July 2, 2025 • 47 mins
It’s time for some self-care and safety and we should all take our time to listen to Tom P...
Tom Cadwallender’s out and about in the uplands of Northumberland and enjoying the collective nouns of bird, and the amazing ‘drumming’ of snipe.
And we’re going medieval with Steve Lowe for a colourful re-enactment
Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P.
You can follow Tom Pattinson, Steve and Tom Cadwallender and our wonderful guests and featured flowers, birds and projects on X via: @gardenersradio @TheNatureGarden and on Facebook: The Nature Garden.
And you can also tune in to our monthly live radio show on Saturdays at 11am on www.lionheartradio.com
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Music link: Gaia by Carl Cape Band on Amazon Music - Amazon.co.uk
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carl Stiansen (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Nature Garden Podcast
(00:22):
with me, Carl Stiansen, and theWeek-ending show team from
Lionheart Radio.
Thanks for joining us on acanny wee wander down the garden
path and country lane with thebirds and the bees and the
flowers and trees in thisepisode.
It's time for some self-careand safety and we should all
(00:44):
take our time to listen to TomP's advice.
Tom Cadwallander's out andabout in the uplands of
Northumberland and enjoying thecollective nouns of birds.
And we'll also find out alittle bit more about this
rather mysterious sound.
Any idea what this is?
We'll tell you more later.
(01:06):
We're going medieval with SteveLowe for a colourful
re-enactment at the CresswellPeel Tower.
Plus some top tips for thegarden from Tom P.
All coming up on the NatureGarden Podcast.
Intro and Theme tune (01:25):
Pri
Carl Stiansen (01:43):
Gardening is creative and rewarding and makes
us feel happy most of the time.
(02:04):
A couple of days ago bone-drydusty soil blew into my eyes
while I was emptying some plantpots causing hours of pain.
It made me think about taking alittle bit more care and, would
you believe it, this week, asif by magic, Tom Pattinson's
prepared his annual address tous all on safety.
Tom Pattinson (02:27):
We've had some superb weather recently.
Long, hot, sunny days.
Not much rain.
Dry conditions.
Relaxing.
Time to get out in the garden.
One of the safest places youcan imagine.
No traffic.
No risks.
(02:47):
Absolutely fabulous.
Everyone dreams of a garden torelax in.
Grow vegetables, fruit.
Do what you want.
The kids can play.
Run riot.
Enjoy themselves.
Let off steam.
That's the picture.
But what's the reality?
Every year around this time, Ijust cannot resist.
(03:09):
making one point, and thatpoint is beware of a garden.
Relax as much as you possiblycan, but question whether it is
the safest place for you.
I think it's time to do anassessment of how your garden is
run, the plants that are inthere, and how tired you are.
(03:31):
Accidents I'm thinking about.
Now, I know that's a strangething to bring up at this time
of the year, But I think it'sbest at the beginning of a
summer period when we're allgoing to be out there relaxing,
I think it's time to give you aheads up and say, don't forget.
Health and safety riskassessment I'm talking about.
(03:51):
These are phrases which areused in the workplace generally.
But every year, believe it ornot, there are thousands of
accidents in and around thegarden.
How do I know?
Well, I see some of them in thenewspapers, in the press, in
the media.
But the Royal Society forPrevention of Accidents, ROSPA
(04:15):
for short, could tell you, visittheir website, about safety in
gardens.
And they just report, as far asI know, those that are
reported.
Accidents which take people toA&E or small injuries units.
How many times in the gardenare you stung by a nettle?
Have a thorn in your finger.
(04:36):
Or cut yourself.
Find some glass or an accidentwith a knife.
And they go, should I go to A&Eor not?
Well, what are we looking at?
Oddly enough, the last time Iread a ROSPA report, they named
a few, something like the top 10causes of accidents in and
(04:57):
around the garden.
And believe it or not,lawnmowers were up near the top
there.
Flower pots.
secateurs and pruners, spades,electric hedge trimmers, plants,
tubs and troughs, shears,garden forks, hoses, sprinklers,
garden canes and sticks.
Perhaps it's time to check yourown garden.
(05:18):
Take a walk around any of thepathways.
