How contrasting our weather has been in recent weeks. Some days have been woolly hat and gloves days and some have been sun hat and tee shirt days! It is not only me that has noticed the difference, the early flying insects and butterflies have as well. The beautiful yellow Brimstone butterfly is usually the [...]

The rookery at the top of Whippendell Hill is becoming more raucous by the day. A dozen or so nests have been built, but a bit of twig stealing is still going on, and walkers on the footpath below get told to hurry along by the noisy birds in the tree tops.It is unwise to [...]

The first few days of February and already I am gardening in my shirt sleeves. The birds in the garden are marking out their territories. Blackbirds chasing each other through the borders and over the lawn, Song Thrushes singing their hearts out from the conker tree and the ash trees in the hedge. Robins are [...]

 One of our family traditions is to have a good walk on Christmas morning to make us really hungry for a late afternoon dinner. This year our son John was at home and wanted to visit his old haunts and so we went through Scatterdells Wood  and into my bit of wood, The Wing. We [...]

With the opening of the new footpath on the Kings Langley side of Whippendell Hill Ted, our young labrador, and I have a new circular early morning walk. Many thanks to all those involved in this excellent project. We set out along “our” footpath to the Land  Rover garage, often seeing a fox cross the [...]

As I write these notes we are enjoying a few days of wonderful Autumn sunshine. The grassy ride down to the wildlife pond is drenched in dew which sparkles in the low sun.We have just eaten our own apples and pears with our breakfast,and yesterday we had mushrooms that I had picked on Ted’s early [...]

How quickly the grass recovers once we have a few days of rain. Last time I sat down to write these notes I was looking out on a brown, crisp ride and sheep field beyond. Now they are green and lush and the remaining sheep are once more content. I shall have to get the [...]

Diamond Wedding CelebrationsLocal residents  Kath and Ron Ray celebrated   their    Diamond     WeddingAnniversary on the 20 July with around fifty of their friends and family in the grounds of their home in Chipperfield. In order that  guests could travel from far and wide to attend, they held their celebrations a few days earlier than the exact [...]

We have seen more butterflies this year than we have for a couple of years. Red Admirals have been much more plentiful as have Commas and Painted Ladies. We always get lots of Meadow Browns in the sheep runs but the gravel garden has attracted the prettier, more orangey Gatekeeper, which loves the Scabious flower. [...]

We try to garden in a wildlife-friendly way, with a bit of “give and take”. At the moment the wildlife seems to think they should take,  and we should give! After a plague of slugs and snails we are now overrun with rabbits. The slugs ate whole rows of seedling lettuces, all of the summer [...]

I must admit that nature is not at the top of my mind when I pick up Chipperfield Newsand I guess in the early days I probably skipped past Wendy Bathurst’s monthly column! Thatsaid, I am now a devoted fan.Sometimes I wonder if Wendy lives in the same village when she describes the antics in [...]

Residents of Chipperfield seem to be very interested in wild life and particularly in birds. I, like many I am sure look forward to Wendy’s Bathurst’s regular article in Chipperfield News. So, carrying on the theme I hope others will be interested to hear of our birdwatching outing in February. No, we are not ‘anoraks’ [...]

January and early February are the months when foxes pair up and mate and this can make for some jolly noisy nights. Surely there is no more blood-curdling sound than a vixen calling for a mate? This is then answered by a high pitched bark of a male. A full moon will encourage late night [...]

An enjoyable evening is usually assured at Chipperfield Theatre Group’s annual pantomime and this year’s offering Pinocchio was no exception. A relatively faithful interpretation; we sang, cheered, booed and hissed our way through the piece as our hero made the often difficult transition from puppet surrogate to Gepatto’s fully fledged son. And there was not [...]

I love autumn, with all its lovely fiery colours. Beech trees, low sun and blue sky, what could be better? Low sun and blue sky have been in short supply but Scatterdells Woods have still looked wonderful. We went to Dorset for a couple of days, but I don’t think we saw anything better than [...]

By the time you read this the clocks will have changed and it will be too dark for us to have our tea in the Wendy House, down by the wildlife pond. Although its been a funny old summer, with some days too hot, and some too wet to go down there, we have made [...]

What a difference a year makes: last August I was eagerly watching the sky for any sign of rain, whilst this year I am writing these notes while torrential rain falls on already wet ground. Last year we recorded a miserly 11.9mm of rain during the whole of August. This year we are up to [...]

Hedges are wonderful things: not only do they act as highways for animals and birds to travel safely from one area to another, they also act as supermarkets. They are the ideal place for animals and birds to stock up on essential supplies.All the green plants in a hedge contain chlorophyll and with this they [...]

Five little lambs are now skipping around the garden. Beth, in spite of her enormous size and a lot of puffing, could only manage one although it is the biggest of the lot. Only hours after birth and they are bouncing about. A favourite game is to use mum’s back as a trampoline while she [...]

Most of the birds in the garden are busy building nests. The blackbirds always seem to have beaks full of dry grass and roots, while the blue tits and great tits are keen on the sheep’s wool. Spring is here at last. I always look forward to the first warm sunny days of spring when [...]