Apples

Not ‘strictly’ in Pomfrets Wood, though worth a mention :-) As you turn down our drive way you’re greeted by a wonderful row of well tended apple trees. I can take no credit! Over thirty years ago, before Debbie and I met, Debbie was courting a young gentleman who was a keeper of the orchard at local Ampleforth College. As a gesture of good will to Debbie’s parents he planted a wonderful range of apple trees along the approach to the family farm - a selection of varieties that ripen from the earliest to latest of the season - we now benefit from have steady supply of apples for many many weeks.

The young gent may have left but the apples remain ;-)

New on The Lund

Every morning at least one of us takes a walk around Pomfret’s Wood with Iggy the dog. I was out with the boys this morning and spotted this butterfly we hadn’t seen here before. We think it’s a ‘speckled wood’ - very common, found pretty much everywhere across the UK - but new to me :-)

Fingers Tightly Crossed

Fingers are tightly crossed here at the moment… Like most of the UK we’ve had a long spell without rain, along with temperatures steadily rising to a high yesterday of over 40C. The earth has turned to dust, the grass is brown and brittle - and we’re hoping, hoping the trees make it through Ok. Only time will tell…

More Butterflies :-)

This one I believe is a Comma …

Yellow rattle

Lovely to see solid patches of yellow rattle in the meadow. Glass half full, or half empty? It’s taken well in some areas, though knowing how much we sowed I have to acknowledge that the success rate has been limited…

Growing season

I had no idea so many of the trees would be almost 6ft tall already. The plantation is taking on a very different feel, with line of sight starting to be interrupted …

hurrah!

Some strong patches of yellow rattle coming through :-)

Fingers crossed!

I’ve been wandering around the open grassland in Pomfret’s Wood peering at all the seedlings poking up in the spring sunshine - desperately hoping to see yellow rattle.

and at long last here they are. Fingers crossed they thrive this year!

Bursting into sPring

We’ve just passed the spring equinox and everything is bursting into life! Ours boys are becoming rather bored with me slowing the dog walk down by staring down green plastic tubes - I just can’t help myself….

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 :-)