Bees!

Every morning I walk down the our lane with eldest son and dog to meet up with the school bus. On route is a hole in a tree - the low morning sun is warming the bees inside …

First day of spring

We had some visitors coming right up to the studio on the first day of (meteorological) spring. Great to see the wildlife feeling so at home… Just need to go and check the saplings and raspberry canes to see just how much they’ve nibbled off ;-)

Supporting local wildlife

…. But not necessarily in a way we anticipated ;-)

Some little critters have been digging up our trees, chewing the guards, stripping the bark from the saplings. Not sure how to address this yet - I think I’ll start asking around for advice …

On a plus side, we’ve had a heron visiting over the last few weeks. Not something I had been expecting (!) though very welcome all the same.

Along with a whole multitude of voles…

Hanging on

Our hedgerows are peppered with crabapple trees - and this little fighter is hanging on in there!

I only recently found out that the the difference between a hedge and a hedgerow hinges on the fact that a hedgerow has occasional trees along the line of the hedge, where a hedge is just a hedge. Well there you go :-)

Sunset and moonrise

I took a photo of the sunset, turned around and captured the moonrise. Magical evening…

Golden sunsets…

Misty mornings

Mid December - thin mists hanging low in the mornings, frost slowly melting away from the thick mat of fallen grass. Beautiful.

A clearing in the hazel

We have three circular clearings in Pomfret’s Wood. Initially we let all three grow wild to see how they would develop. However the grass grew so quickly in all three that we couldn’t walk through them or enjoy being in the space. Around mid summer we cut the grass in one to open up the space … it completely changed how we spent time there.

We’ve decided to cut back a second of the clearings before winter sets in - this one is in the west of the wood, surrounded by hazel. A very different feel. Will be interesting to see how this feels in spring :-)

Pot of gold

By my reckoning, there must be a pot of gold somewhere in Pomfret’s Wood :-)

Aftermath grazing

Alongside Pomfret’s Wood, on the drive in to The Lund, are a couple of fields currently left as grass for hay. One day, some day, the woodland may spill out across these fields though for the foreseeable future they will me managed for hay….

With this year’s hay cut and baled, we’ve invited a few visitors in for aftermath grazing. These ladies will graze the grass short, breaking up the matted vegetation and mosses. Having the grass short over winter and into the spring will also allow more light to reach the earth in spring and aid seed germination… or so the theory goes :-)

Seed sown - again

After rotavating the strips through the meadow, we’ve now sown the seed …. Mainly Yellow Rattle, with a mix of a few other wildflowers (thanks once again to Alwyn - Forest of Flowers Huby. Now we wait for spring ;-)

Rainbow and Rotavator…

The meadow flower seed didn’t take too well last year - the grass is just too well established. So - I spent yesterday scaling the grass with my long grass mower , followed by ripping up strips across our grassland with a beast of a rotavator (hired from our local hardware shop in Easingwold - the kind of place that has at least one of everything tucked away somewhere…)

We’ll sow the yellow rattle seed we collected a few weeks ago into the exposed earth, with the aim their seed will spread throughout meadow in the years to come …

Hay baled!

Hay baled - hurrah! (thanks Panda!)

As mentioned previously we now need to work out how to knock back the grass a bit to expose some of the soil for the yellow rattle seed we’re going to sow. The grass is so well established that our harrowing last year just didn’t knock the grass back enough…

Rowing up ready for baling

One thing mentioned in every meadow-making forum is the importance of cutting and removing the year’s growth. So to see our neighbour Panda rowing up ready for baling is rather exciting.

I’m still trying to decide on what next. I think we need another attempt at sowing more yellow rattle seed - there won’t be enough seed from this year’s rattle to give much hope for next year. Somehow we need to expose some earth to sow the seed into. Some suggest ‘scalping’ the grass by mowing the remaining grass as close and short as possible - even if just in patches. Or - maybe hire a small rotavator and turn over some strips…

The Last evEning of summer

Summer left with and epic sunset this year :-)

While the sun shines…

Our neighbour Panda has once again come to our rescue and cut the grass in the meadow. The meadow in Pomfret’s Wood is small - and Panda has a tractor and mower just the right size…. The right tool for the job :-)

The grass isn’t good enough quality for hay, and it sounds like everyone has enough this year anyhow - so I reckon we’ll move the cut grass into a hedge back and let it compost down.

Reds and purples

Wonderful colours…. I’m hoping this year I’ll find the time to make some more Pomfret’s Pontack Sauce with the elderberries :-)

Butterflies and bugs

It’s that time of year :-)