Late Autumn Sunshine

Spent a day this week on a farm in the Cotswolds - great to enjoy some late Autumn sun

12 Days of Christmas

Becketts Farm use YouTube too - another great topic for discussion

April Podcast

Video podcast for January 2011

This is our first attempt at a podcast - a little amateur but we can only get better.

Snow on the farm

Just like the rest of the UK we have seen more snow in the last couple of week than in several decades!

A Farm Walk at your Fingertips

Farms are great places for learning, but all too often schools struggle to find the time - and finance to - make a farm visit. Now every child can go field to field exploring the British countryside, seeing and hearing about the way food is grown – and all without even having to leave the classroom - on the LEAF Virtual Farm Walk.

The walk, on a website developed by for the farming charity LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) in consultation with children and teachers, farmers and countryside educationalists. Wherever on the farm the visitor decides to stop – shop, livestock, field, hedge, pond, office, wood or machine shed - there are farmers are on hand to explain what’s going on. There are lots of interactive opportunities to explore for more.

The LEAF Virtual Farm Walk is open and ready for visitors - whatever the weather so check it out at www.virtualfarmwalk.org

Butterflies

Walking on the farm with the camera I spied these two types of butterfly on the cover crops that we have planted. The brightly coloured tortoiseshell and the white butterfly. The cover crops were alive with white butterflies about twenty flying around ... a beautiful site.

Natural England Farm Walk

Yesterday we hosted our first Natural England farm walk looking at the cover crops. There were over thirty people discussing the issues that they had had and their successes with developing wildlife areas for bees, birds, insects and the weather was with us on the day.

All quiet on the farm

Well all is quiet on the farm, we are waiting for everything to start to grow. We have been planning our farm walks for 2009 - more details later in the year and the days are really starting to extend now. Spring is coming!!

December photos

The farm still looks beautiful although a little stark. Here are some pics.

Open Farm Sunday

We had such an incredible time on Open Farm Sunday back in June, over nine months ago now and I was asked by LEAF to put a video together about the day. This is our video of how we prepared and undertook the farm walk. We are blessed to live is such a beautiful part of the world and the video shows some of our hidden corners on the farm. Open Farm Sunday is all about explaining what you do on your farm, how food is produced and the different jobs that are done in the cycle of producing food each year. The conversation points are endless.

Every farm is different some are huge multi-million pound farming businesses, others smallholdings that are managed before and after work and at the weekends and many other farms are family farms. This is what makes our landscape so unique and special.

Two new family members

We have two new family members Sam the labrador and a kitten that has adopted us. Morris is kindly giving him a guiding hand. We have called the kitten Marmaduke at the moment. We haven't been able to get close enough to catch him/her yet but in time I am sure we will.

June photos

Here is a picture post from the farm - everything is growing and spring has moved into summer.

The wheat is growing!


Special sunset - the sun caught the clouds beautifully

The trees have all filled out now and are majestic.

Open Farm Sunday

We had a great morning with a farm walk for the parish. We had about twenty-five people who came and walked around some of the fields on the farm looking at the wheat, potatoes and the oil seed rape. Thank you to everyone who helped with the refreshments and the cakes and the ploughman's lunch.


What did we talk about - many of the common themes, food security, farm subsidies, biofuel vs food, environmental management, food production, water footprint - a really excellent morning.

April Showers

Well, it continues to be wet and windy, but the hedges are starting to thicken up and the leaves are budding on the trees. We have been tidying up the garden and fields amidst the showers. It is quite rare to have a strong easterly wind too. My weeping pear, that lived in a bucket for the first year of its life with us (we lived in a flat so it was planted in a bucket which we kept on our doorstep) is in blossom - one of my favourite trees in the garden.

March continues like a lion

The weather has been pretty wild for our farm walks this Easter weekend. We have had to wrap up warm! and definitely not for elegance.

The recent rain has added to the water in the "Mormon" pond (see photo). It was in early March 1840 that the converts were baptised - must have been pretty cold if it was anything like the weather that we are currently experiencing!

Morris and Maggie the pest controllers also took a well-earned Easter break (see photo). They seem to like the chair by the computer the most for a quick power nap!

Spring primroses

Well we have primroses in abundance on the farm - took this picture between the showers!

December glow!

The farm looks particularly beautiful . Some of the oak trees have still held on to their leaves. It is wonderful walking up to the top of the drive to wait for the bus and take in the scene. We are blessed!