What are they like?
Are they uneven?
Are they covered in algae ormoss or slime?
If that's the case, there's arisk of someone falling and this
is the most common occurrence.
Garden debris, which includespieces of wood, twigs, broken
glass, rusty metal or canes,they're just as dangerous.
(05:39):
Has a hose been left uncoiledafter use out on the patio,
around the garden, or have toolsbeen abandoned?
I know it's an old chestnut,but standing a rig against a
wall with the metal tinesresting on the ground, that's
just about the same as setting adangerous trap for an
unsuspecting passer- by.
(06:00):
someone else suspecting that itcould well be you if you forget
and tread on those tongues doyou have steps and ladders are
you climbing to tie in aclimbing rose a tall rounder
such as rambling rector are youclimbing ladders are you leaving
them around are they solid havethey got a solid foothold when
(06:24):
you start to climb them thosesmall steps are just as bad as
ladders think about these thingsThat's just the beginning.
Carl Stiansen (06:31):
Tom Cadwallander's been adventuring
in the Northumberland valleysfor a fair old chunk of his
life.
And this week, he's focusing onthe lush uplands and big skies
in the fabulous NorthNorthumberland National Park.
Tom Cadwallender (06:57):
As a young guy growing up in southeast
Northumberland, I was heavilyinvolved in the youth club at
our local school.
And one of the big things thatwe did was actually, we did our
Duke of Edinburgh's award.
And yes, many, many years ago,I can hardly believe it now,
(07:17):
it's such a long time ago, but Iindeed did my Duke of
Edinburgh's award.
And it's a mix up of all sortsof different things you have to
do but one of the big deals isactually you have to have an
expedition camping and walkingand map reading and compass work
and all that sort of palaverand it's kind of it was an alien
(07:40):
beast for me then and it took alot of learning we had a lot of
training expeditions miniexpeditions and all sorts of
things Invariably though, wewould focus on North
Northumberland andNorthumberland National Park and
we did all our training in thisarea and in fact we had our
(08:04):
major expedition and I got mybronze award and I got my silver
and I didn't quite get my goldI ran out of time a little bit
but anyway I still achievedthose other two things but yes
it was the it was theexpeditions that really turned
me on to the countryside I usedto go camping with pals and
stuff like that but not reallydoing anything worthwhile but it
(08:27):
was those expeditions we had tosort of plot our courses with
the on the map using compassesand all sorts of things like
that and using local landmarksand habitats and whatever and
gradually over time I got agreat affinity with
Northumberland and indeedNorthumberland National Park and
I still to this day haveregular excursions inland to
(08:52):
kind of just explore the oldhunting ground if you like and I
find it quite fascinating justthe change and it's just to feel
the quite open spaces CharlesTrevelyan back in the last
century described Northumberlandas the land of the far horizons
and if you've ever walked theCheviots you'll kind of
(09:14):
understand what he's on aboutbecause there's forever just the
horizons just over there justover there the road rolling
hills of the North Cheviots justincredible and and yes I really
enjoyed my tramping aroundthose and I still do tramp
around and not as much as I usedto of course but I do like to
go into the the valleys of NorthNorthumberland.
(09:37):
And I think that's what theflavour of it is about.
You know, there's a dichotomyof valleys in North
Northumberland.
And they're wonderful.
Right from the kind of thenorth, which is actually
spreading onto the Scottishborder, we have the College
Valley.
And if you go up the CollegeValley, that leads you into kind
of the foothills of the NorthCheviot, the massif itself.
(09:57):
Cheviot is an old extinctvolcano, of course.
But if you go up the, there'stwo ways up from the College
Valley you can't drive the carthere but you can park at the
bottom and walk all the way upand there's two ways up one is
called the Hen Hole and it's agreat sort of craggy sort of
rocky bit to scramble throughand it gives you absolutely
(10:18):
wonderful views and the birdlife is pretty good too and the
plants are exceptional and theother way is through the Bizzle
and that's another rocky outcropbut it's slightly more rounded
but the Hedge Hope, which is abit more steep-sided.
But you come around fromcollege, the next one down is
(10:40):
the Hart Hope Valley, and that'sprobably the one, the valley I
spend most time in these days.
