Monthly Update January 2026

Tonight, the moon was so bright that I could walk through the woods without a torch - just occasionally tripping over the shadow of a branch. It was very cold, but catkins are out on hazel trees and bluebells are just visible through their blanket of leaves.  No winter moths tonight; the males normally flying high to meet their wingless mates at the top of oak trees, producing all those hungry caterpillars on threads of silk in the spring to feed broods of blue and great tits. It’s peanuts and sunflowers in the garden for hungry birds right now. We have 20 Collar doves arrive promptly at 8am to feed in the chicken run AND mice, rats and squirrels have returned. We saw nothing of them over last summer, too hot and dry so no food for Barn Owl broods. Let’s hope it is better this year, especially in the garden.

As if to spur us on we have vegetable seeds galore.  Just as well because last year’s efforts were not very rewarding.  40 years ago we sold wheat from Rushall Farm for £150/tonne, and a good-sized tractor cost £12k.  Today the price of wheat is £150/tonne (or 6p in an average sized loaf) and a tractor (quite a lot flashier) is £120k. And yet we in the garden (and Steve on the farm) will again plant our packet of carrot seeds, ignoring the real fact that the picture on the packet does not in any way resemble what we harvest.

For parsnips, last year I grew 3 seeds per compost-filled pot.  As soon as the seedlings were strong enough I planted the whole lot in the garden without disturbing the roots. Then thinning, hoeing and watering over the whole summer with some success. But seasonal giveaways at Sainsbury’s made my efforts seem FUTILE (although I did get the joy and satisfaction of enjoying the flavour).

So, we will plant again, ready for a very full year of children visiting, always learning from them how to meet the ever-changing environment they are growing up into. We look forward to those bluebells delighting the woods, with primroses in such bold clumps, and coppiced hazel thriving under the umbrella of oak and ash.  And having done a “Tree Safety Awareness course” and a “Chainsaw refresher,” there is plenty of work to do to give safe travel on the paths.  The garden will thrive this year and my parsnips will shame the ones in Sainsbury’s because of their superior size, texture, colour and flavour AND maybe the price of wheat will go up?