Land Manager's Diary: Read it here>

BOOK onto one our upcoming workparties>

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It has been a pretty extreme week for weather in the north Lakes ranging from a foot of snow on Friday, through to treacherous ice and flooding. It was touch and go whether to hold the dry stone walling workparty at Mazonwath on Wednesday due to the conditions, but we braved it and have a new volunteer as a result, although he didn’t last long – Snowy our friendly snowman!

Pictured: 'Snowy' our friendly snowman!

took the crowbar and spades with us, not to dig out footings, but to dig out the stones which had frozen to the ground! With all the awful weather, the longing for spring is even bigger, surely it will warm up soon…

Pictured: Freezing conditions at Mazonwath

The curlews were singing overhead as we rebuilt the wall but huddled under coats and bobblehats that was about the only sign of spring…

Pictured: A well earned coffee break and a chance to warm cold hands

Despite this, this week our thoughts have been focused on the next six months, planning for better weather and activities that need to be done in spring and summer. We are very excited to be launching our virtual tour of High Borrowdale in the next few weeks, so everyone and anyone can have a look at the land and explore it from the warmth of your favourite armchair. Look out for more information on this shortly.

This year we are planning to put together virtual tours for five other properties we so have been planning their content. That meant for example at Mazonwath, filming a short video of Charles and Rachel talking about what they like about the land and why they come walling. We also put up the timelapse camera to get some footage over the next few months so that the video will be able to show the land as spring comes. This content will sit alongside drone footage and other information on the site. Other tours planned for this year include Little Asby Common, Greenbank and Sweden Woods, and Mike’s Wood.

We are also working on a programme of training for anyone who wishes to volunteer to help us survey our land sites. We are planning half a dozen or so training days this summer and more next year to cover certain subjects. People will not have to sign up to them all to help us, and can pick and choose. Training is booked for lichens and hay meadow flowers already and we are trying to finalise dates for other subjects. Again look out for more information on this in the next few weeks or get in touch with me. [email protected]