And I like to go up therebecause the In the past, it's
been heavily deforested.
And historically, kind ofprehistorically, in fact, the
North Cheviots were covered intrees, scrubby woodland, birches
(11:01):
and rowans and the like.
And those over the years weregradually sort of taken away.
And we have a lot of sheep onthe hillsides.
But actually, NorthumberlandNational Park are engaged in
quite a good programme ofreplanting.
and there's a lot of nicescrubby woodland going back in
there, particularly in the hardoak valley.
And the reason I like to gointo those little valleys and...
(11:23):
explore or re-explore this is akind of a different bird life
in those in those little placesum you can find species like
cuckoo in not abundance butregularly um and ring ouzel, the
mountain blackbird, ah geezring ouzels are just wonderful
(11:43):
they're like blackbirds they'reslightly bigger but they're
black and they've got this whitecrescent around their breast um
and then really quite uncommonbut they're they're focused in
one or two little valleys in innorth Northumberland and indeed
throughout the west of thecounty but this is where i like
to go it's near enough for meand they're they're migrants and
they come in in sort of latemarch and they'll be gone by
(12:04):
July time um but it's great togo in there and you hear them
chuck chuck chucking but if yougo in into those valleys you
know you're going to see otherkind of migrant birds you're
going to see wheat ears thewhite rump of the wheat ear and
the gray gray hoods and theseare birds which are wintering in
Africa and they come and breedhere in this part of the world
(12:25):
it's one And the other kind ofmigrant that we have of that ilk
is the whinchat.
Now, you may have come acrossthe stonechat, which is the
resident cousin of the whinchat.
The stonechat is a kind of a,the males have a lovely pink
breast, but black hoods andblack backs and little bits of
white flashes on the wings and abit of white on the rump as
(12:45):
well.
But the windchat is the samesort of shape, but it has a big
eye stripe.
It is more gingery.
And you hear them.
You can hear them around theplace.
They've got a similar cold,similar sort of chatty weather.
And they get their name fromthe noise they make and that
chuck, chuck, chuck.
and the stone chat it's justlike two stones being jabbed
(13:06):
against each other and it's uhquite evocative really, but it's
these kind of species that youkind of look out for, and you
get into the scrubby woodlandsuh and you're finding siskins
and you're finding siskins areare sort of mini green finches,
and they're lovely actually intheir in their plumage and their
green plumage with little greenflashes and their black hoods
(13:27):
males and the red polls arethere with the little patches of
of pinky red on their foreheadwhich gives them their name the
red pull and these birdsfrequently scrubby woodlands in
the pine forests that are upthere and uh the the the upland
forests are really quiteinteresting now they're becoming
much more established they'rereally very very interesting and
i find them uh i really enjoyspending time there and you come
(13:50):
back down from from the theHart hope valley and the next
one down is the is the Breamishvalley the Ingram valley it's
really quite popular it's notquite different because it's not
as steep side it's much widerand you can see the geological
formation is much moreinteresting or much more varied
if you like and the humanhabitation is quite evident in
(14:14):
the Breamish Valley and then youcome down a bit further and you
get down to the Coquet Valleywhere as a youth that was the
valley I spent some time in Iused to go into the upper
Coquetdale and into the AlwinValley that's where I cut my
teeth really in terms of uplandbirding, and again ringing, and
I did actually find a nest ofthe raven. Raven really is a
(14:40):
species that was heavilypersecuted and they're now just
getting a foothold back into theuplands, in fact there's a
coastal breeding raven aroundthese days in Northumberland but
they're heavily persecuted andravens are are one of my
favourite birds actually.
They're quite canny.
They have a sense of humour,almost.
(15:01):
But they're the big crows.
And if you see the gape of araven, and gapes are the inside
of their mouths, and it's lovelypink.
