It’s been raining a lot today. So we stayed inside all morning, toying with paper and the PC. Rainy days are useful sometimes. We get office stuff done in daylight and that should rescue me from evenings in front of a screen. There was a brief pause in the dampness around lunch time and I zoomed […]
Having left my part time job at Christmas we’ve survived two months now without that regular and comforting clang of money arriving in the bank. We’ve both been working on the farm in the meantime and this is the beginning of what we hope will be our busiest time 0f year, when gardeners and plenty of others […]
As people who have barely got out of the egg stage of coppicing it was a bit humbling to join others of the newly created East Anglian Coppice Group for a meeting then to wander around the Bradfield Woods near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk yesterday. The meeting was good – informative, interesting, friendly, and we […]
Having enjoyed a pretty hearty meal of stir fried vegetables and tofu with egg noodles on Tuesday evening, I switched on BBC Radio 4 to provide washing up entertainment and listened to a documentary featuring Henry Dimbleby, called ‘A Meaty Problem’. Worth a listen if you have a moment. The focus was on the need […]
On my own, working in the woods, I’ll have a Thermos of tea with me and drink it through the day, even down to the cool, tarry brew that lurks there around 3.30. If Jane’s with me, we’ll boil the Kelly kettle frequently, there being a slight competition for the duty of firing it up; […]
Let’s be positive. Sometimes difficult but I’m happy when I can look at a job that I’m struggling with in 30 degrees during July, and that I had thought I’d sort out in May, in a positive light. Last December we cleared a very badly silted pond and the result has been excellent so far. […]
We recently had to have a cow put down after she broke a leg; not a great Saturday night that one! The financial loss added to the distress at losing an animal we have come to know well, over the last four years. Of course once the most immediate problem of disposing of her body was […]
Imagine a day spent in a peaceful hazel coppice, listening to the songs of melodious warblers flitting frantically amongst the trees; being brought home made cakes and cups of tea and enjoying the company of a small group of like-minded individuals, as you are driven half crazy by the frustration of trying to make a […]
Yes, it’s spring, although for very early May the temperature’s rather low. What a joy to discover some colour. Here three fairly common species that grow in our old meadows in Gravenhurst. Cuckoo flower, a member of the cabbage family, appears in the damper parts of the meadow, in amongst soft rush. The name is […]
I’ve nearly finished three willow hurdles that will be part of a garden design competition that a college’s design students are entering. They were after low impact, local materials, these should fit the bill. I hope they like them – I’m quite pleased! I think the competition is at Earls Court next month. Would be […]