Finishing the old, starting the new

With the equinox behind us and the clocks changing this weekend, spring is officially here. The bright sunshine, daffodils everywhere and lambs in the fields are certainly making me think of the coming warmth and the jobs that come with the seasons. Before we can jump in to all the new projects, there are still some last winter jobs to complete but we are well on our way.

This week has seen the wardens here, there and everywhere! On Monday the team went to Betton Farm where a very large, old horse chestnut had lost its fight against the gales and lost its top as well as a couple of major limbs. It had just caught a fence with the tips of its branches to we cleared the brash and repaired the fence so that our tenant farmer can put his cattle out into the field to enjoy the new grass. It was a gorgeous bright day and our work was carried out to the sound of skylarks. We spotted a stoat as we left site but it was far too quick to me to get a picture, disappearing into the woods before I could even reach for the camera.

Before...



Fence fixed and brash removed



On Tuesday we split forces with one team on site repairing other fences and clearing timber while a few of us went to Lee Brockhurst to deal with some leaning and hung up trees. On Wednesday, we had a little celebration in the afternoon to mark the achievement of Senior Park and Estate Warden Colin Morris - 30 years of working for the Trust at Attingham!

On Thursday I went with Colin to Dunham Massey for a meeting of the Trusts deer managers. I was able to see their fallow deer herd which has until recently contained all four colour variations - the common and menil that we have here, plus some white and black (which are a very dark brown rather than true black). It was interesting to hear about how different properties manage their deer, with some quite different feeding and culling programmes. There's always something new to learn with the National Trust!