November Notes 2014

by David Tidmarsh - 12:49 on 16 November 2014

Nature Notes               by  Ken

 The Cider production seems to be going quite well, I keep lifting the lid and having a little sniff now and again to see how things are progressing and I am quite optimistic, if all goes to plan I might be doing it again with next years harvest.

   It all depends on the seasons, everything that we rely on for food and materials are controlled by the weather.

  I finally collected some Horse-chestnut seeds last month, conkers. These have been holed and threaded onto lengths of string to hang in the house and shed, to deter spiders from entering our location. These collections of conkers have dried out more quickly than any other that I have collected over the years. Now this puzzles me; was the season too wet or dry? Other collections have held their form a lot longer than these, however the few that I am taking down to London for the North verses South conker championships with our granddaughters are not too bad, they have dried slightly but are still intact, that is to say, they have not been pierced and strung yet. It could be the warm October we have had but the house conkers would have been warm and dry anyway.

  Moving on, I have started replanting trees into the Woodstone wildlife area that we have been allowed to manage and it is progressing well. Quite a few two year old Hazel trees from our allotment or nursery were replanted last week, every tree that goes into this are has to be protected by a tree guard this slips around the base of the trees to stop the rabbits eating the bark which kills the trees. This is an expense we could have done without but none would survive without this protection in this area.

  As you stroll around the village there are still a few signs of colour even some flowers that normally would have given up for the season, one in particular is the Vinca Major, its lilac blue flowers still on show. Not what I would call your usual woodland flower, these would probably have been discarded by someone clearing out their own garden as this can be a very rampant plant, but still a colourful sight on a drab foggy morning.

  There are still a few Oxeye Daisy plants flowering at this time of the year most of these should have finished in September but with the mild weather we have been enjoying lately these are a bonus in Autumn. I have been transplanting a few Oxeye daisies from the allotment into the Apiary at Woodstone but as quickly as I plant them the rabbits seem to eat them off, if the rabbits leave the roots intact they may have a chance to get established, fingers crossed!

  Hogweed is also still flowering in mid November and these white umbrella flowers can be quite attractive in the wild especially this time of the year.  

  So I hope we have a mild winter and not too much rain.

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