Apple Day excitement

It will soon be Apple Day at St Nicholas Fields Environment Centre in York. As part of the celebrations, I shall be performing Buzzing! with – for the first time ever – live music, which acclaimed musician and composer John Rayson is writing specially for the occasion. Do come along on Saturday 6th October and listen – it’s going to be something very special!

That was the summer that was (not!)

Having just come back from a celebration of the Autumnal equinox, I think the time is right to reflect on the (so-called) summer we’ve had this year here in York.

After monsoon June came not-very-dry July. Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. In quantities and intensities I do not recall experiencing here before. The sun did come out on 10 August, which was very good of it – especially as my parents were having a garden party that day to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. Their timing was good, as it soon started raining again …

The weather has been bad for butterflies this summer. No Painted Ladies at all. And fewer of the other species we normally see (Peacock, Red Admiral, Whites, Holly Blue, Comma, Speckled Wood).

On the other hand, the weather has been good for slugs. Very good. Very very good. I usually try to operate a fairly live-and-let live policy in the garden, but this year, the slugs became just too much. Every time I planted any vegetables in the garden, they would be eaten up as soon as I turned my back. Eventually I had to do something about this, and started going out on patrol. On a typical slug patrol in our 8m x 8m garden, I was collecting up 60 slugs!!

I got a bit tired of being out on slug patrol late at night, so in the end I opted for a beer trap instead. And was amazed by how instantaneously it worked. I put a container with some beer out on the patio, and watched transfixed as slugs appeared from all directions:

It was a good year for mosquitoes too. I don’t ever remember having mosquitoes to contend with here in Yorkshire, but from early August onwards, we couldn’t sleep at night unless we engaged in a mosquito hunt first. Otherwise, we’d just be drifting off when … whine … whine … whine … What’s that saying? If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try spending a night with a mosquito!

In late August we were on holiday in Herefordshire, and we had to cull mosquitoes in our room before we could get to sleep there too.

The prize for the Best Newcomer of the Summer to our garden goes, without a doubt, to the Leaf-cutter bees who visited our Sweet Peas for a week or so in July. They were so amusing to watch as they shovelled pollen onto their abdomens:

The poem I wrote about them made it onto my Buzzing! CD (more about which anon …)

The prize for the Best Audio of the Summer goes to our mystery amphibian, who has been regaling us with his croaking for the last couple of weeks. We can trace where the sound is coming from (right under our dining room window), but have failed miserably to actually locate the creature making it. Is it a frog? Is it a toad? And why is it in our garden, when we (regrettably) have no pond! Having said that, it’s been so wet here all summer long that it must feel to them as if all the world’s a pond …

Composting congratulations!

Congratulations to Mrs Finn’s class at Archbishop of York’s CE Junior School, who gave the world premiere of the primary school version of Compost: the (mini-)Musical today! I taught them the musical last Tuesday, and they have spent the week practising it so they could perform it in front of the whole school in assembly today.

Their performance was greeted with great applause from all the pupils and staff. And rightly so, as they did fantastically well. And not only did they entertain the rest of the school, but they educated them too. After the show, Mrs Finn asked the pupils in the audience key questions about what you can and can’t put in a compost bin. And the pupils came up with all the right answers! So, Mrs Finn’s class are very good teachers!

Her pupils are going to perform the musical again – with an extra song I’ve just written – at their Harvest Festival celebrations coming up soon. So then parents will have the chance to be entertained and to find out all about composting too.

Read Compost! Thank You letters from pupils

Thanks to Dr Wannop, Archbishop of York’s school has a composting scheme in action, so pupils who are members of Gardening Club were able to go and see composting in action that very day.

Compost: The (mini-)Musical – A load of old rubbish!

The pupils of Mrs Finn’s Year 4 class at Archbishop of York’s CE Junior School in Bishopthorpe sang and drummed very heartily yesterday as they learned ‘Compost: the (mini-)Musical – A Load of Old Rubbish!‘

I spent the morning with the children teaching them my musical. Composting expert Dr Keely Wannop (also known as Keely Mellor!) was on hand to answer any composting questions the children had. Dr Wannop, who runs the school’s Gardening Club, even brought in some compost fresh from her garden (complete with worms!)

The previous day the children had beautifully decorated three compost bins that we used as drums in the musical. Here are form teacher Mrs Finn, student teacher Mr Robinson and compost expert Dr Wannop with the children’s bins:

The children will be performing the musical to the whole school in assembly next week. I’m looking forward to it lots!