations, and developments, not to mention a host of other fascinating subjects. You’ll soon become a positive mine of news and information about your locality and at the same time will be supporting a valuable local asset in the form of TLERA itself.
We urgently need another road representative to cover the first part of Westwood
Park (the section between Honor Oak Road and Horniman Drive). If you can help, please get in touch on 020 8699 8432.