Not all of us need an excuse to get out into the countryside but a pioneering campaign to encourage more people to use the countryside for leisure is being launched in the South East of England. Countryside 2010 is a two-week (29 May to 13 June) showcase of rural-based activities and events across nine counties. The events are being organised by tourism businesses and visitor attractions, local authorities and communities as well as organisations such as the National Trust, RSPB, Cycle Touring Club, British Horse Society, Ramblers and the Wildlife Trusts. The initiative comes from the Rural Ways Partnership, co-ordinated by Tourism South East, and is funded by the Rural Development Programme for England. Ordnance Survey is sponsor for 2010. The campaign will also be running in 2011, with plans to go nationwide in 2012.
Rachel Simpson of Tourism South East says: “Countryside 2010 offers people the chance to discover all the fantastic things the South East countryside has to offer and the opportunity to try a new activity or experience. For rural businesses, groups and communities, it’s a unique and free opportunity to attract new visitors, new members or new volunteers.” Visit www.countryside2010.org.uk to find out more.

Our country’s lowland heaths are rarer than tropical rainforests, and home to flora and fauna which can only be found in a handful of places. Their protection is vital, and changing climate together with the increase in evasive plants is causing concern. Help is at hand in East Devon in the form of the Royal Marines. They have organised the airlift of 100 bales of gorse which will be used to reinforce and protect important bog areas on the Pebblebed Heaths, owned by Clinton Devon Estates. The bogs are home to special insectivorous plants like butterwort and sundew which support rare wildlife. Commons warden Bungy Williams says that the bogs hold hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and recent excessive wet weather has caused the peat to become badly eroded. This means that the bogs turn into rivers and the plants simply get washed away. He adds that without the plants, the wildlife cannot survive. The lowland heaths in East Devon are among just a few remaining in Britain. They are home to a number of rare birds such as Dartford warblers and nightjars as well as the damsel fly.
In this month’s Countryman, on sale from the 24th, you can read more about some of the country’s special flora and fauna areas.

I’ve come across some rough, tough farmers in my time. I’ve also known some of those same hard-bitten grumps turn into big softies at lambing and calving time. Last week I watched a huge chap carrying two new-born lambs, one under each arm, with mums noisily and discontentedly following on behind him.  I guess he was taking them to a shed for the night, fearful that a local fox might be skulking around. But it was the gentle, loving care he was taking that sticks in my mind. It reminded me of an old story about a Yorkshire farmer who had just become a father for the first time. His young wife was making her way upstairs when she saw her farmer husband staring into the cot where the baby was sleeping.
“By ‘eck lass, it’s bloomin’ amazin’, int it?”
She coupled up to him lovingly in what she thought was to be a tender marital moment… until that is, he continued:
“Ow the ‘ell they can charge ten quid for a cot that size I’ll nivver know.”

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