It really contrasts with theblack of their plumage.
another bird of the uplandswhich has really had a
(15:21):
successful sort of 30 years isthe buzzard or the common
buzzard to distinguish it fromthe other species of buzzards
they were extinct I rememberseeing my first common buzzard
in Northumberland 30 years agoand since that time they've
gradually increased theirpopulation and we see them right
down onto the coastal plain nowbut they're really common in
(15:44):
land and they've reallyestablished themselves and most
seen changes in the birdpopulations we're seeing new
species uh coming in um and butother species are going away
medipipids are still as abundantand a lot of meadow pipits will
will actually leave this partof the world and actually winter
in North Africa and it'sincredible really, but yes, it's
(16:05):
North Northumberland;Northumberland National Park is
pretty special place you know, Ithink so.
Carl Stiansen (16:17):
Tom Pattinson is urging us to think this week and
always before we snip and mow.
Here's part two of his safetyaudit and some tips that could
save you a lot of pain andtrouble.
Tom Pattinson (16:32):
Well hello, it's me again.
Full of gloom and doom, butit's for your own good really.
Think about accidents happeningin the garden.
Remember, you're checking itout to see, have a general
survey, see where accidentscould occur.
(16:54):
We can't stop them all.
That's why they're calledaccidents.
They're accidental.
But we can plan a little bitbeforehand.
Before you start any gardening,physical activities, hedge
cutting, trimming, mowing, forinstance, consider whether
protective headgear, eyeshields, gloves, footwear are
necessary.
Of course they are.
(17:15):
protect your eyes if you'retrimming the hedge pieces are
flying around all over the placeif you haven't at least got
spectacles on put something onto protect your eyes your hands
your feet if you're lawn mowingdon't do it with flip-flops on
or soft shoes and especially ifit's one of those mowers which
(17:37):
floats around my goodness it'sjust not worth thinking, well it
is worth thinking about ifyou're using chemicals
fertilizers, herbicides,insecticides, whether they're
liquid, granular or powder form,don't leave them hanging
around.
Use a type of gloves whenyou're handling.
(17:57):
They must be locked away, awayfrom children, especially if
they're children around.
And oh my goodness, pleasedon't think about decanting.
If you have a bottle of Contairliquid decanter, a liquid
insecticide, for example, or aliquid herbicide, don't even
think about decanting it intoanother bottle and leaving it
(18:20):
without a label in a shed wherechildren can gain access.
Pardrin tools, I'm thinkingabout those as well.
Those hedge trimmers, thelawnmowers, if you're using
them, any electrical appliances,for goodness sake, really you
should have an RCD, a residualcurrent device, that is, you
(18:43):
plug it into the main socket andand then you plug your device
into the RCD and if there's anaccident, if the blades stick or
any moving part sticks, whetheryou're cutting the hedge or
mowing the lawn.
If, say, you're cutting thehedge and the cord gets in the
way and you actually cut throughit, or a neighbour starts to
(19:04):
talk to you and you get inconversation as you're cutting,
cut through it, there's a chanceof electrocuting yourself.
But that doesn't happen if youhave an RCD attached.
It cuts the currentimmediately.
It probably costs somewhere inthe region of 20 pounds, 25
(19:24):
pounds, maybe not even that.
What price do you put on yourlife?
I'm thinking about back strain,a simple thing.
Lifting.
You're going to lift something,move it, a bag of compost, a
heavy bag of compost, orsomething in the nature, a heavy
pot on the patio, which has asingle plant in it.
(19:45):
Have you got a salt barrel, oris there an easier way of doing
it?
Don't try to lift it byyourself.
Back strain is one of thecurses, and don't keep planting
or cutting or bending down fortoo long.
That's a strain on your back,and it gradually catches up with
you, believe me.
Buy some kneelers, knee pads.
There are lots of differentpossibilities there.
(20:07):
The garden pond, I'm thinkingof that as well, and the
barbecue, water and fire, what acombination.
Is the garden pond, is itcovered?
It just needs to be about acentimeter deep, 30 centimeters
deep afoot if a child falls intoit and that's it.
The barbecue, excitement aroundthe barbecue.
(20:28):
I'm thinking of burnt fingersand leaving it unattended.
What about plants?
