Warm, Wet and Windy.

With Christmas well behind us now and daylight hours beginning to lengthen it is time to get back outside and see what we can reasonably do when the weather conditions allow.    Warm, wet and windy sums it up, in that order.  Thankfully we have no fear of being flooded out; we are at the top of a hill, but I do keep a wary eye on the willow trees around the pond.  I keep expecting some of them to give way.  They have not been pollarded for many years and, in fact, I had already arranged for just that to be done early in the New Year.  It will change the view enormously but it really must be done.

Filling the bird feeders is a regular job at this time of year.  I could set my clock by the time the birds feed, which is useful when I want to look out for any newcomers.  House sparrows and many other small birds leave the farmland in winter and go  for garden bird feeders where fat products are particularly valuable.  I provide suet balls, which are less costly than peanuts and do not attract squirrels.  Having said that it is entertaining to watch the squirrels running around in the leafless trees and jumping from branch to branch.

If you are a traditionalist it will soon be time to take down the Christmas decorations; twelfth night; is it January 5th or 6th?  The discussion comes up every year;  perhaps you could give me your opinions   The village has looked particularly attractive this year, with a Christmas tree, kindly donated by parishioners, Suzanne and David Green and surrounded by "pretend" parcels made up by children and villagers.  The Cross Keys also did its bit with a Christmas tree and a splendid pudding adorning the steps.  The Christmas dinner, attended by a number of village ladies was very enjoyable as will be the New Years Eve party, scheduled for tonight.

    

  

   

Christmas is Coming.

A lot of rain recently has made outdoor activity rather unnattractive.  Happily the programme of local events has provided a pleasant alternative.  The Bookcase put on an unusual seasonal talk, starting with a potted history of the Christmas Tree, and its introduction to the festive scene in Britain.  Not surprisingly, as it was a feature of German festivities, it appeared in the royal household, at the time of Queen Victoria.  From there it was quickly adopted by the general public and has remained, ever since, an essential ingredient of our Christmas decorations.  The remainder of the afternoon was given over to showing pictures of unusual baubles, mainly glass, but some in other fabrics, collected by the speaker, Peter Smith, over a period of years.                                                 
  

     

Initially most of these baubles were to be found in the USA but as their popularity and variety increased they became more readily available in this country.  Techniques for their production developed.

With a collection of over 200 to choose from Christmas in the Smith household must be a daunting undertaking every year.      

Writing about Christmas decorations reminds me that our holly trees, which were thick with berries a few weeks ago, have now shed most of them, making a carpet on the ground beneath.  This happens nearly every year and I should really like to know why.  It may be the few windy days we have had; it certainly is not lack of water.  Oddly enough the birds do not seem interested in them.  The blackbirds prefer the fallen apples and have now been joined by flocks of fieldfares.  A sparrowhawk is to be seen regularly hovering over the long grass in the paddock before swooping down on some small mammal; what amazing eyesight they must have.  Another welcome sighting has been the barn owl, flying low along the hedge in the same paddock.  The tussocky.grass provides a good supply of voles which are a favourite source of food for the barn owl.    

  

Jerusalem - Without the Jam.

Fish and chips was the order of the day (and you can't get more British than that)  on the occasion of the Epperstone Womens Institute birthday party celebrating 95 years in existence.  Entertainment was provided by The Stormy Weather Boys, who had everyone joining in lustily with the choruses of their sea shanties.  The evening raised a welcome £300 for the charity, Maggies, the cancer support unit at Nottingham City Hospital and also, hopefully, attracted a few new members.

The social whirl continues with the Epperstone Ladies Luncheon to be held at the Cross Keys next month; but more of that later.

