Last week, we sold three, year old heifers to the Wildlife Trust in Bedfordshire and they are now enjoying life on Flitwick Moor, an intriguing wet woodland nature reserve to the north-east of Flitwick. This is a place where, in the past, peat was cut and iron-rich spring water sold as a blood tonic. The cattle will help to keep […]
I’ve written about ragwort here before but I make no apologies for doing it again. There’s a lot of stuff in life that is as good as you make it and pulling ragwort is one, although I would definitely add – as long as you’re not doing it for too long. Our hay crop is looking […]
It would be great to have more time to… well for all sorts of things. Spending time with spouse, children and friends comes top even though I know I’m luckier than most in that regard. Playing music, singing, walking, cooking, cycling, reading. That list could be a long and pitiful one so let’s stop there!A […]
Turns out I was wrong about the supply of barn swallows and house martins in a post last week. I had thought we’d exhausted this year’s batch and with it the warmer days of summer.After some significant amount of walking about after calves, I managed to get all the herd into our field called ‘Wassledine’. They had […]
I think we may be approaching some state of readiness for the coming cold and damp. Actually it’s pretty cool and wet this morning but clearly only the very first hint of autumn is upon us so far. Our readiness amounts to having the cattle shed clear, grass cutting pretty much done, hay and straw safely in […]
Jane was at the Forest Centre in Marston Moretaine again today and it was another busy one – a minibeast safari. She went out this morning fretting about the weather – apparently sweep nets don’t do a very good job of catching bugs in long, wet grass, and bashing trees that are dripping with rain yield […]
A strangely murky, grey, May day last Tuesday; the Chilterns invisible, usually a sign of bad winter weather on the way. The greyness served to highlight the intensity of green – the only other colour on offer today. The view from the barn is in green and white. Two grass fields in the foreground, huge arable fields in the distance, separated by […]
Whilst making a hurdle in the barn yesterday, I became aware of the wonderful screeching of swifts; a sound I’ve been waiting to hear for a fortnight or so and probably missing since their disappearance last August. Sticking my head into the brilliant sunshine and looking straight up, there, at around 100 feet, were a gang of thirty swirling, […]
We have two grass fields that aren’t in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. One of these, this year, we have top dressed with nitrogen in order to ensure we get some hay. The other grass, especially the new pasture, is suffering from reducing levels of that most vital element. The grass may be struggling, but, and this is in […]
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 […]