One of the first items on ✓ Project Bucket List that I completed was thanks to getting involved with the Friends of Colwick Woods volunteer group. A community of individuals who all live in and around the area, many of whom got involved with mental health wellness walks during the covid lockdown period. Over time, it was shaped into a small but powerful movement, all focused around preserving and improving the area. I found out about them by looking through Facebook events for tree planting, and decided to just show up on that rainy Sunday morning to see what would happen.
When I arrived, I found a stack of shovels and wheelbarrows galore filled with tree saplings, all donated to the cause. I teamed up with a few gents who were regulars as friends of the woods, and we started planting these little saplings all around a pathway near some sports grounds, just on the outskirts of the woods. Everybody was beyond friendly, a really welcoming group of people, and we soon got stuck into a routine of digging up some space, popping a sapling down, and moving on.
What started as 3 of us soon become 20, then even more where I lost count! People brought dogs, and young kids who planted their first trees, then families came around just to stop and say hi.
All throughout the morning, people kept referencing JD, the organiser and chairman of the group. They spoke about how passionate he was, and about how much he’d done for the area, really built up this image of him as this god-like individual who could navigate government bureaucracy and get free trees while B&Q were selling them for £70 a pop.
When he showed up, I had a quick word with him – and folks, this is the type of person you want to know. Full on go getter filled with kindness who needs to learn to put his feet up, proper good bloke. JD stepped down from his role as chairman in late 2024, and moved somewhere else to go explore new projects, and I’m sure whatever he’s up to he’s going to have the same sort of impact, whether he plans to or not.
That key word at the end “direct action” is key here, and it’s driven me to look at another bucket list item in a new light, I’ll link it here when it’s done. Direct action inspires change, if you’re unhappy with the local area that you’re in, as most of us seem to be nowadays, what can you do, who can you rally to change it? What person do you need to speak to, to make change happen? What do you have to say to them?
I think at this stage, in the UK, most of us are pretty disenfranchised with government – so it’s up to us to take things into our own hands if we want change. Now before you start thinking I’m going all Guy Fawkes and rallying a revolution, I do literally just mean cleaning up the shit outside your place and trying to plant a few nice flowers. If you’re going to look at something every day, here’s to making it pretty!
Oh, and all in all, it was 500 trees that day. We planted 500 trees in one morning. Can you imagine how much the world would change if every town had a group like this?