New recruits and celebrations

Tuesday was a real day of sunshine and showers and we did our second round of plug planting in the species rich hay meadow field at Mazonwath. It poured down before and as we left, but we enjoyed some bright sunshine whilst we planted out 1,400 species rich hay meadow plants. This is a partnership working with the Cumbria Seed Bank project who are trying to create strongholds of rare plants around the county. It was great to welcome lots of people with their trowels to help us plant. As last year we planted in the shape of a clock, and this year the species included yarrow, knapweed, vetch, red clover, ox eye daisy, and burnet.

We were back over at Mazonwath on Wednesday for our monthly dry stone walling day and we continued to build the wall down the slope. Once again we welcomed some new recruits keen to learn this ancient rural art. In a howling wind we cracked on and re-built a long section of wall. Thoughts turned to what next once we have finished this section of wall. No need to worry, I have plenty more in my sights that needs our attention!

In the news

The NFU have released a short video which is proving a big hit with over 200,000 views. In the video, farmer Rob explains how his crop of hemp ends up in train seats, from harvesting and retting the crop to processing the fibres, winding it on bobbins and supplying it to manufacturers.

It’s also time to harvest seeds to grow on into future plants. There is a great little article from the Forestry Commission about how to do this – Seed Gathering Season: Jon Stokes on a magical time of year. We did a bit of seed collecting with the Threlkeld School children at our Dam Mire open day. It will be interesting to see how many of the seeds they collected have germinated and what species. We regularly get offers of native trees that have sprung up in gardens and people want to know if we can use them. Yes is the answer, so if you are fairly local and want to give a seedling a new life, get in touch!

CPRE awards

Next week several of the team are off to London. It’s the CPRE Centenary Awards that celebrate people and projects finding creative and practical ways to help the countryside and its communities thrive. We have been shortlisted in three categories:

• Dam Mire Wood is nominated for Best Green Space project.
• Jack who was, until he retired, our Dark Skies and Hedges and Edges officer is nominated for the Countryside Changemaker award.
• Stephanie, our engagement trainee, is nominated for the Young Countryside Changemaker award.

Well done to all for making the shortlist and being recognised. The winners will be announced at an awards presentation at the House of Commons.