Rain and strong winds have been the feature of the weather during the past two weeks.  Amazingly, little damage occurred on the farm though some of the willow trees round the pond are looking a bit the worse for wear.  Not for nothing are they called Crack Willow.  They are in desperate need of pollarding; this is something I shall have to look into with some urgency.  The same wind has fetched the last remaining leaves off the trees, conveniently blowing them into heaps and thus making them much easier to collect.  Nevertheless, I shall have to take care that some of the longer lying heaps are not hiding any hibernating mammals such as hedgehogs, of which, I am pleased to say, we have had many sightings during the summer.  There has been a catastrophic decline in the hedgehog population, estimated at 1.5 million in 1995 and now reduced to probably under a million.  If you want to know more about these creatures the website www.hedgehogstreet.org is full of interesting information and well worth a read.

Writing as a tourist, I found myself in Plymouth recently and was delighted to find that there is an excellently presented exhibition centred on the Pilgrim Fathers  Their origens, of course, are centred on the village of Scrooby, in North Nottinghamshire so the exhibition made a good follow-up to what we already have in the county. If you want to brush up on the history of these brave people you can find much detail on www.pilgrimfathersorigens.org then make it the object of a day out.

  


  

A Warning.

 It has been an amazing year for fruit, both  cultivated and hedgerow.  Those of you who enjoy a glass of sloe gin will find the fruits in plenty and can use the long, dark evenings to make a warming winter tipple.  It is not necessary, as some would have it, to wait until the first frost before picking your sloes, nor is it beneficial to put them in the deep freezer unless you want to store them to be dealt with at a more convenient time. It should be remembered, however, that blackthorn, which produces the sloe, has very sharp thorns and a prick or a scratch from these can rapidly turn septic, so take care when picking the fruit.

   
Epperstone social life gathers momentum as the evenings get longer.  A Wine Tasting event, organised by the Sports and Leisure Club, was sold to capacity and raised welcome funds for the Club. A large crowd enjoyed Bonfire Night and fireworks at the Cross Keys.
Members of the Womens Institute are looking forward to a party celebrating ninety-five years since the formation of the Branch; not a bad achievement.

Things have slowed down a bit on the farm now that we are well into November.  The weather remains incredibly mild (I am tempting fate again) so it is no hardship to start on the list of outdoor jobs waiting to be done.  With daylight hours being shorter most of these jobs will be started in the morning and that, at the moment, means leaf sweeping.  I probably say the same thing every year but I don't think I have ever seen so many leaves on the ground.  That may be because there has also been very little wind so the leaves have remained where they have fallen instead of being blown into drifts.  It has also been quite wet so a good time to plant out the wallflowers, which will have a lovely scent when they flower in the spring.  Once again the orchard has yielded more fruit than we can possibly eat but the birds will be happy to feed on the surplus.

Culture In The Country.

As the hours of daylight shorten there is an incentive to become a little more sociable.  That is not difficult within the area.  The Bookcase,

in Lowdham, launches a programme of events in November which includes, this year, a talk on beekeeping and all its aspects, an increasingly popular subject.  There will also be the opportunity to meet Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, who will be celebrating the publication of her latest book, The Snow Garden.  Those who enjoyed War Horse will be able, once again, to spend an evening in Southwell Minster with master-storyteller and bestselling author, Michael Morpurgo.

Shorter days also affect the outdoor routine.  My small flock of free-range hens goes to roost earlier so they are spending more hours shut in. This in turn means that the henhouse must be cleaned at shorter intervals.  The alternative is to get up earlier to let them out at
daylight -  not really a very attractive idea!  I am sometimes asked if egg production drops in the winter, but the answer is that hybrid birds tend to lay all year round, though in slightly reduced numbers.  It is the pure-bred, so-called rare breed birds, that lay very few eggs or stop laying until the spring.

The trees are beginning to lose their leaves;  the colours have been really vivid this autumn. A good strong wind is needed to blow them into heaps which will mean less work when it comes to raking them up and moving them.  If you can store them they make wonderful leaf mould to subsequently return to the garden.  A word of warning - hedgehogs normally go into hibernation in October, though with the mild temperatures we have experienced lately it is possible that they are still around.  Nevertheless be aware that a pile of leaves may be hiding one of these increasingly rare little creatures and any disturbance reduces their ability to survive the winter.  Equally, if you are lighting an autumn bonfire check first that it has not been chosen as the winter home for local wildlife.

