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 […]
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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...
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...
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 […]
Back to Woburn
It’s been 10 months amazingly, but I was back at Woburn Farmers’ Market today. It was cold and I hadn’t put on enough clothes. Also someone had dug up the market so we were pushed across the road onto a lovely bit of grass. After a deal of grumbling we pressed on and it wasn’t too […]
Living willow fence nearly complete
After a couple of days work I’ve finished this thirty metres of open weave willow fence. It took a while to decide exactly where to go with this job. I’m always very careful about recommending the use of living willow – it can be a right pain once it gets going and in the wrong place its speed […]
Fun, games and stories in Bedfordshir...
Jane was at the Forest Centre, Marston Moretaine yesterday, leading a half term kids’ activity day. As ever, she came up with something that most kids and, from the sound of it, parents and grandparents, found lots of fun – making amazing coloured animal pictures using tissue paper and models in colourful plasticine. There’s more […]
No hedge crimes here
In the hands of an amateur, a tractor mounted flail can be bad news for a hedge. There’s still evidence of hedge crime to be found without looking too hard. But you’ve got to consider a bit of hedge history and take a look at what these things can do when in the right hands […]
Wonderful willow
It may be hard work getting the stuff cut, sorted, bundled and safely inside; and it’s certainly bitterly cold at the moment, but on a day like today the willow looks completely wonderful. A miraculous transformation takes place sometime in the autumn and I’m still not sure exactly when. From a more or less uniform greenish […]