Wildlife Hospital Talk

This is a post to support a trio of local charities: Stour Valley Wildlife Action Group, who are hosting a talk about the Vale Wildlife Hospital and Rehabilitation Centre, in aid of Shipston Home Nursing.  Here’s the information …

SVWAG Talk Poster

SVWAG Talk Poster

Do head along if you can.  Not only will it be interesting, but all in a good cause.

The 50+ Festival

On Saturday this week, 30 September, we are at the 50+Festival in Stratford upon Avon: An A-Z Guide to the Second Half of Life.

Organised by Engage, this is an ‘Information Day at Stratford-upon-Avon’s first Festival for those from 50 to 100+. There’s a lot going on in our town and surrounding area for people from 50 to 100+ but it’s not always easy to discover who’s doing what and where. If you’d like to expand your horizons, learn a new skill or hobby, volunteer or simply acquaint yourself with what’s going on that might be of interest, this is the Fair for you! 60 or so exhibitors, workshops and talks and a great café too. Easy, free parking and disabled access. Come along with family and friends – or make new ones over a cuppa – and add oomph, gaiety and a sense of purpose to your life. No need to book – just turn up on the day.’

The event is in the Levi Fox Hall at King Edward VI School, Chapel Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6HB.

Do come along and have a look at what’s on offer.  Come and find us, and say hello.  We’d love to see you there.

It begins a week of activities and opportunities.  Check the website at https://www.engagefestival.org.uk/.

Stars, Bats and Gold Spots

On Sunday last we held a moth night here at Sun Rising and what a beautiful event it turned out to be.  There are regular surveys of moths at the site, run by local enthusiast Alan Prior, but only once a year do we open these up to the public.  Around 25 attending the event, some staying until the early hours of the morning.

The sky wasn’t ideal for moths – not quite enough cloud to bring them down to the light boxes – but that meant it was a glorious night for star gazing.  With barely a whisper of wind, and the temperature staying in the mid teens, there were bats flying – we estimated up to 40 individual pipistrelles in one area.  A barn owl was out hunting, and I heard a tawny owl in the distance.  Hares and rabbits were seen too.

Gold Spot Moth recorded at Sun Rising Moth Night 2017

Gold Spot Moth recorded at Sun Rising Moth Night 2017

As for the moths, some 1259 were counted in the light traps, of some 78 different species.  Along with Alan, we had the comprehensive knowledge of Scott Hackett, John Finlay and Peter Smith on hand, and those attending were given the chance to learn a huge amount about these little seen – and seldom appreciated – beautiful creatures.  A big thank you to all who made it such a great event.

 

Baling for Redwings

The cutting of the wildflower meadow is always a marking point of the turning tides of the year.  There are of course, almost certainly, warm and tranquil days ahead, September offering golden evenings and lazy moments in the sunshine, but the summer has become harvest and is now clearly moving towards autumn.

At Sun Rising, the long golden grasses and seedheads of the wildflower meadow are now mostly cut.  The woodland burial areas and plantations of young trees are tidied and the saplings mulched.  The meadow is now cut and, where a month ago there was the floriferous profusion of summer colours there is short grass and stubble.  It’ll green up again over the coming month, but stay short now until next spring.

We’d like to thank all the lovely volunteers who came on Sunday to help out with the raking.  We’d like to thank Michael Gibbs who came with his marvellous 1969 Ford tractor to cut the meadow and bale it.  We’d like to thank Colin Locke for lending us his trailer.  20 bales of delicious (apparently) wildflower hay was delivered to Redwings Horse Sanctuary yesterday, which it is a pleasure to support.

Staff at Redwings Horse Sanctuary with Sun Rising Volunteer Robin dropping off the Hay Bales

Staff at Redwings Horse Sanctuary with Sun Rising Volunteer Robin dropping off the Hay Bales

Raking and Mulching

The work of clearing and tidying for autumn has now begun, and on Sunday morning two dozen wonderful individuals headed over to Sun Rising to help out with the tasks.

The Volunteers for the Woodland Burial Areas, August 2017

The Volunteers for the Woodland Burial Areas, August 2017

It was the woodland burial areas that we were focusing on.  All the grasses and flowers had been strimmed through the week, and the job was to rake up the hay and use it to mulch around the saplings.  As you can see (below), we had one volunteer who did most of the important work all by himself …

Showing everyone how to do it ...

Showing everyone how to do it …

Thank you to each and every one who came, not just for the great work accomplished, but for wonderful conversation, support and care, the delicious lunch shared and everything else that made the day so hugely worthwhile.

Next week we’ll be doing the meadow burial areas, and the wildflower meadow itself will be cut as soon as we have three days of clear dry weather ahead.

Roll of Remembrance

Every two years here at Sun Rising we have our Roll of Remembrance.  This is beautiful occasion when the names of all those buried, and all those remembered with a plaque or tree, are read aloud.  This year, with the harp playing in the background, there were nearly 800 names, every one an individual whose name evokes a flood of memories.  It was a glorious sunny day, with a whisper of a breeze, and the tea stall was laded with cakes, cordials and tea.

