January 2026
It’s raining. Again. I should be thankful though that yet again we have missed the worst of the Winter storms. Shoto dog has taken up his usual place on the table under the canopy on the veranda so it can’t be too bad.
Right now it’s difficult to imagine tents on the field and campers sitting in the sun, but we have made it through the ten darkest weeks so it’s downhill from now on. I get enquiries occasionally from all-weather, all-year-round campers, but as we close at the end of September we are not able to accommodate them. No matter what equipment you have I cannot imagine camping in this weather can be anything but miserable, but I guess that’s because I’m a bit of a wimp!
Last Summer’s drought meant the water in the pond got so low it became not much more than a large puddle – the fish must have been bumping into each other. Not now though, at least that’s been remedied. Unfortunately the pond was a disaster area for wildlife. Ducks, chicks, eggs, reed warbler nests etc were all decimated by a ‘something’. After a chat with Stephen from the Waterlife Recovery Trust we placed a live double ended trap near the pond and caught … a polecat! He was a feisty little fellow but very cute for all that. Larry relocated him a few miles away, hopefully leaving our pond life a bit safer this year. We have left the trap there in case he has family in the area, but so far nothing.
Last Summer there were three marriage proposals on site – isn’t that lovely? We do get asked from time to time if we can host weddings, and although it would be a nice thing to do it is just not something we can consider. We did have a beautiful, wedding here once, a number of years ago, but no more.
We have had sight of the tithe map of the area from 1846, and at that time what we call the Big Field on the campsite was known as the Mowing Meadow. We rather like that – it seems more appealing than the Big Field, so that’s what we’ll call it from now on. Our son bought Larry a tulip tree which he has planted on the Mowing Meadow, hopefully we’ll be around to see it flower – it takes a very long time! We will have to rein in our love of planting trees and remember campers need room for tents.
Back to wildlife – moles! It’s great to be able to hand back the campsite to the local wildlife every Autumn, and they certainly do make themselves at home. There must be a veritable mole city underneath the site, there are mole hills everywhere. I sometimes have a bit of a moan about the badgers digging holes and making scrapes, but badgers have got nothing on moles this year!
We cleaned out the owl boxes in October. Apparently owls are very early birds at scouting out suitable nesting sites, so now that the boxes are clear of squirrel and jackdaw rubbish we’re hoping a tawny owl might find at least one of our three boxes acceptable.
Have you got the Merlin app? If you are interested in birds it’s a fascinating app to have. We have discovered that we have an astounding variety of birds in the vicinity – some of which are really quite rare. Who knew? We certainly didn’t and we have a much better idea now of what to look out for. So if you’re a birdy person do come and see us this year, and bring the Merlin app. You’ll be very pleasantly surprised.
Larry picked some daffodils from the wood yesterday, a sure sign that Spring is on the way – if a little early. All it takes is a sunny day, daffodils and bird song to lift the spirits – so in the meantime Happy Wintering to all our campers, guests and friends. We are so looking forward to seeing you again.
Jen
The Mowing Meadow
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