At my age you tend not to pay much attention to your own birthday; it’s old hat, you might say. And if it wasn’t for the constant clamour for cream buns in the office I probably wouldn’t have remembered that on Friday it was my turn to fork out for some goodies for the staff. Never really understood why those having the birthday should treat everyone else…. but  along I go, unquestioningly, with office protocol. Somewhat masochistically I looked back at a copy of The Countryman covering the date of my birth. There was an advertisement for a new Austin A70 Hereford: ‘A family car with fine lines which cruises at 65mph’. It cost £989 including purchase tax, while the average minimum wage for an agricultural labourer that year was £13 9s for a 47-hour week. The Countryman cost 2s 6d - I’ll leave you to guess the year.

Despite what we might hear, read and see in the media, the countryside is not all doom and gloom. There are of course problems within rural communities but this has always been so. Country folk just roll up their sleeves and get on with the job in hand don’t they? That’s my simplistic view but as spring approaches I always feel a revived sense of optimism – just like Nature bursting into a new year of growth. I hope you will find our latest magazine just as uplifting as we bring a touch of colour at the tail end of a long, cold and dreary winter. March’s Countryman welcomes in the spring with a colourful collection of plants and flowers and good news of success in some of the country’s wildlife havens. Most importantly there are lots of smiles on the faces of people enjoying our glorious countryside.
Photo: spring at St Mary’s, Long Preston, Ribblesdale, Yorkshire

Catching up on some overdue holiday I headed for the Lake District for a couple of days this week to meet up with friends in Keswick. I’d not been to the far North West since before the devastating floods of last November and I was hoping the businesses in this super little town were enjoying some well deserved custom from half-term visitors. The surrounding snow-capped high peaks were visible only occasionally through the low cloud - which could actually have been good news for the many outdoor equipment and clothing suppliers as well as the pub and cafe owners in the town as the tourists decided to stay low level. The floods here and down the road at Cockermouth were awful and many businesses suffered along with homeowners. Nearby Derwentwater is one of the most beautiful stretches of water in the country and of the 15 million tourists who visit Cumbria each year around 2.5 million head for Keswick and its breathtaking surrounds. The area is so reliant on visitors keeping the local economy moving and I hope spring attracts a healthy influx of Countryman readers to the region - it’s well worth it.

A press release from the National Trust provided just the excuse I needed to visit what is probably the country’s greatest ruin – Fountains Abbey. Frost and snow has lingered long around this part of Yorkshire and only over the last week or so have the snowdrops started to flower. Michael Ridsdale, Head of Landscape at the magnificent setting near Ripon, says: “Now is the time to come and see the snowdrops looking most splendid. They’ve been slow to emerge due to the heavy frosts we’ve had throughout January, but the ground has finally thawed, allowing them to bloom.”   I know we Yorkshire folk tend to brag about our county a little too often for many people’s liking but this world heritage site is truly spectacular and a pleasure to visit at any time of year.

FYI: an email from NERC about FWAG’s re BSE in AONBs states that FOE, HSA and CLA are concerned about violation of GSCOP. A MOP involved, including MAFF, NAAC, FSA and LACORS, will take place ASAP at RABDF HQ where DEFRA will put forward their RDPE. NB: RSPCA and RoSPA will be on hand to discuss H&S issues while SAFFIE and NFU representatives will meet with IFOAM to ensure IFIS regulations are met. PS: SCPS, SPS or SFP are unaffected…
I could go on, using all of the hundreds of acronyms put together in a booklet produced by Charlie Battle of AIC (sorry - Agricultural Industries Confederation) which landed on my desk. How those poor farmers, having done a hard-day’s toil out in the fields, face up to today’s ugly, jargonised officialdom I’ll never know. My advice? Tell them to stick it WTSDS.

