It felt like spring today which was a welcome change after what feels like weeks of grey skies seemingly made greyer b a cold east wind. But today no wind and the sun was shining and Hares Rise felt like a wonderful place to be.
First stop was to check the bees. The hive was given to us and is in a mess inside – the frames have fallen into it and the bees have built comb as they’ve seen fit so there will be a job to do slowly sorting it out. In the meantime I’d given them some fondant and added some insulation. Today we just wanted to see them alive and well – which they were. It was warm enough for them to be flying – it looked like they were heading for trees along the stream but I couldn’t see what they were collecting, possibly hazel pollen because at least some of the hazel catkins were open.
What we’d actually come to do was continue laying the hedge, although with both of us feeling pretty tired we were pretty slow to get going at it. We’ve probably done more this year than we did last. My back is certainly a limiting factor and I’m careful never to do too much at one go but the pattern is the same every year. We start in late October clearing the undergrowth along the front of the hedge and then get started actually laying in November convinced we’re going to loads ‘this winter’ and every year come March we find we’ve done perhaps half what we’d thought we’d get done. There is no hurry and with work and kids and family commitments, not to mention inclement weather that’s just as well. I actually really enjoy hedge laying and having no pressure to get it done means it remains enjoyable. We did get a bit done and before the end of march we’ll replant bits of the hedge where its got thin with hawthorn and cherry plum. In the meantime the kids enjoyed having a fire and burning up some of the brash – its amazing how much comes out of the hedge when you start laying it; we’ve some firewood, hedge stakes and plenty of bean poles for when we get back to the allotments.
We named the field Hares Rise because we often see hares there but none today. In fact we’ve not seen many this winter. Hopefully as the year goes on there will be more about. Having hares on the land does mean that young trees need protecting, although the deer (which we also don’t see) are much more of a problem. We’ve had to invest in taller tree protection having lost quite a few of the trees we planted the first winter. We did see red kites, a buzzard and a kestrel – our field is part of a larger area that’s slowly being planted with trees and the grass has grown up making it a good hunting ground. We also saw a barn owl hunting at about 3pm which seemed early – if we see it its usually as it starts to get dark – but I guess it was taking advantage of the warmth that may have brought out mice and voles. We did try and get a photo but the ‘zoom’ on a phone really isn’t up to catching that sort of thing
