Blackford Woods and Bees!

After a busy week with bed and breakfast, we went with the dogs over to Winsford Hill. The roadside banks and woods are covered with bluebells and the scent is delicious. The beech trees are now fully out and are a lovely fresh green – such a wonderful contrast to the winter colours. The saying goes ‘oak before ash, in for a splash. Ash before oak, in for a soak’. This spring, the oak is well ahead of the ash – so good signs for summer sunshine!

The warm showers we have had over the past week have brought on a lot of growth. The fields have been rolled and shut up ready for hay and silage and the ewes and lambs have also benefited from the rush of spring grass.

When we walked at Blackford earlier in the week, we met Patrick who has lived here all his life and is very well known for his beekeeping and honey (Exmoor Honey). We were chatting just as he was about to round up a swarm which were hanging from a branch in the hedge. Talking to him, we had a good insight into his beekeeping activities on Exmoor and all the different places he keeps them. As Patrick made to collect the swarm, we beat a hasty retreat and walked over to Blackford Woods on the Holnicote Estate.

This is a newly created wood owned and managed by the National Trust and is planted with a variety of indigenous trees including oak, hazel, ash, maple and rowan. A stream runs through the wood into a large pond surrounded by bull rushes and marsh marigolds and is teaming with tadpoles. On our way back to the truck, Derek’s day was made complete when he found 2 single antlers (little things please little minds)!