Nature Blog by Jenny Bourne

The laying of the last section of our native deciduous hedge has been completed this week by the TCV team, with help from some plotholders.

It’s World Wildlife Day today. Our semi-resident young dog fox has taken a liking to the raisins in bird seed mix put down for the robins; the sequence of events now goes – I turn up and open the shed door,

I had a surprise last Friday on a mild, sunny afternoon when I parked my bike as usual against our new compost piles, courtesy of the Royal Stables; looked up and there was the little fox not a metre away, dozing atop the heap! Good news that the heap is generating heat.

After what felt like weeks of dull, overcast skies it eventually brightened up and some days it’s been almost like early spring! On Tuesday the milder temperatures brought out honeybees to my snowdrops and hellebores; one of my favourite varieties is Nothing Special, reliably one of the first to flower.

Another early morning of hard frost with a lemon gold sun rising over the urban horizon got me out, well wrapped up and insulated against the cold to take more ‘frosty plots’ photos.