Looking back – and forwards

The time between Christmas and New Year is a time for thinking about the old year and looking towards the new.  In 2020 LEAP was necessarily very quiet, but despite this we did manage to do some footpath clearance, meadow making, litter picking (twice!) and scrub clearance around the pond.  We also have set up a new and better website, at the same location as the old one (EwhurstLeap.org.uk).

We are lucky to have some marvellous descriptions of rambles around the parish written by one of our volunteers, Richard Sellwood, all of which can be found on the new website.

The parish council has also been very generous, and with the money they gave us we have been getting equipment to help with our pond and footpath work.

The committee would like to say thank you to everybody involved.

As we are in Tier 4 we have to be careful for the first working party of the new year.  All voluntary work is allowed but we must keep 2 metres apart.  So on Saturday we would like you to help with a Tree Survey.

This is part of a citizen science project called “Treezilla”.  We will work in pairs, staying 2 meters apart, find trees and take some measurements.  Alice and I will provide every pair with a written description of the project, a map of Ewhurst and a simple form to fill in for each tree you find.  Note we will only be measuring solitary trees in public places, not in gardens or woods.

Please come with a tape measure to measure the girth of the trees, a pen and something to press on (like a clipboard if you have one) to fill in the forms.  A camera, e.g., a mobile phone camera, will also be useful.

It would be lovely to see all those of you that can make it.  Please meet in the Village Hall car park at 10am on 2nd January.  We will get together again at midday and you can pass back your surveys.  If you have taken any pictures, please reply to this email with the pictures when you get back home afterwards.

All the best,
Eddie

ps. During this horrible pandemic, please email us if there is anything we can help with, or even if you just want a chat.

A Changing Season.

The weather in November is unpredictable. It started with gales and heavy rain; after the storm, as I walked through Sayer’s Croft and Canfold Wood, I was thinking of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner when he complains, ‘Water, water, everywhere,’ for it seemed that rainwater had found out every crevice, ditch and channel to run down. The marshy area near Sayers Croft Farm had been transformed into a small lake and the adjacent fields were flooded. There are many moles in the field and I wondered what happened to them when their tunnels are saturated by heavy rain. We know that moles dig deeper tunnels in the winter because the warmer soil lower down means that worms are still plentiful and also the moles find protection from freezing temperatures. There has, however, been little research, as far as I can tell, on what they do when their tunnels are flooded. The only mention of this in Kenneth Mellanby’s monograph on moles states that they find other drier tunnels. In the heavy clay of Ewhurst waterlogging must be a perennial problem and yet it does not deter a large population of these animals flourishing in the region.

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November

John Lewis-Stempel writes in his book Meadowlands:


November is one of my favourite months, with its faded afternoons of cemetery eerines, and its churchy smell of damp moulding leaves.

John Lewis-Stempel

The clocks have gone back and the evening comes early, the sun setting in late afternoon, creating the gloomy half light so characteristic of this month. It is a month that starts with a commemoration of the dead, as 2nd November is All Souls Day when in some countries church bells toll to comfort the dead and candles are lit in remembrance of them. The traditions also include the giving of soul cakes to children who come to sing or pray for loved one’s souls.

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