Since my last blog post our small field barn repair has been completed (more on this below) and we now have a waterproof building back at the bottom of the field. We are really pleased with the end result which sits so well again in the landscape.
The dance of the flowers
It's fascinating to see how different plants are pushing in and how some do better one year than another. Harebells had a better year this year than last (in the wild field, perhaps the fact we mowed and raked a section last autumn helped?), Ladies Bedstraw has also been spreading and our paltry single plant of Betony has become two or three (all close together and the rabbits didn't have them all this year) and Tormentil is more obvious. The Ragged Robin did well from seed sown 2 years ago and now has little dried up cups of its own tiny peppercorn seeds ready to fall.
The Yellow Rattle in the bottom meadow did far too well and totally dominated this year. We tried to harvest as much seed as we could before it dropped and was mown in mid July (we harvested 1.4kg of seed fairly easily if anyone wants any for their own mini meadow project - email me!). What I've not seen so much this year is Cats Ear, Mouse Ear, Pignut and the Sheep Sorrel has not been so much in evidence on the tumps. Plants seem to move around the field too.
Ribwort Plantain has come in rather heavily into the lower field, introduced by the green hay we strewed two years ago. I really like plantain but hope it won't start to dominate over time. I'm assured it should not! I guess everything is just finding its feet now the land management has changed and you have to be open to change, some of it quite fast (I must admit not one of my strengths).
We have found more varieties of Forget-me-Not in the wetland - Tufted and Creeping as well as Field and Changing FMN. The Common Valerian pushing in from the verge has multiplied as has the Meadow Sweet and we have had the most wonderful mini eruptions of intertwining Greater Trefoil and Meadow Vetchling much confusing my beginner's botany but pleasing the bumble bees.
Common Knapweed is gradually spreading around (there was none to start) and we have two small areas of Ragwort which of course the insects adore but which we won't let spread to the hay meadow since it is not something the farmer will want dried in the hay crop.
It was a thrill this year to spot Moonwort coming up again in June. And this time we had two plants after having just the one last year. I didn't need to pick any locks this summer so the plants remain in the grass and were mowed around this time. They have been exhaling very fine powdery spores through the early summer and have now shrivelled right up. Let's hope we see them again next year. It is quite an honour to have them.
Hay making, a new rake and the art of cocking up
The main meadow was cut slightly earlier than perhaps we would have liked in the second week of July but of course the weather was fantastic for haymaking at that point and 24 big round bales were made (as opposed to 28 last year and 67 in year one - well the entire field was mown in that first year).
The baler wasn't working quite as well as normal and some swathes of hay remained strewn rather thickly in places, which I thought we had better rake off and remove so as not to create a mulch. So, I have been raking in the cool of the evening (still not yet finished), but my ability to do so effectively was not helped by our old wooden hay rake losing half of its teeth. I contacted the manufacturers, Rollins, who told me unfortunately they don't supply dentures but, instead, they very generously offered to send me a replacement rake totally free of charge for which we are most grateful! Thank you Rollins, we are much obliged!
According to our farmer neighbour raking hay into piles such as this is locally called 'cocking up' - related presumably to the word 'hay cock' meaning a conical pile of hay. When I next go into the field my carefully made 'piles' have often been flattened, I think by birds that sort through it for insects perhaps?
Thistle dead heading has been an ongoing job for the last few weeks and we are a bit behind at the moment. Rightly or wrongly, we let most of them flower since they provide such fantastic nectar for insects but we don't want them spreading into the hay meadow. The creeping thistle amongst the new trees we do let go to seed - and the goldfinches have been coming in undulating charms for the seeds. It seems such a shame that like Hogweed and Ragwort, Bramble and Creeping Thistle are often so unpopular when they are some of the best plants for wildlife!
The barn is now complete!
When we moved here 22 years ago the tin field barn in the next door field was still standing but had rot in the joists and over time tin sheets blew off occasionally in winter gales and the roof started to sag and developed holes - the start of a slow and inevitable decline.
When we bought the field in 2018, repairing the barn was one of the longer term aims of our project, but through the Shropshire Hills AONB Farming in Protected Landscapes programme we have been able to restore the barn to its full glory sooner than we might have expected.
Nick Ogden, local builder, and his son spent around 2 months on the repair, reconstructing a timber frame from Shropshire-sourced Douglas Fir (from the Corvedale) and re-attaching most of the old tin sheets. Those that were too deformed to use were replaced by sheets we foraged locally (with landowner permission!) from other fallen-down barns and the final sheets were gifted to us by some friends (thank you Jon & Cheryl!), enabling us to complete the construction.
The structure is remarkably roomy inside with an upper hayloft type floor and a window looking west over the wetland (which may become a writing space and eyrie although I'm terrible at ladders). The opposite window is a louvre design allowing birds/bats access inside. We have also left a gap at the top of the main doors for the same. The floor is beaten earth. It was surprisingly cool inside on the hottest day of the year back in July. Bat and bird boxes have been affixed and now await some new tenants.
End of August
Although we had high heat in July it wasn't until the second heatwave in August that the fields around us started to really dry up. Farmers have been ferrying water to cattle in bowsers by tractor through the month, their springs having dried up, especially those on the hillsides. The Redlake River dried up in part or was reduced to puddles, something not seen here since 1976 according to our farmer neighbours. Fish and native crayfish were rescued downstream from disappearing pools by the Environment Agency. Very worrying for our aquatic animals and everything that depends on our streams and rivers.
The miracle is that the water in the wetland kept flowing throughout and has maintained a healthy level. The watercress that suffered a mass die off earlier in the summer after being chewed up by what we think was the Watercress Beetle (it didn't half pong as it rotted) has come back in fresh green rafts ready for another takeover bid.
Our tumps, with their south facing, thin-soiled slopes have been quite bleached by the sun and are even crunchy underfoot in parts which is quite unsettling. Dragonflies and damselflies have been less common this year, as have butterflies, although I've noticed one or two more Common Blues this year, but far fewer Skippers, Coppers and Meadow Browns which again is disconcerting.
One evening last week, I sat and watched a Common Blue butterfly settling for the night on a head of Sweet Vernal Grass that lit up like a little gas lamp in the evening sunlight. Below and beyond were pools of blue-lilac harebells. The experience has inspired the nymph of a poem, not yet ready to be revealed to the world.
