And again three months passed by and no new blog from us. However, always looking on the bright side of life, lots of things happened since then. Not to mention the highest carbon dioxide emissions worldwide since 2015. The hosts of Cop28 are actually there to sell their oil, because they are building the most monstrous new cities in the desert and need the money to pay for it. And of course the most depressing event is the war in Gaza where human life is measured in two completely different categories, one for Palestinians and one for Israelis. Let’s hope that the remaining hostages will be r ..read more

The last three months must have passed at warp speed so that I did not manage to write any lines about our small enterprise. Having mentioned last time what Gaby planted, it is now already time to look back at the soft fruit harvest which was slightly disappointing compared to last year. No white currants at all, a few gooseberries, some red and black currants, but at least more delicious raspberries this year. One reason for the reduced amount of fruit was a number of young blackbirds who managed to find the smallest holes in the fruit cage netting. Our netting is a real problem. It seems to ..read more

This is the first new blog which will not be published anymore in our local parish magazine, to which I have contributed since January 2019. I cannot continue because the editors of the White Heart Vale decided to cut an essential paragraph out of my last article just because I criticised breeding of pheasants linked to the sacrifices we as smallholders have to inflict on our small feathered livestock because of bird flu restrictions. They neither informed me nor offered me an opportunity to reconsider or edit it. This is not in line with freedom of speech or any democratic rights. New growth ..read more

The rain stopped only for a short time in December with a very cold spell, never experienced in the 10 years we are living in Dorset.  The lowest temperature was about 10 degrees below zero and the landscape looked beautiful. However, for a smallholder the beauty brings worries, our livestock need to drink. At those temperatures every water trough freezes but even worse the rain water supply stops as well. Hence, we needed to carry buckets of water to the animals across the field. Secondly, the grass as a food source is also significantly limited, thus lots of hay needs to be carried to ..read more

Since the drought finished the rainy season seems to be endless. As we did not have enough water we now have far too much to cope with. Hey ho, we shouldn’t complain and rather adapt to the situation. It can only get worse. Looking at the lack of commitment of all nations to reduce CO2 emissions, the average temperature increase, currently at 1.2 degrees Celsius, is going to rise beyond the critical limit of 1.5 degrees, where it becomes almost impossible to reverse the climate catastrophe. However, there is hope. The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres is ringing the alarm bell, Sir David ..read more

Two days before I wrote this article, we all lost a remarkable human being who took her duty for this nation as seriously as nobody before, her majesty Queen Elisabeth II. I wish our new King Charles III that he continues that incredibly important task and leads this nation into a healing process of the environment and our society, both are broken and at brink of no return. Record breaking temperatures As I predicted in my last article, we have managed to break the temperature record to 40.3 degrees in Lincolnshire, and additionally reached the longest recorded drought for 120 years. We had ..read more

As I am writing this article the heat wave is on its way. Will the heat record of 2019 of 38.7 degrees Celsius be broken this year? The chances are very good as we carrying on pumping CO2 in the atmosphere, chopping off ancient trees for HS2 and don’t really change our life style to compensate for the recovery of nature. There was something called Cop 26 last year, does anyone remember it, or even worse does anything happen because of it? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Hence, every one of us in our community has to take action. Don’t cut the grass so low that it becomes a brown desert, allow ..read more

The War on Weeds The last two weeks have demonstrated how much an impact warmer nights and overall higher temperatures have on photosynthesis and therefore the growth rate of vegetation. Unfortunately, the winners are the weeds. Being organic makes it so much more labour intensive to free up the newly planted trees and vegetables to give them a good start. Additionally, flying and roaming enemies (fluffy) doing their bit and eating all the young shoots. Full Nests and Empty Beehives On the positive side beautiful flowers emerge, enriching the garden with a lovely scent and a white carpet of f ..read more

Our owl population is struggling, one of the reasons being lack of dry nesting sites. To try and help, we invited Alan Wells from Pitcombe Rock Falconry. They rescue and rehabilitate owls and birds of prey, but they are also on a mission to increase the dwindling numbers of breeding pairs in the wild. As part of their ‘owl box project’ they build and sell nest boxes for three different types of owls to their own improved designs – but they also come out to assess the terrain, advise on where to put the box, put them up, and monitor the future residents. Owl facts Alan told us many interesti ..read more

After the dullest December 2021 since 1956 with only 26.6 hours of sunshine and record high temperatures of 14.2 degrees Celsius on New Year’s eve in Yeovil, the Christmas break was a bit of a home bound imprisonment. The log burner was running almost permanently, the wine bottle was opened earlier than usual and chocolates were eaten quicker than ever before. Shopping habit changes However, this year has already offered a bit more sunshine and that delivers energy to start all the good resolutions for this year. One mission is to drastically reduce our waste production in terms of packagin ..read more