A nithering northerly nibbled at my ears while I was out and about in the Dales at the weekend. The snow still lingers over the 2,000ft mark and some of the larger drifts which had accumulated against the higher walls were yet to be captured by the sun. The ground here is like concrete and the dales farmers are busy ensuring their sheep have enough to see them through what so far has been a very hard winter compared with those of recent years. Trying my best to sound positive to my farmer neighbour I commented that at least the price being paid for wool seems to have gone up a little recently. “Aye, but he’ll still not buy me half a bitter,” interrupted his son as they continued to unload the feed. I left them chuntering at each other… I’m sure farmers are never happy unless they’re moaning about something.
Photo taken at the weekend shows a farm in Ribblesdale beneath Penyghent

Living as I do in an area where field boundaries are dominated by drystone walls, I delight in coming across traditional natural hedges when I travel around the country. I also despair when I see evidence of hedging which has been destroyed, ancient nature runs bulldozed in minutes for the sake of ‘progress’.  Happy I was then to hear that Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) have just planted a series of new hedges at its Dunsdon National Nature Reserve to help restore a network of small fields that would have once been a feature of the landscape. The site, near Holsworthy, was planted up with locally produced native species including a mixture of hawthorn, ash, oak, hazel and rowan. As is traditional in Devon they will sit on hedge banks which were created last year. Gary Pilkington, DWT’s senior reserves officer, said: “These new hedges will provide essential wildlife corridors at these culm grassland sites. The hedges are replacing ones that were removed through agricultural changes in the years before DWT took charge of the land. We used Tithe maps from the early 1900s to work out exactly where the original hedges were located.” The project has been supported thanks to funding from the Tree Council’s Real Hedge Fund, working in conjunction with the National Hedgelaying Society and Stella Artois – I’ll drink to that.

It was nice to see a bit of greenery again at the weekend, although snow still dominates the scene in the higher Dales. One planned short walk turned into an even briefer outing as I made a quick about-turn after reaching waist-high drifts. Undeterred I headed for lower ground and took a stroll by the Leeds-Liverpool canal which skirts the Dales through some lovely countryside between Yorkshire and Lancashire. The water was frozen solid and ducks skidded towards me hopeful that my sandwiches were for sharing. The few hardy types who live on the boats and barges remained cheerful despite problems with frozen water supplies. One chap told me the temperature had dropped to -15 one night – the thermometer was inside his boat! Despite the weather there were many people using the canal paths proving what a useful amenity our waterways are. Many people may never have heard of the  Inland Waterways Association’s Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) but they do a tremendous job in restoring and maintaining our canals. This year they celebrate their 40th anniversary and will be running ‘canal camps’ throughout the country and anyone can join in - see www.wrg.org.uk

I have to admit to feeling more than a little embarrassed about being a Brit this week. While witnessing, via TV, the nation’s poor attempts to deal with snow and ice I’ve been thinking what a load of wimps we’ve become. Anyone watching from a country where they have real winters EVERY year, must be thinking the same way. How pleasing then it was for me on Sunday when I met up with an acquaintance  who lives in a small village in the Dales. It was the first time he’d been able to get out of the village in a week. He told me that being snowed in had brought all the residents together for the first time since he’d moved there. They helped each other out, looked after the elderly, cleared paths, shared food, met at the pub and he said no one was particularly bothered that they had been temporarily cut off from the outside world. Community spirit restored – they do say it’s an ill wind…

Photo shows the scene at our offices last week – glad to report our staff made an excellent effort to get into work throughout the worst of the weather.

If animals, birds and insects could talk they’d be no different from us in that the main topic of conversation would be the weather. Throughout 2009 excited weather enthusiasts have been telling us that each month has been the warmest, the wettest, the coldest or the strangest on record. How all this affects our wildlife is being constantly monitored by a variety of experts. The National Trust’s annual report on wildlife shows some interesting findings. They tell me that a reasonable summer with bouts of very warm weather has helped to avert a wildlife disaster after two extremely wet summers in 2007 and 2008. They report a better balance between the wildlife that has done well and species that have struggled to cope. Matthew Oates, a conservation advisor, says: “After two washout summers we’ve in many ways had a more traditional weather year, with an old fashioned cold winter and some hot and dry periods during the spring and summer. For many insects, and insect feeding birds and mammals, this year has been a saviour as they were being severely tested.”
However, some of our most familiar wildlife – including the iconic cuckoo and the common autumn cranefly, or daddy long legs – has continued to struggle. Some of the biggest winners and losers in 2009 were plants and trees. The cold snap in January and February checked growth or damaged boughs on trees, and then the warm wet spring and summer caused unusually rampant vegetation growth.
For a full report visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk