Creating a woodland is a slow old business. Since we planted Bottoms’ Corner, our small hazel wood, we’ve been watching every small development with a fair degree of excitement that we tend to keep to ourselves – we’ve found that most normal people don’t particularly see the joy in growing sticks. The first cut of […]
The absence of swallows isn’t the only sign that summer is now a distant memory. The weather might have been warm and dry for the last few days, but this can’t disguise the beginnings of colour in the leaves and a couple of mild frosts give us no chance of doubting the coming change of […]
Through September I was watching out for swallows, Hirundo rustica, passing through, on their way south. Most seem to be going north but I suppose that must be my imagination. The summer brought lots of swifts, Apus apus, as usual, but we seemed to be poorly supplied with swallows and House martins, Delichon urbicum, something that is a bit worrying […]
I seem to recall being a bit smug about getting this year’s hay crop in without it feeling a single drop of rain. Well, the same feeling isn’t available to apply to the barley straw. One of our neighbours has grown a crop of spring barley and offered the straw to us. We said we’d have […]
Jane’s at the Forest Centre at Marston Moretaine today leading some craft activities for kids. Today it’s all about butterflies. She’ll be there again on 9 August with ‘Minibeast detectives’ – an outdoor adventure, (10 – 11.30am & 1pm – 2.30pm) and on 20 August with Clay Creatures (10am, 11am and 12 noon). Sessions cost £2 and […]
I’ve been trying to keep an eye on butterflies this summer. Not of course checking the company they keep; rather, taking an interest in which of the common species are around at any particular time. Butterflies in the UK ought to be a manageable subject for casual study. There are only around sixty species after all […]
Almost unbelievably and for the first time on record the hay‘s under cover without having been rained on once. After a cold spell, we’ve had a week of scorching (for the UK) weather which has dried our grass beautifully. Even so we managed to make a meal of it. On Thursday we baled some then […]
Being away from home all day yesterday, I was spared involvement in the annual hay cutting decision. Which was something of a relief as it’s often a bit agonising. A neighbour, Gordon has been cutting and baling our hay each summer since we started and whilst he and his family team do a wonderful job, […]
It is suddenly time to be thinking about hay making. We need the rain and some good, warm sunshine to get as much bulk into the grass as possible. Then a long spell of dry and hot to get it cut and baled. Our grass is, from the hay point of view, none too brilliant. As most […]
Last February saw our third not quite annual hedge laying weekend attended by a group of mostly local people, some already well practised in the craft; others eager to learn. It was a grim weekend of irregular snow flurries and bitter north-easterly wind but despite such unpleasantness, a dozen or so people turned out […]