Thankfully our fields are all drilled up for the winter.  It is always a worrying decision to make; shall we drill or shall we hold back a little longer?  Too early and the crop risks being too advanced and at risk of disease or weather damage; too late and our heavy land may become too wet to support the passage of machinery.  Well, now it is done and, believe it or not, we could do with some rain to get things going.  No wonder people say that farmers are never satisfied.

       
           

Goings On in Autumn

With the cereal harvest well and truly behind us the village has celebrated in customary fashion.  Harvest supper, always a popular event, took place in the village hall. Villagers enjoy an excellent meal of boiled ham, vegetable bake and potatoes served with a very special plum sauce; vegetarians are catered for then it is head for the desert table where the choice is spectacular and limited only by the amount one can get on the plate.  A very enjoyable social evening.  This was followed on Sunday by the Harvest Festival Service in the beautifully decorated  Holy Cross Church.

  It has always been customary to take offerings of food to this Service for subsequent distribution to the less well-off and whilst fresh fruit and vegetables make an attractive display it is now deemed more practical to take items which can be stored and taken to the local food bank which the church supports.

Since writing about field mushrooms i have been on the lookout for blewits, a species of edible fungi much sought-after and, I believe, most frequently found in the Midlands.  Certainly they are to be found for sale on local market stalls.  However, they should be treated with caution when eaten for the first time as they can cause an allergic reaction in some people.

We are fortunate in having a bookshop in the neighbouring village whose proprietor puts on many events during the year. The Autumn/Winter programme has just appeared; it contains talks which will appeal to a wide range of interests. The talk on beekeeping is sure to be popular and that entertaining duo "Cook and Book" is back.

While there is no shortage of things to do and see in Nottinghamshire it is sometimes worth looking a little further, which is why Sunday found me visiting the village of Eyam, in Derbyshire.  Incidentally,the pronunciation of the name is open to debate, being pronounced "Eem", one syllable rather than Ee-am, two syllables - rather like our local town, is it "Suthell"or "South-well?  Be that as it may, it is best known as "the plague village" the story of which is well-documented and presented in the museum in the village with an excellent video, pictures and showcases. The museum has also mounted a new exhibition, running until 2018, entitled Eyam 1914-1918, and this too makes fascinating viewing.

     .  

The Mystery of the Mushroom.

Autumn can be such a joy.  This year is an example.  Days of sunshine with mild temperatures and no wind make outdoor work a pleasure.  We might be tempted to take it for granted were it not for the visitors who frequently comment on the peaceful situation, the space around us, the pace of life.  Of course, it is not quite the same when it is also our workplace!  Nevertheless, we are indeed extremely fortunate to live here, to be able to appreciate all the benefits of our surroundings and to share it all with our guests.

Talking of benefits, the mushroom season has arrived.  They are very unpredictable, popping up where mushrooms have never been seen in years and failing to appear where they can normally be counted on to provide a supply.  It is essential to be able to identify edible species as there are many inedible and even poisonous ones.  Of the 3,500 different species in Britain 7 or 8 are deadly, 25 or 30 are poisonous, of the remainder about 30 are good to eat.  With this in mind it is possible to join a fungi identification walk of which several take place at this time of year.  There are many ways which, added together, enable identification of the fungi.   Having said that I still err on the side of caution and only cut field and horse mushrooms.

The weather was kind for the Southwell Ploughing Match which took place last weekend.  It is one of the social highlights of the farming year and this year was no exception.  The site was excellent, attendance was good and the access and parking was well managed.  There are competitive classes for livestock, produce, crafts and much more; it is an excellent showcase for local and regional businesses.

Birds which have been absent from the garden feeder for several weeks have returned and appear to be stocking up for winter.  A little flock of Long-tailed Tits has paid several visits and the goldfinches are regulars now.  Further away something prompted me to look up and I spotted  four buzzards circling and planing high above the farm; a majestic sight.  How can they see a potential dinner from such a great distance?