Country Notes

Published on 3rd May 2007 in News

Driving around the countryside everywhere is lush and green.

The oak is well out but the ash is just starting to break into leaf – and as the saying goes – 'oak before ash we'll just get a splash' - which seems to be ringing true at the moment. However, I think the garden would welcome a good soaking. The hawthorn too is well and truly out now, but with this cold wind I still do not feel like 'casting a clout'.

The fields are a patchwork of colour: there are fields of brown that have just had the spring wheat drilled; then there are fields of green, which is the winter barley, rippling in the wind; and then there are fields of vibrant yellow, which is the oil seed rape, in full flower, and with it we are overwhelmed by its pungent smell. We either love it or hate it, but the insects certainly do love it.

I remember hearing a bee-keeper say that the allergies that people complain about when the rape is in flower, could be alleviated if during the winter months they had honey that the bees had made from the oilseed rape.

Well the migrants are here in full force, the house martins returning to the nests under the eaves of the house, and the swallows to their nests in the outbuildings. My first sighting of them was on 11th April, just a little earlier than normal. Of all the other migrants I have only seen the blackcap, on 23rd April, warbling its heart out.

I'm sure all the others will be here, somewhere, and I would be interested to hear about your first sightings, phone me on 01430 423920.

~ Rosemary Roach