April
April began - cold. It was a month of grazing and fires, with a variety of weather from wind, rain and hail, through to hot.
Hop to task logFlowers are blooming
The hill is slowing colouring up, with flowers and butterflies.
Butterflies seen includes whites, brimstones, a comma and an orange tip
Hairy violet
Salad Burnet
cowslips
and animals emerging
"Beyond the call of duty" - 27th April
Today's wednesday task was to "remove or bury the rocks, and level out the ridges".
I thought it was a joke, but sure enough, the plan was to work the bare ground, so it was both flat enough,
and sufficiently rock-free to mow (when the grass grows back, next week).
The Cows went home - 22nd April
We had 14 cows at the start and 10 have since gone. The remaining 9 left today, as evenings lengthen and more people and dogs roam the hill.
Clearance - 18-19th April
Aebi controlling the collector, tipping into trailer pulled by tractor
Some of the 45-50 sacks of poo collected from compartment 8 - which is the smallest of our areas.
With hawthorn regrowth this successful, can we really replace it with grass?
Sunday task - 17th April
He was there long enough to be 'well-done', though it was not a cold day
New volunteer, Ros
Shield bug
Grazing (and poo-picking) continue - 10th April
Fire - 8th April
Following the major scrub-clearance, many large piles of uprooted scrub need to be disposed of.
Seed sowing - 6th April
Having had a seed-collection program going for some time, we found a use for these on our own site.
Following the major scrub-clearance program courtesy the MOD grant, we now have many hectares of bare soil (and chalk).
Today, we planted one of these areas, in the confident expectation of seeing a field of flowers and grass later this year.
Raking out grass that was mown from the site when the flowers growing amongst it were in seed.
Spreading
Scattering seeds that had been collected from growing flowers, then mixed with sand.