Seven Acres Nature Reserve Mr Bloom: Here and There

# Hello! My name is Mr Bloom

# And I'd like to come to see you soon

# I'm out on the road, you see

# Here and there, so that we

# Can get together and have some fun

# I'll help you out if there's work to be done

# So where is it you like to go?

# Call me up and let me know

# What is it you like to do?

# I'll pop along and do it too

# Cities, towns, the countryside

# I can travel far and wide

# I'm all about and everywhere

# I'm here and there

# Here and there

# I'm here and there. #

Hello! I'm Mr Bloom and I love going here and there

to find out where you live and what you like to do.

And today I'm in the north-west of England. Yeah.

Around this neck of the woods you've got places like Bolton, Bury,

Burnley, Blackburn, Blackpool.

Ha-ha, that's a lot of Bs, isn't it?

It must mean there's a real buzz around the place.

Shall we find out why?

There are gorgeous gardens with insects and flowers.

And happy horses grazing for hours.

Fabulous fish of all different colours.

And places where you can dance with others.

Oh, 'ey up. Today, I'm in a place called Seven Acres,

and it's a nature reserve in the centre of Bolton.

There's loads going on here. Earlier, they were pond dipping

to check the health of the water, and they grow a lot of vegetables.

That reminds me,

I met some tiddlers not far from here who like to grow veg.

-BELL RINGS

-Oh, the route finder heard me.

Here they are. That's Jack, Hester, and George.

And, you know, their school has an award-winning garden.

So I went along to meet them, and their feathered friends.

'At the tiddlers' school,

'their grown-ups built a brilliant home for their new ducks.'

There we go.

Good job.

So, Hester, can you tell me, why have you got ducks in your school?

Because the slugs will eat our vegetables.

They eat the slugs that eat your vegetables?

-What type of vegetables do you grow?

-We grow lots of different kinds.

-Would you be able to show me?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, come and see.

Hey, tiddlers, this is a nice patch.

What types of fruit and vegetable have you growing here?

We've got potatoes and onions.

-Right, so that's two.

-We've got radishes.

-We've got radishes, and we've got salad.

-That's four.

And strawberries, and rhubarb.

And that's six.

-And my beautiful cabbage!

-And your beautiful cabbage!

Ah, that's right,

we've got seven different types of fruit and vegetable.

My goodness me, it sounds like you've been busy.

'The grown-ups have been busy, too, so it's time for a garden feast.'

Well, tiddlers, I can certainly see why you love where you live,

cos look at this garden! It's lovely, isn't it? Yeah?

And these egg sandwiches, those eggs were laid by your chickens,

and the potato salad, and coleslaw,

those were all the vegetables you grew.

Hey, that potato salad was the bee's knees.

The same for those egg sandwiches.

Hey, have a look at these rolling hills.

They're rather nice, aren't they?

What type of animals do you think you might find in these fields?

Yeah, you might find cows or sheep, but we found some ponies.

Mm-hmm. Some very special ponies, at that.

-There's a lot of horses here, aren't there, Emma?

-Yes, Mr Bloom.

'Emma has brought me to a special home for horses,

'ponies and donkeys whose owners couldn't look after them.'

-Hello there, tiddlers!

-Hello, Mr Bloom. My name is Jonah.

Hello, Mr Bloom, my name is Harriet.

Well, it's nice to see you, Harriet and Jonah.

What brings you here today, Jonah?

-We're here to learn how to look after ponies.

-Really?

Is there one pony that you look after in particular?

-Fifi.

-Fifi.

-She's there.

-I look after Fifi, too.

-Is this Fifi?

-Yeah.

-Is there anyone else here that you'd like to introduce me to?

-Red.

-Red?

Right, well, shall we go and meet Red? Come on then, let's go.

'Red is a Shetland pony who lives at the stables.'

Hey, now, tiddlers, he's very small, isn't he?

Ooh, but look over there!

Look at that big horse!

And I wonder, tiddlers, do you know how you measure horses and ponies?

Do you know, Harriet?

Hands.

That's right, very good! You measure them in hands.

You measure a horse or pony to its withers,

a bit like our shoulders.

Red is eight hands high.

Ey! It was nice to see Emma, Harriet and Jonah

and, of course, Fifi and Red.

Those ponies have got a nice home now.

Do you see that big fella there?

Ey! He looks like a carp to me.

I bet there's loads of fish in that lake.

Eh, and that reminds me,

we saw loads of fish the other day when we went to Bolton Aquarium.

Ha-ha! Shall we take a look?

That's Ethan, Kirsten and Abby.

So this is the aquarium, is that right?

-TIDDLERS: Yeah.

-What have we got here?

Little fish from Burma.

From Burma?! They are very little, aren't they?

Wow! What else have we got down here?

Rainbow fish.

Why do you think they're called rainbow fish?

Because they've got all different colours on them.

They've got all the colours of the rainbow.

Oh, there's lots of shrimps living on the plants.

They look like they're doing a tap dance.

