News

Blossom Day celebrations in April 2021

14th April 2021

On Blossom Day, Sunday 11th April, we broadcast on YouTube at 3pm. With an introduction from the Mayor of Hounslow, Councillor Tony Louki, and live input from local residents, everyone is invited to hear about the history of the cherry trees on Staveley Road, to learn how we are looking after them for future generations and see how cherry blossom is celebrated around the world. There are songs from local band, BGM, and of course we announced the results of the Haiku and Poem competition. Please catchup online at https://youtu.be/4bp5dpGScR8

9th March 2021

We have decided it would be prudent to hold our Blossom Day Festival online this year. The main activities will be held on Sunday April 11^th and details will shortly be released. However, our Haiku and Poem Competition for those under the age of 19, which was such a success last year, is already open and entries must be submitted by April 2nd. Visit the Poetry Competition page for details, including rules and entry form. Winning entries from last year can be found here.

We are very excited to be able to offer a Haiku workshop this year which will be run by Iliyana Stoyanova from the British Haiku Society. This will take place via Zoom on the morning of Saturday April 10^th. Full details can be found on the Haiku Workshop page. This is open to adults and children and is free of charge. Places are limited so follow the Eventbrite link to book now.

The Mayor of Hounslow visits Staveley Road to plant a new Prunus Kanzan sapling

3rd December 2020

To mark National Tree Week, we were delighted to welcome Councillor Tony Louki, Mayor of Hounslow, to Staveley Road to plant a new tree for us. Our youngest sapling is in front of the V2 memorial and therefore very close to our oldest tree. We now have a total of 95 Prunus Kanzan on our beautiful avenue. (Thank you to Hounslow Highways who in early 2021 replaced trees and planted more - we now have 99 Prunus Kanzan.)

Blossom Day W4 support for Chiswick Book Festival 2020

September 2020

In Spring 2020 we were privileged to have Chiswick Book Festival's support in helping us develop, publicise and judge our Blossom Day W4 Haiku and Poem Competition. As part of the prize, our 6 winners were promised the opportunity to join a Children's Poetry Writing Workshop at the 2020 Chiswick Book Festival which is running from 10th September to 16th September, 2020.

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year the Festival has moved online, with sessions taking place on video, Zoom and in podcasts. Instead of selling tickets, Chiswick Book Festival is relying on sponsorship and donations.

Blossom Day W4 is therefore delighted to be sponsoring 2 Chiswick Book Festival events which chime with our own mission to celebrate and conserve London's most beautiful avenue of cherry blossom trees on Staveley Road. Our sponsorship has been funded by a generous donation to Blossom Day W4 by an anonymous supporter who wanted to make sure our prizewinners got their promised opportunity of a poetry writing workshop

Firstly, we are sponsoring Josh Seigal's Children's Poetry Workshop. Josh is a poet, performer and workshop leader who has taken his critically acclaimed poetry shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We warmly encourage our own 6 prizewinners and Chiswick's many other blossoming young poets to watch and enjoy this video.

We are delighted also to sponsor Grove Park poet Susan Lee Kerr who will be presenting her new collection of haiku at the Local Authors' Event, to be screened Wednesday 9 September. As well as the book "The Walk Home", Susan has written about the Staveley Road blossom:

'how would I see the wind

without the fallen petals'

Full details of the Chiswick Book Festival programme can be found at Chiswick Book Festival Online.

Susan Lee Kerr	The Walk home
Susan Lee Kerr	Susan's book, The Walk Home

Blossom Day Street Party now postponed until April 2021

April 2020

The Blossom Day W4 Steering Group closely monitoring Government and Public Health England advice concerning Covid-19 (coronavirus). Above all we were concerned not to cause harm by spreading the virus. We therefore took the difficult decision to postpone the Street Party until April 2021. However, as a sign of hope at this difficult time, the Haiku and Poem Competition went ahead. You can see the prize winning entries on our poetry gallery.

And, despite Covid-19, the blossom returned to Staveley Road this spring in all its beauty and we posted photos and updates on our photo gallery.

A local band BGM recorded this lovely blossom song to go with the photos. The song was recorded under social distancing and isolation rules in April 2020.

We want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all who have been so supportive of our work to ensure the 91 cherry blossom trees can survive and thrive. Thank you to our corporate sponsors, Fuller’s London Pride and Horton and Garton, our community sponsors, Grove Park Group, St Michael's Church, Chiswick School and Chiswick Book Festival, plus the Good Gym, prospective stallholders, volunteers and all our residents. We look forward to working with you all again later this year to plan for Blossom Day 2021.