I take tours of the poisongarden at Amick.
voluntary tour volunteer i amthere and I've had my eyes
opened in recent years I wasaware of poisonous plants before
of course but the simple plantsaround your garden which are
(20:50):
poisonous to you I'm thinking ofthe lupin laburnum, the sweet
pea, the seeds of those a broomseeds from the cytosis or broom
which you just finished asgolden flowers recently, oh it
just goes on and on, lily of thevalley, monkshood, delphinium,
foxglove, they're all harmful.
Honeysuckle, beautifulfragrance, but the berries that
(21:13):
it forms, they're harmful too.
There are other plants in thegarden which can give you a
nasty burn.
I'm thinking of things likerue.
You'll rue the day you touchedit, you really will.
In the daylight, giving youblisters, euphorbia, and things
like that.
Oh, a whole list of plants.
(21:35):
Pick up a book or take a tourof the Alnwick Poison Garden.
Pick up a book on poisonousplants, basic stuff.
If you have youngsters runningaround, grandchildren, your
children, youngsters coming tothe garden, give it a lot of
thought, please.
And if there's just one personavoids an accident and they've
(21:57):
heard this, then I'm a happyfellow.
After this, I'm going to have anice, harmless cup of tea,
Carl.
Carl Stiansen (22:07):
And now for something a bit different.
It's time to take a classictrip back to the medieval ages
as we join Steve Lowe,Rosa Mundi re-enactment and the
Living History Group atCresswell Pele Tower.
Steve Lowe (22:30):
What can you do here at Cresswell Pele Tower?
The sun is shining.
It's a bit breezy, butotherwise it's looking
fantastic.
And I'm joined by Dave Bowen,who's one of our volunteers and
works with us on the LivingHistory Group.
Hello.
So we've got with us today,we've got a group called Rosa
Mundi.
Rosa Mundi, that's right.
It's one of the premiermedieval reenactment groups in
(22:51):
the country.
And they look fantastic, don'tthey?
Oh, they're absolutely amazing.
I mean, you know, people thinkpeople used to look all grey and
dull back in medieval times.
You should see the palette ofcolour in their costumes.
Yeah.
It's absolutely beautiful tosee.
And obviously against thebackdrop of the walled garden,
which is looking particularlynice today.
(23:11):
It does, doesn't it?
Yeah.
At this time of year, it's ariot of colour.
So we've got, what, six orseven massive tents up there.
We've got a leather worker,arrow maker.
We've got a demonstration ofspinning on the medieval great
wheel with various differenttypes of fibre, so spinning
linen fibre, silk.
They've got silkworm cocoons,and they're actually giving
(23:33):
demonstrations.
Oh, fantastic.
How you extract.
Baking in a traditional claywood-fired oven.
Right.
That's what the smell is.
The smell is.
Just on the wind.
It's absolutely marvellous.
And I ate one of the bunsyesterday and it tasted
delicious.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, well, I don't know where Iwas at that time.
Probably stood upstairs,probably.
Yeah.
Or maybe I was stuck in thestocks.
(23:55):
Well, that's very true.
Yeah.
Because it's a terrible job andsomebody's got to do it.
So we've got all ends of thespectrum here, mostly to do with
daily life.
rather than martial.
Absolutely, yes.
I mean, obviously we've got theFletcher making arrows.
But yes, no gunfire today.
Craft and domestic lifeorientated.
(24:16):
Thanks, Dave.
I hope the day goes reallywell.
We're just at the start of it.
So fingers crossed, mate.
And thanks for all your help aswell in getting this organised.
You and Peter and Lynn,everybody have done a grand job.
It's been an absolute pleasure,Steve.
Cheers, mate.
Thanks.
Cheers.
Hi, Ian.
Are you all right?
You're with Rosa Mundi.
I am.
(24:36):
Yeah.
Tell us about Rosa Mundi.
Well, we specifically like toreenact the 15th century.
Right.
The name, Rosa Mundi, meansRose of the World.
Okay.
And the flower has red andwhite petals.
So it's sort of...
Yeah.
When you're doing Rose of theRoses, it means we can swap
sides, you know, as we feel weneed to.
(24:57):
Yeah.
And we like...
We obviously do the batteryenactment, but our main thing is
to do what we've calleddomestic and crafts.
Yeah.
So we cook food to the originalrecipes.
We recreate the crafts, like Iusually do, fletching.
