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Oats at last!
It has now been three and a half months since I sowed my “wild” oats, and I can now happily report that tremendous progress has been made. At the time, the oat project was designed to work out if arable crops can be grown on freshly drained peat, but as the summer has gone on,… Continue reading
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Game on
Having recently moved house to an area near the far end of the Chayne, I set out this morning with stick in hand and camera on back to explore the surrounding scenery. To the south of the farm, a high crag overlooks our entire property, and never having climbed it before, I set off onto… Continue reading
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Off topic
When I first started to write this blog, I intended it to look at managing an upland rough shoot throughout the year. As time has gone by, the subject matter has gravitated towards black grouse and habitat management. I make no apology for this, since I find those subjects most interesting, and limited as a… Continue reading
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Back in black
It has almost been two months since I last saw the blackcock. Despite the fact that reliable sources told me that I should expect him to vanish during his moult in July, I felt certain that he had been killed and eaten by some coarse and unwelcome predator. Finding his feathers in early July provided… Continue reading
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40th bird species
Since I started this project, I have seen so many different sides to the farm. To begin with, it was all a blur. There was so much to see and learn that it was hard to concentrate on any details. As time has gone by, the massed confusion has, to some extent, passed by and… Continue reading
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The musketeer
Despite the fact that grouse numbers on the Chayne are still too low to sustain shooting in any respectable form, it seemed like a good idea to commemorate the glorious twelfth on Saturday (14th) with an experimental walked up day designed to give my friend Richard, who shoots with an 1858 military pattern Enfield muzzle… Continue reading
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Amazing heather
Almost seven months after fencing off the heather laboratory, the heather is starting to show incredible improvements. When the fence was built, it was designed to sit at an angle across a stand of overgrazed ling to show what a difference livestock were making to the moor. Only in the last fortnight has any real… Continue reading
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A trip to Geltsdale
The RSPB really do care about black grouse, but I had to keep reminding myself of it when I drove out to Geltsdale on Sunday to look around their reserve in the hills overlooking Carlisle. When I was interviewing some volunteers at the RSPB stand at the Great Yorkshire Show in July, they proudly informed… Continue reading
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A new timber project
Battling away with a strip of twenty five year old sitka spruces as I have been for the past seven months, I was relieved at the weekend to start work on a new project. Around seventy years ago, a small inbye paddock above the farm buildings was planted with a scattering of sitka spruces, hemlocks… Continue reading
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A squadron of kestrels
The Chayne is accessed by over a mile of single track road. Grass grows green between the tyre tracks, and cattle grids buzz past underneath the car as you follow the narrow path around the hillside. Telephone and electricity cables run along the verge, suspended by a series of worryingly crooked poles, and it is… Continue reading
About
“Shout on, Morgan. You’ll be nothing tomorrow”
Swn y galon fach yn torri, 1952
Also at: https://andtheyellowale.substack.com
Bog Myrtle & Peat 