The Roll of Remembrance 2017

The Roll of Remembrance 2017

I’d like to thank everyone who attended, everyone who contributed – our readers and harpist, those who donated cakes, those who served at the tea stall and helped with parking, those who sold cards and calendars, those who helped set up and take down, and of course all those who brought along their good selves to listen, watch and add to the peaceful, supportive, respectful community of the day.

We raised almost £350 in aid of The Friends just from the teas!

Events for 2017

Our events for 2017 are just starting to take form.  We’ve posted a page here for you to pop some dates into your diary!   http://sunrising.co.uk/about/activitydays.html

You’ll see a couple of Nature Watch days this year, and a Moth Night in August.  We have our annual Open Day in June, and this year there’ll be Roll of Remembrance too, when the names of all who are buried here are read aloud.

Dates and further information will continue to develop, and full details will be given in our March newsletter in a month’s time.  Let us know if you’ve any queries.

Robin amidst Lichen

Robin amidst Lichen

Carols and Friends

Committing to an outdoor event at any time of year is a risk, but to organise one for mid winter is what, I think, we might call typical English madness.  We have had carolling events in biting cold, and streaming rain, on Sunday last we were blessed with a chilly day which was calm and dry.  As a result, a good many ventured out to join us; we estimate 180 – 200 people came on the day.

Carolling at Sun Rising

Carolling at Sun Rising

Thank you so much to Rebecca Knight and Leamington-based choir, Morning Chorus, who led the singing, and to everyone who lent their voices to the mix.  Thank you too to everyone who contributed to the raffle, tombola and refreshments stall, and to everyone who bought tickets (we had plenty of lovely prizes), mulled wine, cake and mince pies.  We raised over £600 all told for The Friends of Sun Rising.

We shall be open on Christmas Day, with tea, coffee and nibbles from 10 am until 12.30 or so, for those with a loved one laid to rest at Sun Rising, who may feel in need of a little warmth on what can be a very difficult day.

Hay Making

The wildflower meadow was mown this year using a small tractor and lovely local farmer and his very beautiful collie.  Sitting in the tractor cab, whenever they reached the end and backed up to turn and head down the row, the dog would bark at the reversing wheel as if with deep indignation, as if it were a misbehaving sheep heading in the wrong direction …

Spreading, drying and baling the hay was done over last week, with the bales going off to Redwings Horse Sanctuary (website) nearby.

Wildflower Bales

Wildflower Bales

The wildflower meadow is not the only part of the site that is cut, of course, and over the last two weeks we’ve been cutting and raking seeding grass and wildflowers from woodland and meadow areas around Sun Rising.  On Saturday we had a wonderful collection of volunteers to help us – thank you to each and every one of them!

There was raking and mulching the trees with the grasses, and spreading the wildflower hay over meadow graves and grassy areas.  It was a lovely clear day of blue skies and passing clouds, and the breeze not only helped keep the workers cool but aided with spreading the seeding wildflowers as well …

Spreading Hay

Spreading Hay

The Hay Cut

There are occasions over the course of a year, managing a nature reserve and natural burial ground, that push against my instincts.  But the development of a nature reserve is about management: however much I would like to do so, we aren’t rewilding.

For rewilding to be of real value (i.e. letting an area revert to its own natural state), you need more than 16 acres, you need time, and you need it not to be a natural burial ground.  Here at Sun Rising, if we were to do nothing, the land would quickly become a tussocky scrub of blackthorn, hogweed, dock and thistle.  The sycamore, ash and birch seedlings would creep in after a while, and given a little longer, it would turn into a tatty sort of woodland.  In fifty years, it would no doubt be wonderful, but it would just be woodland, and very few of our families with loved ones laid to rest here would thank us for the difficult decades in between …

As a nature reserve, rather than rewilding, we are creating, and nurturing, different habitats in order to maximise biodiversity, providing a haven for as wide a range of local flora and fauna as we can.  Furthermore, we are doing that gently, sensibly, in order to ensure that each step of the way, its future is sustainable.  That takes management.

The Hay Cut, with Sunflowers by a Memorial Tree

The Hay Cut, with Sunflowers by a Memorial Tree

And one of the hardest moments of the year is when the main area of grassland is cut for hay.  The diversity of grasses is improving, with meadow barley, crested dogstail, bents, yorkshire fog, cocks foot, bromes, meadow-grasses, sweet vernal grass, false oat-grass, timothy, rye, and probably more.  The sky larks have nested and fledged, but there are very many other creatures living and breeding in grasses that are now up to 5 foot tall.  But if we didn’t mow, the heavy seedheads would encourage the stems to fall in the rain, it would mat and rot, increasing the soil fertility, and …

So we cut the grass.  In fact, it was cut on Sunday, and will be turned, then baled over the next few days.  I am still holding my breath, but the stubble will green again and new grass starts to grow, and slowly I’ll start to breathe again.