I photographed this sycamore, Acer pseudoplatanus, last winter and have looked at the perfect sycamore shape on screen and on the farm, regularly through the summer, and found myself pondering about how trees become tree-shaped and how or even why a sycamore is sycamore-shaped whereas an English oak, Quecus robur tends to be oak-shaped. I know there’s loads of variation within […]
Until last weekend I’m not sure I believed in mangelwurzels. I’d heard of The Wurzels and was aware of hearing people refer to roots as mangles; but now I know the truth. A mother and son team in the village who grow vegetables to an olympic standard and scale called recently to offer us mangelwurzles as cattle […]
Here I go again – droning on about the weather. It’s a cliché I know; but if the weather doesn’t actually rule our lives, it’s a pretty powerful aristocrat. The spring of 2011 was hot and dry around here, which meant our cattle were out on grass without danger of poaching soft ground. However, the grass […]
Last week we had a trip to Northamptonshire to visit Caroline Church and Hugh Ross who own, manage and live in Rawhaw Wood. Trading under the name Hazel Woodland Products, Hugh and Caroline, were kind enough to spare a couple of hours to show Jane, myself and our friends and makers of things, Martin and […]