HABITAT AID Met up with Nick Mann from Habitat Aid (www.habitataid.co.uk) in The Camelot Inn car park, South Cadbury, late this afternoon. He wanted to show me a two acre field corner in which he’s trialling seeds and management tachniques for a wildflower mix. It’s an old quarry/dumping ground right next to the A303. Nick’s an [...]
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Posts Tagged ‘january’
21 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman HABITAT AID
Thursday, January 21st, 201020 january 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman WEDNESDAY EARLY AFTERNOON
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010WEDNESDAY EARLY AFTERNOON Two robins with me on an L-shaped piece of freshly turned earth. One at each far corner while I fork and shake the weed roots free; across, return, slowly working backwards to complete the square. They seem quite at ease with my repetitive motion. A third redbreast drops by. Robbies One Two and [...]
Read More »19 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman ‘AUTUMN RASPBERRY’ MANAGEMENT, 5.25PM
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010‘AUTUMN RASPBERRY’ MANAGEMENT If you’ve got raspberries that bear fruit from August to late autumn and beyond (Solstice, December 21st, last year) then now’s the time to get in amongst your rows and sort them out. Cut down and remove everything. That’s what I’ve been up to yesterday, today and dare I say it, again tomorrow. Autumn [...]
Read More »18 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman MILLERS SEEDLING
Monday, January 18th, 2010MILLERS SEEDLING Planted an apple tree down the Donkey Field Community Orchard this afternoon, a variety from Berkshire called Millers Seedling. It came from now-defunct Scotts of Merriott stock. We’ve received it as a goodwill gesture, a generous gift. The Millers Seedling now stands two rows in and three rows up on the lefthand side, replacing [...]
Read More »17 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman HEAVEN
Sunday, January 17th, 2010HEAVEN If heaven is an allotment garden then this afternoon, I’ve been there. If the sound of heaven is the fluting of a blackbird, then yesterday I heard it fleetingly through cloudy rain and today, for longer magic spells. If the feel of heaven is warm sun on your back I’ve felt that today too. [...]
Read More »16 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SIGNS OF SPRING
Saturday, January 16th, 2010SIGNS OF SPRING On the homeward leg of my daily constitutional, I swung left along a barbed wire fence below the slippage underneath fields adjacent to what was Church Farm. The ground was squelchy; stud-bottomed trainers sunk uncomfortably deep. Leg over an iron gate, across the Very Steep Hill, another gate and shimmy through a [...]
Read More »15 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SABBING THE NEW FOREST BUCKHOUNDS 1991-’97
Friday, January 15th, 2010SABBING THE NEW FOREST BUCKHOUNDS 1991-’97 I wrote this piece thirteen years ago after the historic folding of a once-Royal deer hunt. Lots of individual campaigners worked tirelessly to make this happen. Direct action in the heart of hunting country was blended with political lobbying; a war of words was fought in the streets and through the [...]
Read More »14 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THE WORLD OF…SURVIVAL
Thursday, January 14th, 2010THE WORLD OF…SURVIVAL An abiding childhood memory is of watching those Anglia TV-produced wildlife documentaries that started with dramatic music and then captivated their audience with the voice-over and title: “The World Of Survival.” I’ve got it in my head that the species featured usually lived in Canada or The States and these half-hour thrills [...]
Read More »13 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SHOOTERS LANE IN SNOW, RARE DELIGHT
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010SHOOTERS LANE IN SNOW Half-way betwixt the High Street and Leyton Lane. All you can hear is the gurgle of water in some underground drain, tweets and scolds of blackbird and great tit, and the pitter-patter of falling snow: not flakes, but fresh-fall melts in mini avalanches from the tunnel of twigs and branches. Stand [...]
Read More »12 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman TUESDAY MORNING: THOUGHTS OVER TOAST & TEA
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010TUESDAY MORNING: THOUGHTS OVER TOAST & TEA My hands are the cleanest they’ve been for years. Credit the abrasive action of tiny snow crystals, continual washing-up with soap and cleaning. Plus (aside from a brief flirtation with soft middle-of-a-molehill clay) there has been no mud to play with for weeks on account of it being [...]
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