Sunday 28 June 2020

Over 3 months gone: 28-06-2020

Could this be the last Covid blog?
One of the many rainbow related stone art works that have
 appeared in Nidderdale during lockdown

There is an outside chance that soon after you read this blog entry a decision will be taken to re-start conservation work in Nidderdale in July. We all hope that this is the case, as long as the necessary precautions are taken of course! One thing's for sure - after 3 months of being laid off there are certainly plenty of jobs to catch up on. Hopefully with all the various forms of daily exercise that the NCVs have been taking, and all the gardening that's gone on, the gang will be very fit and able to meet the environmental improvement challenges that lie ahead.

Talking of environmental news from the NCVs; let's have a look at what has been happening in their lockdown worlds recently. There is much to report.

Ros E. carried out her annual survey of the wildflowers growing on Glasshouses verge. She found no fewer than 60 different plants, 10 more than last year! As you can see from the photo below, the verge is looking lovely and shows how worthwhile all our hard work at scything and clearing the mown grass has been.

 
Ox eye daisies abound and the 
rough hawkbit is spreading like wildfire!!

She also surveyed Tony K's wildflower meadow at Mayfield Farm. He has been working hard to develop this with the help of Kelly Harmer from The Nidderdale AONB office and, once again, there is a success story to report. The yellow rattle seeds have taken hold all across the field and, as a result, flower species are on the increase. Twenty species (not including the grasses) were spotted and, most pleasingly, the Himalayan Balsam that was there originally has now been eradicated. Well done Tony - now just the creeping thistle to get rid of. ☹️

Now - are the hairs on this leaf forked or not?
Never mind the ones on the leaf - 
you need to do something with the ones on your head!

Phil has also been on balsam duty: 

I have been busy controlling balsam along the bank of the Nidd by my home, a couple of miles downstream from Knaresborough.  It is the third year I have done it and my efforts of the past two years have meant there has been much less to pull this time. The exception is the part of the river bank which flood water comes onto each winter. It brings with it a fresh batch of seeds from further upstream (they look suspiciously like Summerbridge balsam to me). It creates a small but dense forest of too much to pull. I have taken my long handled sickle to it today and cut it all off. I will have to check it from time to time to make sure it doesn't recover sufficiently to flower. Some of it involves standing in precarious positions on the river bank to reach everything, but so far I have managed not to fall in. 

However - he didn't send any photographic evidence for this so we are just going to have to trust him on this one!!

Another flower related item from the other Ros (K) which is testament to the wonderful work the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and their volunteers are doing. She visited Staveley Nature Reserve - always a great place to practise your flower ID as well as seeing birds, butterflies and newts. She sent in these pics:
Bee orchid  (L) and a marsh helleborine (R),

Early purple orchid 

Another amazing flower sent to me by Julia:

Purple toothwort - a parasitic plant which grows on tree roots,
seen on one of her daily walks.
A rather gorgeous colour!

Tom sent me this floral tale:

Many years ago, my gardening guru was Geoffrey Smith and I faithfully followed his guidance on how to grow vegetables... Our daughter is a neighbour of the guy who followed Geoffrey as head gardener at Harlow Carr and,when he heard about our respect for Mr Smith, gave us an orchid that he was given by GS from his garden in Kettlesing. We now have offshoots flowering in various parts of the garden and affectionately, we call each one Geoffrey. The photo is the mother plant. 
The 'Mother Geoffrey' orchid. 
Rather eye catching to say the least!

Tom also spotted this (smooth?) newt in his garden.
It must be a good place to hang out!

Two new bird feeders have now been hung either side of Ros E's garage. Within an hour of them being put in place the local birds were fighting over the perches. She was thrilled to spot three siskins that same day and three bullfinches the next

However - the new feeders are stopping Ros from concentrating
 on her jobs inside the house as they are visible from
 both the kitchen and study windows!

