News

Here’s another report about wildlife in the orchard e-mailed by Jenny Galton-Fenzi to the Littlehempston Nature Lovers group at the end of April. This group shares information about local wildlife sighting and if you’d like to be included in the e-mail exchanges, do get in touch.

The community orchard is at peak blossom, so do go and have a look if you can. The wildflowers are starting to appear; Lady’s Smock seems to be scarce this year, as far as I’ve seen, but there are a few examples in the orchard, mostly flore pleno (doubles). The Bastard Balm in Grattons Lane is just appearing. We have at least three sorts of speedwell on the community land – Germander, Persian and thyme-leaved. A large stand of teasles has appeared by one of the fallen trees. (The photos show Lady’s Smock, Teasel, and Germander and Persian Speedwell.)

As many of you will know, a lot of time, energy and thought has been given to ridding the community land of some of its docks. Recently there was an article in the Totnes Times about docks by Rebecca Hosking. They haven’t always been looked on as a total nuisance, it seems. The young leaves were once eaten as a vegetable, and used for dying (yellow). They are also known as the countryman’s loo paper, so there might be a retail opportunity there if this situation goes on for much longer! Leaves were also wrapped around butter to keep it cool. Their seed is a food for winter birds, including cirl buntings. They support, according to Richard Mabey in his book ‘Weeds’ THIRTY-FOUR species of moth, some of which are familiar to us from our moth-trapping evenings. Rebecca Hosking is the lady who was instrumental in making Modbury a plastic bag-free zone. I thought I would contact her, and we had an exchange of emails. If anyone is particularly interested in hearing her views I can forward them…

My book of the moment is ‘The Garden Jungle (Gardening to Save The Planet)’ by Dave Goulson, Professor of Biological Sciences at Sussex University, and founder of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Written with a light touch, but full of wisdom and fascinating facts, including the answer to the riddle as to why a lot of insects are so plant specific.

Here’s a report sent out by the trustees at the end of April. Our fast-moving Spring has rendered some news already almost obsolete!

Hello everyone. There’s lots to see in our meadow and orchard right now, and we hope you are able to get out there to enjoy it.

Now that we are well and truly into Spring, the birds are all starting to nest and butterflies are fluttering around. Look out for Orange Tip, Brimstone and Peacock butterflies, which are about now. There are primroses in the ditch at the south-west end, apple blossom starting to appear on all the trees and foxglove leaves showing in the hedge bank that runs between the meadow and the orchard. (Anna brought back foxglove seeds from Cornwall and germinated them in the late summer of 2018. Since then the seedlings have been lovingly cared for by Anna and Jenny, and now it won’t be long until they start flowering. We hope that they will continue growing there for years to come.) If you look carefully you may see some meadow sweet leaves appearing in the hedges. There are actually many species of wildflower growing on our land. Why not see if you can spot any?

We have joined Moor Meadows and Anna will be gleaning information about how best to encourage biodiversity on our land from their community of members. She will pass on any useful nuggets that come her way.

We can see that people have been going and doing all sorts of wonderful acts of kind caring on the land BUT we are still announcing our Adopt a Patch Scheme. This is an idea which we hope families at this time of lock down will enthusiastically support. Please do pass on the idea.

If you do kindly manage to do any dock digging or thistle pulling or bramble cutting, please put them all in a pile somewhere neatly and later on we will come along and burn them. (Anna’s Guide to Pulling Thistles: It’s actually quite fun pulling up thistles at the moment. Have you ever done it? Look for thistles which are at least 4 inches tall – it won’t take long to find some, they are everywhere in the orchard! With some nice thick gloves on, take hold of the thistle at the base of the stem and gently pull it straight upwards. It will come out with a popping sound! You should be able to remove most of the root, but don’t worry if you didn’t manage it every time, there’s plenty more to try your hand at!)

And don’t forget to tell us what you’ve been doing! We’d love to know!

With very best wishes for your health and happiness – Your LCOM Trustees.
Anna, Jim, Lucy and Nicky.

If your children are looking for new activities during lockdown, this e-mail from Cllr Jacqui Hodgson sent to Val Hoare, who helps with Littlehempston’s Zoom Youth Club, may be of interest:

“I chair the Totnes Rural Area Youth Engagement (TRAYE) project. Our hardworking youth workers are now hosting ‘virtual sessions’ and they are proving very popular and well enjoyed. As our youth sessions are led by professional youth workers, we are able to provide more than just entertainment at these sessions, indeed they all start with a round-up of the week where the young people are encouraged to talk about how their week has been; during these potentially very stressful times this has proved very therapeutic and engaging. Some of the young people come from families who have been hard pressed financially during this crisis and our youth workers have been able to arrange some food parcels behind the scenes. I mention this to you, as during the current crisis we are extending the invite to young people in the parishes adjacent to Dartington, Staverton, Harberton, Marldon and Rattery; you would be very welcome to share the link for any of the young people in Littlehempston; our sessions range from ages 8-16 years (16-18 year olds can join as ‘helpers’). If any of the young people in the parish would like to access the TRAYE project sessions they will need to apply at www.TRAYE.org and scroll down the home page.”