Hazel, willow, beef and storytelling from Bedfordshire

Monthly archives for December, 2011

A sallow rant

A sallow rant

Starting to collect sticks together for some hurdle jobs and hedge stakes, I’ve been cutting sallow or goat willow, Salix caprea. Now I know some of you will scoff at my use of willow for hedge stakes. Actually I know some of you will get quite cross about it. Everyone knows that willow will grow if used in a hedge, so […]

A visit from the vet

A visit from the vet

We own a book by Eddie Straiton called ‘Cattle Ailments, recognition and treatment’ (The Crowood Press), which, when it arrived a few years ago, I glanced through quickly and have rarely felt inclined to pick up since. My reluctance is no reflection on the book’s  relevance. Rather, the graphic illustrations reveal my squeamish side and I have […]

Sniffing the heliotrope

Sniffing the heliotrope

For several years I’ve vaguely noticed this flower in a couple of road-side ditches in Gravenhurst and mentally labelled it as butterbur. The other day, seeing it flowering, I took a step into a ditch alongside Campton Road to take a closer look and a picture. Later, when looking at this image on-screen and thinking to find something out about the plant, […]

Snow

Snow

Rather unexpectedly, it’s dark and white this morning; obviously we need to keep more of an eye on the forecast, as we hadn’t noticed it was on the way. Fairly typical southern English snow – wet and sloppy and the temperature is hovering above freezing. Actually now that the cattle are inside, we feel a bit like whatever happens […]

Rain water harvested

Rain water harvested

It’s raining, cold and windy; usually I’d be feeling gloomy and wintry myself. However, I’ve finally got the rain water harvesting system hooked up from the barn roof and I’m feeling a bit smug. Many months ago we bought a second-hand water tank and placed it next to our barn. Slightly fewer months ago, I […]

Weaning

Weaning

It’s still very dry although we did have a drop of rain over Thursday and Friday nights which produced some puddles; something of a novelty. The Environment Agency have started to put out drought warnings. All worrying, but we just carry on and assume that things will adjust. In 2010, we brought the herd indoors during the last […]