There's people doingcalligraphy, and we even mint
(25:17):
our own coins.
Oh, fantastic.
Right, I'll be over there for afew.
Yeah, you make yourself a richman.
Yeah, absolutely.
So you've been doing this for alittle while, then?
Yeah, quite a few years.
We started in the mid-90s withan event at Richmond Castle with
English Heritage.
Nice.
And it all sort of happenedmore or less at the same time
(25:42):
from there on.
We did a TV program as well forStop, Look, Listen, it was
called.
And after that, we sort ofexpanded...
bought tents of the medievalstyle so we could actually live
in the tents and stay in places.
And you've been staying here,haven't you?
We have.
We've been staying in thewalled garden, which is nice.
Excellent, yeah.
(26:02):
Good location.
And it means we can thenbasically set up, stay in the
tents overnight, and we're readyto go further public in the
next morning or however longwe're at a particular site.
Sounds fantastic, to be honestwith you.
I mean, it looks fantastic,I've got to say.
So what are you wearing?
Pretty well 15th century gear.
I'll start at the top with myhat, which has a gild of
(26:25):
Fletchers.
Yes.
And the bow from Richard III.
Yeah.
And then...
As a slightly older chap, Iusually have this, which is like
a hair cover called a coif.
Coif, yeah.
Younger lads tended to not wearthem at the time.
No, right.
But they were almost unisex.
Yes, women tend to always havethe hair covered.
Having your hair covered wasseen as a sign of being a decent
(26:49):
person.
Right, okay.
Well, I trust you now then.
Yeah, you're safe.
Yeah, yeah.
And then after that, it'sdoublet and hose.
And underneath is a thingcalled a paw point.
Yeah.
Which means four points.
And that's to hold your hose upso there's no braces.
Everything's tied on withlittle ties.
Tied to the top.
To the top.
(27:09):
Yeah, yeah, right.
And how comfortable is that?
When you first wear it as aman, it feels really
uncomfortable.
But you kind of get used to theoddness of it.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the hose themselves.
Yeah.
Very hard to describe.
Sort of like people think ofthem as almost like a stocking.
Yeah.
(27:29):
But made of wool.
Made of wool, yeah.
And then mine are footed, so Ihave...
Basically, it goes all the waydown your leg and into your
foot, so it's like a onesie.
Okay, right.
Is it itchy?
No, the wool is boiled, so it'sactually quite soft.
So it takes away that, yeah.
And then our medieval footwear,which is copies from finds in
(27:50):
London.
Right, yeah.
When they were doing all thedocklands excavations, they
turned up loads of old shoesthat were thrown into the river.
Right.
So we have them copied in styleto keep everything...
you know, looking right andbeing right.
Well, everyone looks to theport.
That's the thing, isn't it?
Yeah.
You feel the port, I guess,when you're wearing the right
(28:11):
things.
Once you've got the kit on, yourealize, well, firstly, what
the restrictions are and thingslike that.
So because you're literallytied in as a chap, bending over
is sometimes quite difficult.
So you see illustrations ofthem where they've loosened the
ties at the back so they canmove around more.
Yeah.
And the same with the women'scostumes.
(28:33):
The dresses that they wear arevery, very long.
They're always ground length.
So there's always like a drag.
The freedom of movement,though, for other activities.
Yeah.
And then the other thing thatpeople are quite interested in
is a thing called patterns,which is a wooden shoe that you
(28:54):
fit over your normal shoe.
So if you're walking around inthe mud or something like that,
it just lifts you up.
And that would have been...
the norm in a village orsomething like that.
And probably quite noisy whenyou're walking around.
If there's like a cobbledstonework and lots of people are
wearing patterns, it getspretty noisy.
Pretty noisy, yeah.
Well, I mean, that's a reallygood description.
(29:15):
Thanks very much for that.
And you're actually quitecolourful as well because most
people think, oh, medieval drab.
Yes, no, the colours...
We often get that, oh, it'squite colourful, because I think
a lot of people are influencedby films where everything
medieval is brown or grey.
The reality was they used allkinds of dye, some of them
(29:35):
staggeringly expensive, so thatyou had a really good array of
colours throughout.
