Hazel, willow, beef and storytelling from Bedfordshire

Monthly archives for April, 2012

National Beanpole Week – next w...

National Beanpole Week – next week

I expect you’ve had this in your diary for most of the last twelve months. It’s something that’s causing some excitement in our small wood. Seriously; this is important. The Small Woodlands Associationhave, over the last few years promoted this slightly eccentric special week and once again it features on a couple of web sites […]

Building a willow screen in Willingto...

Building a willow screen in Willington

Trouble with big balls

Trouble with big balls

Sometimes things go wrong and when I’m working on my own it’s doubly difficult to cope with. After nearly three hours making a huge willow ball recently, it just didn’t feel right and whatever I did seemed to make things worse rather than better. In the end it burst open like a horrible balloon accident, creating something that looked […]

How to make a willow obelisk for your...

How to make a willow obelisk for your sweet peas

I ran a day’s course for a group of Bedfordshire gardeners last Saturday, all of whom, apparently wanted to know how to make an obelisk from willow. After a week of hot, sunny days, during which I’d got sunburnt (odd for March around here), Saturday turned out decidedly cold with a penetrating wind blowing from the north-west. […]

Calving comes around again – wa...

Calving comes around again – waiting for Zaphod

Two calves last Tuesday. Or at least Shiny produced a lovely but quite small heifer sometime during the previous night and Chilli a larger and energetic heifer during the morning whilst I was preparing some pea sticks. Both are doing well now that we have got past the annual worry that they won’t find mum’s […]