-Maybe they're eating.

-I reckon you're right, yeah.

And look, it's lunchtime for these fish too!

-They're eating grapes.

-TIDDLERS: Grapes! Grapes!

-That's not a grape.

-TIDDLERS: Cherries! Cherries!

He's eating cherries.

Wow. Those big pieces, they have to take little nibbles.

Can you see him?

Hmm-hmm! Me and the tiddlers, we had a cracking time

at the aquarium and the museum.

There was loads to do and they even had a library.

ROUTE FINDER PINGS

Oh, that's right, there's a beautiful old library nearby.

It's at a place called Smithills Hall

and I met some tiddlers who showed me round.

-Hello, Ben. Hello, Flynn.

-BOTH: Hello, Mr Bloom.

-Ha-ha!

It's nice to meet you here today.

Would you like a tour of the house?

You bet your wellied boots I would! Come on, you lead the way.

At Smithills, you can travel back in time

to find out what things were like in Victorian and Tudor times,

hundreds of years ago, including doing a spot of dancing.

And clap three.

Step back three.

And clap three.

Girls forward three.

And hop three.

Step back three.

And hop three.

Bow and curtsy to each other.

Well, I'm still here at Seven Acres in Bolton and I tell you,

it's a lot of work to look after a place like this.

Luckily, they've got some volunteers to help out.

Ey up, there. You must be the volunteers.

-ALL: Hello, Mr Bloom.

-Hello!

-Who have we got here?

-I'm Sasha and this is my brother Lewis.

Ah!

I'm Jack and I'm with my dad and Jim to do some big weeding.

Some big weeding? Ooh, er!

It looks like you've got your work cut out here.

But these big plants, they don't look that bad to me.

It's Himalayan balsam. It's come from a long way away.

And if we don't pull it out,

it'll destroy all the plants that usually live here.

Sasha's right - although this is a nice plant,

it should be going on Mount Everest rather than Bolton.

The Himalayas, they're a long way away from Bolton.

They are, and our wildlife prefers our native plants.

They can't really survive on these.

What things would you expect round here?

Bees and butterflies,

so we get a lot of caterpillars on our nettles.

If these plants aren't taken out, they'll compete over our nettles.

-You prefer to have nettles than balsam?

-Definitely.

That's funny, cos most people, they don't like nettles.

-You can get stung. But they can be quite useful.

-Definitely.

Yes, lots of insects live on nettles, such as peacock caterpillars.

We need to get rid of balsam. It's called balsam bashing.

We've got a mountain of balsam here.

Don't worry, cos I know some tiddlers who could lend a hand.

-What do you reckon?

-ALL: Yeah!

-And here they are.

-Are you ready to get stuck in?

-TIDDLERS: Yeah!

We could make a game of it, Mr Bloom.

Ey, that's a good idea, James. We could split into three teams

-and the winner is the one who bashes the most balsam.

-Yeah.

So this is the Himalayan balsam plant we're bashing.

You need to make sure we're only pulling this one out, OK?

When we're pulling it,

we bend down and we just simply pull it out like this.

And then we snap this bottom bit

below this last line, this last node, OK?

Then we're going to put it on our pile.

It's this pinky stem, and if you pop it with your fingers,

you'll hear it crunching, OK?

-CRUNCHING

-Shall we bash some balsam?

-TIDDLERS: Yeah!

-Your hands, let me see.

-TIDDLERS: Yeah!

-Gloves on hands?

-TIDDLERS: Yeah!

-And you've got your sun hats on?

-TIDDLERS: Yeah!

-Plenty of sun screen?

TIDDLERS: Yeah!

Then ready, steady, bash!

Right, in you go, Flynn.

Special delivery by Flynn.

Well done, twist it, like you're ringing out a flannel.

Look at the size of that!

What a whopper!

'The tiddlers make sure they only bash the balsam,

'leaving the nettles plenty of room to grow.'

Get ready for the gi...

Gigantic one!

-What have you got there, Ben? Is it a whopper?

-Yeah!

He's got a whopper!

It's a whopper!

Argh! Good work!

It ain't that big but it'll have to do.

Oh, tiddlers, look at this. There's three giant mountains of balsam.

Which is biggest? Which one's the winner, James?

Mr Bloom, I think Seven Acres is the winner.

Now we've cleared all this balsam,

all our native plants can grow - fantastic for our insects.

Well done, tiddlers.

To get involved in something like this at home,

ask a grown-up to find out what's going on near you.

A big thank you to you, Jack, Sasha and Lewis for inviting me.

I've had a cracking time.

Have you tiddlers had fun balsam bashing?

TIDDLERS: Yes!

Join me again soon, when I'll be...

ALL: Here and there!

Absolutely. Bye-bye!

ALL: Bye!

# Where is it you like to go?

# Call me up and let me know

# What is it you like to do

# I'll pop along and do it too

# Cities, towns, the countryside

# I can travel far and wide

# I'm all about and everywhere

# I'm here and there. #