Seasonal Wishes
We send you our best Seasonal Wishes for a positive and warm mid winter Solstice/Christmas and a very Happy New Year when it comes.
Winter Solstice
Today is the shortest day, and with full cloud cover, the morning of the 21st is a dark one. Not a breathe of wind though, winding soft silvery drifts of light sit on the calm sea. Somerset is out feeding the sheep. He hasn’t reached the Herdwicks yet who are in front of the house. They know he is coming and are standing waiting at the gate for him to arrive.
Winter news
We have had a mid, wild and wet winter so far and are looking forward to the shortest day being behind us. Not that I don’t love long evening by the fire, I do enjoy the days lengthening.
All the hill sheep have been in the fields for tupping and after Christmas Somerset will give them all a mineral bolus and put them back to the hill. The ground here is deficient in Selenium and Cobalt. Therefore it is good for them to have a supplement. It won’t be long before they are gathered in again for scanning in late February.
Regeneration
Over the last few months we have been working with Lewis from the Woodland Trust. He is helping us to find funding for various projects that we dream about on the farm! Our aim is to encourage more native woodland. We have fenced off areas to allow regeneration in quite a few places on the in by fields and these are beginning to bulk up now.
Probably our most radical idea is the one where we would deer fence the whole hill and allow natural regeneration to happen whilst grazing with cattle. Another is to fence off the patch of Atlantic (or Celtic) rainforest below Crackaig. This would allow it to regenerate and spread again.
Tree guards
Regular visitors to Treshnish will have noticed single trees protected by tall rigid wire tree guards, with spikes on the outside. These are called Cactus guards. They successfully deter cattle and deer from rubbing up against them. This allows the protected tree to get to a good height and then we can reuse the guard on another self seeded tree.
We are delighted and extremely grateful to the Woodland Trust for supplying us with 50 Cactus Guards so that we can protect 50 more young trees!
