Last year, the blog commented on how the weather was affecting bees, butterflies and bumblebees, and how this in turn was affecting fruit crops etc.  Fortunately, the picture seems to be somewhat better this year - despite the extended Winter / cold Spring.  Bee keepers are reporting that the populations in their hives are on the increase (Sunday Times 28/7/2013), and the Butterfly Conservation Trust are more optimistic about the recovery of a number of butterfly populations. Preliminary information from the Big Butterfly Count 2013 suggests that the numbers of small tortoiseshells and peacocks are on the increase -as are some rarer species. Read more...

Spain has a lot of forestry as it is a surprisingly large country, being about twice the size of Britain and only about 10% smaller than France. The tree cover is about 30% so about twice as dense as Britain's, which means the Spanish have about four times as much forestry as we do. But it is very different in both composition and in how it is managed. For a start, 80% is owned privately and where it is state owned it is almost always owned by the local community. Read more...

"If you're doing an extension, a timber-framed building is much nicer than an Everest job - and cheaper too," claims Russell of the Oakframecompany.co.uk. Based in Kinmel Bay, North Wales, the company has been putting oak buildings together for over 25 years and has recently expanded into a new, larger factory.   Oak beams are their thing - from putting a beam over a fireplace to building five bedroom houses and even putting up small office blocks. The advantages of timber-framed building are that it looks and feels good, it makes a much less heavy building and it is more flexible. Read more...

Grouse shooting makes an important contribution to the local economy of upland areas - such as those in Scotland, contributing many millions of pounds.  In order to create / maintain the patchwork of habitats to suit the birds, land owners periodically burn patches of vegetation in order to encourage the regeneration and new growth of heather (and other plants).  Older birds tend to 'favour' tall heather patches where they can shelter / hide, whereas young birds like to feed on tender, fresh shoots of heather. Read more...

Robert MacFarlane has written a great book which should appeal to anyone engaged with woodlands. A hundred years ago Edward Thomas wrote, "Much has been written of travel, far less of the road", and MacFarlane has here combined travel writing with route-writing, meandering along woodland paths and taking tracks over fields to explore how and why paths are as they are. There is a powerful section about George Borrow; an extraordinary walker-writer, whose work in the 19th century led to a surge in path following and old way romance: "the breeze on the face, the stars for a ceiling, the fire by the wayside, hedgerow philosophising, open journeyings." Read more...