Spring Tidy-up Work Party

A few of us gathered this week to check the smaller trees and replace canes or rabbit spirals, where they were absent or broken. Some of the larger trees needed their protectors removed, as they had grown big enough. On Monday, Kim and Emily met up and braved the showers to work on the trees along the boundary fence. After the dry April, the very wet May has caused everything to grow very fast. The hawthorn, rowan and whitebeam are now all in flower.

On Wednesday, Penny and Kim were joined by Euan, who is volunteering in conservation work as part of his Duke of Edinburgh Award. Euan was clearing away branches from some hedge-cutting along the ditch, to allow us to mow the paths.

We were pleased to see some Spring flowers - red campion, welsh poppy and garlic mustard. We also caught sight of a couple of Field Voles and Lizards darting out of sight. The Spring has been cool so far this year, and there were no butterflies on the wing, but we did find some caterpillars of the Peacock butterfly in their web on some stinging nettles.