May 2014 - week 10, Country Fair

Apologies for the late post, but weeks in the National Trust just fly by and it's been so busy. It's ironic that visitors know Mottisfont as a beautiful and relaxing place, but it's all so busy behind the scenes...we're busy making it a special place for our visitors of course!

Last Saturday was one of my favourite weekends of the year at Mottisfont - our Country Fair.

The weather was perfect and we had local crafts and conservation groups exhibiting, along with tree climbing, beer tasting (...popular stand), a barbecue and face-painting.

Some of our volunteers are incredibly creative:

This is John Surplus' stand. He crafts fallen tree trunks into these beautiful art sculptures. It must take ages and his work was used as inspiration for the art installation in our Beech Circle with some upside down trees.

One of our local tenants has written a book. It's a sort of Harry Potter meets Famous Five meets Swallows and Amazons. Charlotte brought her new book to the fair and hosted readings and face-painting and all sorts:

Our countryside team was out in force doing stuff with bugs in the "Caravan of Love" and Dave Chase did some tractor demos:

The soundtrack for the day was given by a 1930s imitation band, who were superb:

Our visitors loved them. 

We launched our appeal for the Walled Garden, so I spent the day selling raffle tickets. It was great talking to visitors in the sunshine, some of whom had travelled from as far afield as the Lake District and Leicestershire. But it was also great to hear stories from regulars who visit Mottisfont every week. One lady visitor called it her "spiritual home, " where she comes to "refresh" after a busy week. Quite right!

May 2014 - week 9: Foxbury, New Forest

This is probably one of those subjects that I'll blog about fairly often, as it's such an interesting and important project.

Foxbury is a 150 acre site in the northern commons of the New Forest that we acquired in 1995. It's within the designation of the National Park, but the land is not SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) as it was last used for commercial timber. However, since the National Trust acquired the land, we have been restoring it to heath land by removing the invasive trees and shrubs such as rhododendron and introducing grazing by special breed cattle, such as Luing and Belted Galloway.

On Thursday, I went along to a day organised by our Lead Ranger - Lee Hulin - who showed us around the site with other Rangers and interested people from neighbouring properties within National Trust.

As usual when I visit the New Forest, the weather was shocking, but the day was brilliant. It was so informative and loads of ideas came out that will be genuinely useful in terms of informing what we do in future. They're clever people these countryside rangers and the level of technical knowledge within the National Trust is exceptional. 

The prospects for Foxbury are really exciting and I'll be a regular visitor, posting many updates I'm sure.

Also this week I was lucky enough to visit Woolbeding Gardens in South Downs National Park. Simply stunning:

The property is only open 2 days a week, but a real "must" to visit:

Week 8: Hamble River

To my great shame, there was a part of our countryside portfolio that I had not yet had the chance to visit since I started working here. Keen to correct that oversight, I took the advice of our Countryside Manager and visited Hamble River at the time of year it looks best. And I wasn't disappointed:

You can access the National Trust land at Curbridge, which is near Botley. The trail starts and ends at a pub (...not at all a prime motivation!) There's a sort of circular element to the walk, but it's a long, thin strip of land and a round trip is about 1.5 miles. Whilst it's a bit steep and muddy in places, it really is well worth a visit:

The extra attraction at this time of year are the Bluebells of course. I think this patch of land is a closely guarded secret, kept by the locals who have even decorated their own fairy tree:

After a walk through the woods, along a ridge, you come out onto a wonderful meadow with views over the river:

Cat, our Countryside Ranger, would like to plant up wild meadow flowers here, which would look wonderful. 

The land covers the area where the River Curr meets the River Hamble, forming an estuary before going out into the English Channel.

Cat tells me that it's a wonderful area for bird life, with some wading species and apparently she's even heard reports of Sea Bass swimming in the area. 

Anyway, it's definitely another special place that people enjoy, relax, refresh and "unclench." Love it.

In the evening, I went over to New Milton to present to Christchurch & New Forest Association:

What a friendly, receptive and vibrant association this is. They have nearly 1,000 members and I was lucky enough to be able to present on my favourite subject with our Outdoor Ranger, Laura Baker, who wowed the audience with a showcase of our work in the New Forest.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I get paid for this!