SNIPPETS

ENTENTE CORDIALE

We are a group of fifty students in the Department of Geoarchitecture at the University of Brest in Brittany. Each year during our course we study different questions relating to local, urban and environmental problems, and then make a trip to a foreign country to look more closely at these problems.

This year our main study was in Scotland, but because our tutor, Fred Bioret is a member of SEPNB and this organisation is twinned with Cornwall Wildlife Trust, we could not miss the chance to visit Cornwall and see the work of CWT during our trip. With the very precious help of Howard Curnow, who made the arrangements for us, we spent the night of 23rd April at the Delaware Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Gunnislake. That evening, under the guidance of our tutor, we spent an enjoyable evening tasting the different local beers in the pubs of Gunnislake.

The next day we visited the Cabilla nature reserve where we learned a lot about the work which the Trust is doing there from the ranger Steve Chudleigh. Our walk through the forest with Steve and Fred, our ecology teacher, was very interesting and informative. We were able to compare and discuss the differences and similarities in the problems faced in Cornwall and in Brittany.

This visit was a very good climax to our study tour and we are grateful to the Trust for permitting us to visit your reserve and to take up the valuable time of your ranger. Thank you.

Bruno Yvin

SYLVIA'S MEADOW

Sylvia's Meadow is the Trust's reserve at St Ann's Chapel, near Gunnislake. Designated as an SSSI, it is a particularly fine site for orchids. Like all of the Trust's reserves, it is open to the public - please call if you would like a list. Who Sylvia was I do not know
Nor whether once she loved to go
Across this field which bears her name
To view the spires of purple flame
Of orchids carpeting the grass
At every turn where now I pass;
And wealth of flowers of every hue
And butterflies and songbirds too
Upon this turf long spared the plough
Where all may share in beauty now.
Did Sylvia find such pleasure here
As we who hold it now so dear?

Michael Dundrow

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