Jan has had to have a sycamore cut down in his garden. But look what he's had done with the stump (or is it the real thing that has decided to perch for a pic?):
A wonderful owl sculpture that will last many years.
A fancy bit of whittling.

On the subject of birds.... Anita sent in a picture of some birds that appeared in her garden one day. Mummy duck and her cohort of ducklings had decided to pass through on their way to find the river. Unfortunately they were going in the wrong direction.

"Mum, are we nearly there yet?"
"Errmm. Possibly dear. I think that we may have taken a right instead of a left."

Anita's cucumber crop is growing by the day as you can see below:
Four cucumbers and this is just the bottom of one plant. 
There are many, many more. A positive glut.
Liz has suggested pickling them.

Not to be outdone, Julia has been hard at work on her veg plot. She tells me:

The garden is still getting plenty of attention though we are waging a war of attrition on our grey squirrel population who like to sample our strawberries and apples and have now developed a taste for lettuces! All our produce has to be festooned with netting. Like Anita I have also been brewing stinking buckets of comfrey as fertiliser.

The veg beds before the netting had to be added. 
Everything doing well. No wonder the squirrels came to call.
 The nets will detract from the aesthetics of the garden but 
if it keeps out the squirrels then it's a small price to pay.

Although not an outdoors environmental improvement, Julia and Dave have also tidied out their loft. Look what they found:

No - not a Belgian chocolate truffle.
It's a wasps' nest - thankfully empty of wasps!
What clever (if annoying) creatures they are.

Andy has been working his socks off. He has been helping out at the Summerbridge nature reserve and has sent me these:


NCVs who worked in West Wood to get rid of the pheasant pens 
will remember how steep the muddy bank was when entering the wood.
No problem - Andy has created this set of paved wooden steps, all on his own.
What a man!


In need of a leaky dam to help slow the flow of water into the drainage system?
Andy is the man to call.


Work at the reserve is in addition to all the work he has now got to do since taking over the 230 acre Day Ash Farm at Thornthwaite during lockdown. 

Peeky the Peacock was waiting to let him onto the property when he arrived in April.
What a fine looking bird. Peeky looks like he knows it too.


There are many patches of woodland on the farm and 
some of them need some serious holly removal to let light 
into the other trees and the woodland floor.


Andy bought a new saw and got busy halo coppicing.
Ahh. There was a tree there after all. Thought so!


Brenda has also taken on a newly built property during the pandemic. Her garden was just a patch of grass. Well - no NCV is going to let that remain so bare of environmentally useful plants are they?
This is what it looked like on June 1st.
A totally blank canvas.

This is what it looked like on 26th June. Many trees and shrubs 
have been planted and a budding rockery is in place, ready for developing.
There are plans to remove a lot of turf to create beds for lots 
of insect friendly flowers and to put some wooden veg planters along the wall.
Take care of your back Brenda!!

Andrew has been creating a horse riding arena in the field in front of his house for his wife to use (on horseback, not on her own! Although that mightn't be such a bad idea for future daily exercise if we have to go into a 2nd lockdown). This has been a huge undertaking but is reaching an end now, as you can see:

  The arena edges all seeded with grasses on this side ....


and awaiting the planting of ground cover and shrubs 
around the boulders on this side.
This will be a good improvement to the bare soil Andrew.

Liz sent in this photo of the Longside Hedge that the NCVs spent so long laying  and finally finished at the end of January. Thank goodness it got done before lockdown started otherwise we would have had to go back again in the winter! As you can see - it is looking great. 
A professional looking job if ever there was one.

And finally - honorary NCV Harry has just been awarded a Blue Peter badge - Wow! Well done young man. Apparently it was for his picture and explanation of a ploughing competition between a tractor and a horse drawn plough. Well - if anyone knows about tractors it's Harry!
Young Harry proudly displays his letter from Blue Peter.

Well - that's it for June. Watch this space - either for an end of July covid blog OR resumption of normal service.