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 […]
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 […]
I know I’m in danger of going on about it, but after such a long, cold and gloomy UK winter I think a bit of celebration is in order. Actually it’s gone cold again, but plants and animals here are resilient enough to get through cool periods. Here is some of the brilliance of spring colours, worth […]
Every so often in July or August, when the bluebell seeds in our bit of ancient woodland are ripe, we collect some and spread them in the new plantation – Bottom’s Corner. This hasn’t been in any way scientific and we haven’t recorded anything. For the first time, flowering bluebells have appeared in Bottom’s Corner this […]
We spent a wonderful couple of hours last Friday in Bottom’s Corner (our small hazel coppice in Gravenhurst). It’s just brilliant; I can’t think of a place I’d rather be in mid April. We’ve been producing bundles of pea sticks for sale at Harpenden farmers’ market and it’s great to be doing something rewarding in such […]