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Spring Comes to Bel's Wood 2024

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I find myself willing time to slow down as we move into spring. I love to look at the skeletal trees on the skyline opposite the wood. While responding with excitement to the new leaves emerging I feel a pang of loss of winter. As the days have lengthened I have heard the bird song increase and become more insistent. And then the first queen bumblebees emerged looking for their nests. The willow is always first with its catkins and bumble and honeybees flock there.        The camera was triggered by nothing that appeared on screen  but I have included as the bird song is caught nicely so sound on for this one The gorse does fabulous work at this time of year being abundant and the yew trees are flowering now too which is leading to a buzz in the air.                                   Gorse                                                                                      Yew Then the blackthorn came into bloom and the first cherry blossom has just appeared.                    
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Operation Mulch Mat - half way there!

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Blue - done Pink - to do With help from friends and with lengthening days I remain on target to get all the mats laid by the end of April. I’ll then go round again and add the extra spigots where we have only added one for now and finish by mid June just in time for the bracken to start growing. I am really enjoying it. I started with a sense of rush and press to get the mats down. Now I know I can do 50 when feeling tired/ in the wet and the cold; 100 on a normal day and 150 when I ‘go for it’ I have a sense of confidence that they will get down before the grass starts to grow in earnest. I passed the half way mark of 2,125 this week & I now know what it will take to do the other half. I am going to the wood often for a couple of hours at a time and friends give me an hour or two most weeks and that has kept the plan on track. Here is the story of the first half. The first half arrived in early February on a cold wet day They were stowed to protect them from the rain and then we
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