We held our Open Day on the 3rd, and spent the day showing people round the (suddenly very tidy) settlement area, chatting and eating Tony and Cheryll's superb cakes. We had a stall with information, a bottomless teapot and over fifty visitors to the woods.

The 14th August saw the arrival of planning permission! The Planning Inspectorate finally got back to us about our enforcement notice appeal, and surprised us with a positive result. We spent the day doing press work and updating the website, and generally forgetting to celebrate. We now have 5 years of 'lawful' living time here, after which we can apply for permanent permission. The conditions, which include us submitting a written report to the DNPA every year, can be seen on our press release; we have also posted the Inspector's full forty page report.

Pete and Cheryll made it down to the Langford Environmental Education Project Open Day on the 17th and spent a few hours eating and drinking and chatting and having a few attempts at music making. Their roundhouse shelter is looking great, and the huge woodworking bender we helped them build appears to have come in very useful.

(LEEP shelter and bender)

Our third Moreton Carnival Campfire Music evening proved to be a timely celebration of our planning success, and the beautiful night saw the largest ever gathering in the woods on Tuesday the 20th. It created a bit of a headache with our new planning conditions (only 10 visitors' vehicles on site), but we did ask for that one ourselves… A shuttle bus from Moreton cut the creative parking down to a minimum. It was a splendid occasion, thankyou to all who came and especially the musicians.

Pete and Cheryll gave their animal print an outing at the Carnival procession, highlighting the current global mass extinction and the catastrophic rate of species loss. With Pete a gorilla and Cheryll an Amur Leopard (only fifty left in the wild you know) they covered their bikes in bracken and retained the Dunsford Cup for the Steward Wood trophy cabinet - and this year there was even another costumed cycle entry.Shortly after the procession the woods were inundated with visitors from Betton - our twin town in France - and Dan bravely showed the inquisitive horde around on the 24th.

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The month ended off with a double outreach bonanza - Exeter and Tavistock having decided to hold their respective Green Fayres on the 31st. Pete and Cheryll stood behind a table in the very plush Bishop's Garden behind Exeter cathedral, while Beccy, Merlin and Dan created a solar powered internet link to the Johannesburg Summit, and stood around a table in Bedford Square.