Sumer Is Icumen In

The grass in the field is being cut, with our very own hay bales to follow shortly.  With no rain for the past couple of weeks, the process was very dusty, but lovely to see the shapes the tractor makes while avoiding our willow beds and elders.  The hay is being cut by, and going to, the cattle farmer just round the corner, which feels good and local.   The local birds of prey were out as soon as the tractor had finished...

And this is how it looks now it's finished (before being turned) with the lovely lines of drying grass/hay that I remember from childhood.   The grass ridges proved to be great hiding places for the red legged partridge and her 9 chicks as they made their way up the lane.  Our attempt to seed yellow rattle seed  in the field didn't work, so once the hay is baled, we'll dig up some of the plentiful daisies from the goose paddock and transplant them into the field.  There are good wide margins round the edge of the field, with plenty of vetch (and in spring lots of cowslips and primroses), which we'll hope to encourage further into the field.  And we've spotted lots of lovely red field poppies locally, so it'll be time for a seed collection outing soon.

Nick and I emptied an old water trough and shifted it so that it's positioned close to the yurt pitches at the top of the field, in a spot with plenty of sun.  It is now filled with ericaceous compost and 4 different varieties of blueberries, the first of which is already in fruit.  We've covered it with a thick woodchip mulch from the leylandii, which hopefully will help to keep the blueberries nicely moist throughout the summer months.   Our plan is to move some of the raspberry canes across to the field from the garden, so that throughout the summer there will be a good range of blueberries and raspberries available to yurt guests, as well as the blackberries we planted in the hedgerows over the winter.