Wildlife and Biodiversity
Cuckoos, Swallows and the Fear of What Will Be
“You wouldn’t know this” he said. From the cab of his blue tractor. We were in lockdown. The first year. So that is where he talked to me from. From the cab to the ground 2 metres. A Social and Agricultural distance. He had reversed the tractor back down the road to talk. “This is […]
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Hawthorn Hill Farm Natury Diary: April 22
We wait. For the curve of a calf beneath it’s mother. For the nicker of a lamb behind the arching care of it’s mother. We wait for Swallow come and Cuckoo call. We wait for things to have be as they always have been.
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Hawthorn Hill Nature Diary: Jan 22
Mature willow curl their gnarled way to the sky. They seem to grip the very air and twist themselves around it to grow.
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Winter, Firewood Season and the Wonder of a Blackbird
he blackbird couple that hunt the drive. They will turn the same leaf ten times over in a week. The pair will hold this territory for their lives perhaps. Much as they hold to one another. For life
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Hawthorn Hill Nature Diary: Nov 21
Early morning. The valley gathers the skirts of mist about it, folds of it cloaking the further hills, the valley rift a dragons breath.
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Harvesting Willow and Slowing Down with a Broken Arm
My broken arm has slowed me. Tied me to the farm and it’s surrounds. I cannot leave to pick up trailers of hay. I have rams in the barn. In recovery, and hungry. So, I crisscross the farm harvesting forage. Have done for a month. I travel the same paths, crest the same hills, walk […]
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Late Night Walk With Bats on the Farm
My youngest, one hand contained in its smallness entirely in the curl of mine, the other, pointing, tracing the half seen flight of a thing in the sky. My eldest following, twiddling dials, yelping with excitements. All of us giggling and laughing as the fluttering wings of things wheeled feet from our faces
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Hawthorn Hill Nature Diary: October 21
The month begins with the bee loud sound of the ivy. The day is bright. Warm for October. The ivy wrapped trees are covered in flowers.
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Honeybees, failing hives and why we farm holistically for bees
We have two hives remaining One colony gone. Dead. A thin drift of bees on the hive floor. Late to swarm, and light on bees. A small swarm. It was cold and wet before they swarmed.
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Hawthorn Hill Farm Nature Diary: July 2021
The air shimmers with swallows and insects. The birds trace a path above me as my passing sends up insects for their hunt. The ash and sycamore trees creak
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