There's so much to say this week, so let's be British and start with the weather. Its been cold and wet, as I expect you have noticed, but, boy, did we need the rain? Last week the ground was too hard to plough and this week we have mud on the trails. We need rain to keep our rather good crop of winter wheat in shape, and to give our spring barley (in Peter's Field) a boost, but mostly to get our wild bird cover mix started. I'm worried that the birds may have eaten all the seed. A bit of rain now may produce more insects later on, but it's bad for the current hatch of damselflies and butterflies.
The weather didn't seem to deter too many visitors for our Nightingale Festival. 160 children and parents turned up on Saturday evening, 20 for the dawn chorus on Sunday morning, 202 on Tuesday night and 40 on Thursday night, plus all the hundreds who came in the daytime.
I guess the best news is that we have more nightingales than ever this year with 29-30 singing males at the last count.
