So the weather has been a bit patchy of late, with barely a blue sky showing without dark stormclouds threatening to shower us, but when the sun has shone it has been brilliantly warm and is bringing hope for summer!
It feels like forever since I have written my blog – the end of my traineeship is looming and so the stress of spending all my free time on job applications has begun! As a result this poor blog has been a bit neglected, so let me bring you up to speed!
Week 36 began with our return to Loscombe where we finished clearing the fenceline by cutting some overhanging trees, followed by heading round the corner to lay a bit more of the hedge. Then on Tuesday we finally took our volunteers to Brownsea Island for a day trip – something which had been rained off before Christmas! I gave our volunteers a guided walk and thankfully the birds were putting on a good show. It was fantastic to see all the black-headed gulls starting to squabble (loudly!) over nesting territories on the islands in the lagoon; not even their blotchy faces could dent their confidence!
So although some of the mornings (and indeed the days) have still had that crisp chill in the air and bright frosts upon the ground, spring has truly sprung in the last few weeks I am pleased to say! As a result we are gradually drawing towards the end of our winter work tasks and are having to set upon the new challenges that spring brings with it!
So it’s been a while since I’ve written my blog, I’m afraid the winter is taking its toll and I’m struggling to motivate myself. Roll on spring! Thankfully the first signs of new life are starting to appear to brighten things up a little.
So last week we were excited to have the third of our four traineeship residentials, this time at the Oxenwood Outdoor Education Centre in Wiltshire! So we Dorset trainees packed the minibus full of rucksacks and enough food to feed an army, and drove on down to Oxenwood where we had a brilliant catch-up with all the trainees from the other counties.
It’s a new year and a new start but the priorities of winter don’t change! Our first weeks have launched us back into the scrub clearance and hedgelaying work we saw before the Christmas break.
The first monday back my mentor and I went to an area tackled by our volunteers previously; a part of one of our rides at Powerstock where we are creating some scallops to let in more light, ultimately forming a glade ideal for butterflies. We continued the clearance by cutting down some stumps and felling some more willows overhanging the path. In the process I found a glass bottle, inside which some moss was flourishing – a token of nature’s determination to thrive!
So my blog has been somewhat neglected of late, with a suite of busy weekends and the mad christmas rush meaning it became rather low on my list of priorities! But a new year means a new start so let’s get the backlog out of the way ready for the new stuff!
So week 22 was unusual and extremely busy where I got little opportunity to take photos, so this post will be a short one. Monday kicked things off with the first round of Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) testing in our cattle stock, something which makes every farmer nervous! The day involved a lot of setting up races and moving cattle, and whilst the vet injected each one I helped by recording all the data called out to me. It was the first properly cold and frosty day of the autumn in West Dorset so my feet went rather numb, but it was interesting to see everything involved – it’s rather hectic! And I found out that absolutely everything ends up covered in cow poo, no matter how far away you try to stand. Even your eyebrows.
It’s been a couple of weeks of blustery weather, and with the wind howling its way through my window frames it has furthered my desire to go into hibernation much like my beloved dormice! But alas I cannot, and with the majority of the weeks spent hedgelaying (something I am rapidly starting to dislike) I’ve kept my eyes open for the tiny details that can bring some highlights.
So the last two weeks – I’ll be honest – have been a bit tough mentally, as the nights have drawn in and it’s been feeling like the end of the day at just 2 o’clock in the afternoon everything seems to have become sluggish and tiring. It’s an unpleasant shock to the system. And to emphasise the worst of this time of year the clouds have drawn in too, and the rains are well and truly here.
But it’s not all bad and even in all the dreary grey there are some beautiful moments if you take the time to notice them, like early morning mist creeping across the autumn fields of gold, green and brown…
True Gold Is Green 