Do you actually have a guy oranybody that does dye in your
group?
We have people who...
We'll do the dyeing of the rawmaterial.
Yes.
So when the wool is spun, it'sthen dyed to that particular
(29:58):
colour.
We do have a lady who spins aswell on a wheel called a great
wheel.
Yes, I should say todayactually.
So you can get some idea of howthey used to work with the
spike that Sleeping Beauty isalways talking about where it's
sticking out of the side of thegreat wheel.
So if you passed by, you'reable to get stuff like that.
(30:18):
So all the things that you'retalking about, they're actually
pretty much ingrained inliterature and all sorts of
stuff as well, aren't they, whenwe think of it in a wider way?
Well, all I was going to saywas thank you, but also...
just to encourage people tocome along and see you guys,
really.
Yes, it's worth coming along.
We always engage people inconversation about things that
(30:40):
they're particularly interestedin.
And very often, even if theperson you're talking to doesn't
have the knowledge, we knowsomebody who can talk to you
about that.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Well, thanks very much, Ian,and hope you enjoy your day.
Yeah, thanks for being at thePeel Tower.
Cheers, then.
Carl Stiansen (30:58):
And you can find out more about Rosa Mundi and
their displays atrosamundi.org.uk.
That's rosamundi.org.uk.
The incredible sound there ofsnipe drumming.
(31:19):
I had the pleasure of hearingthat in Scotland just after
Easter.
And now, well, from our own,very own, gaggle of field
reporters, Tom Cadwallander'shere to tell us more about the
amazing snipe and the collectivenames of birds.
Over to you, Tom Cad.
Tom Cadwallender (31:40):
You may remember I've mentioned this
countless times before.
I'm fascinated by the seaside,coastal environments, and I live
my life...
almost by the seaside and I'mout on the shore almost every
day and it's fantastic and I'vementioned before about
volunteering on Coquet Island,in fact, just last month I was
(32:03):
kind of waxing lyrical I thinkabout spending there and helping
out with monitoring of birdsout there But the thing that's
popped into my mind this morningis that whilst I was on Coquet
Island, I was surrounded by acommittee or committees of
(32:24):
terns, sandwich terns, rosyterns, common terns, arctic
terns.
They're all there squawkingaway.
And when they lift, and they dothat on a regular basis for no
apparent reason, it's called thedread.
So you see these clouds ofterns And they're sometimes
(32:45):
called kettles as well.
But it's a committee of terns.
But also, whilst I was on theisland, we kind of wandered
around and checking out things.
We had a pandemonium ofpuffins.
And that's the collective nounfor puffins, a pandemonium.
And the collective noun forturns is a committee or a
(33:06):
kettle.
and the uh it's fascinating soit really is quite interesting
this whole idea of collectivenouns and I'm never sort of far
away from the kind of thethought of it, and here this
morning, it's really quite earlyand I'm doing I'm doing more
survey work that's in land and Idon't get a chance to come in
land very often and but when Iido it's absolutely magnificent
(33:29):
because...
you might be able to hear the,there's some cattle behind me
sort of mooing and mooing andwhatever.
But if you just listen soclosely, I don't know if you can
pick it out.
Skylarks singing.
I'm surrounded by an exaltationof skylarks.
Can you hear it?
Yeah, there's a little squad ofthem here.
(33:51):
Obviously, there's been ahatching, and they're all up in
the air singing away.
And it's absolutely glorious.
It's wonderful, and it's agreat privilege to be out here.
And so, an exaltation ofskylarks.
That's another collective noun,if you like.
Can you hear them?
Oh, wonderful, absolutelywonderful.
(34:14):
Also in the background, you maywell be able to pick out reed
buntings.
They're cool.
And sedge warblers with theirkind of typewriter-y, chattery
way, sort of as they kind ofshoot through their song.
We're getting a little late inthe season now, in the breeding
season, so a lot of these birdsare kind of just going through
the last throes of theirbreeding process.
(34:38):
Or I can hear some meadowpippets too, squeaking.
But the other thing I've beenhearing a bit this morning, I've
heard the goldfinches, theyhave a little tinkling noise.
And goldfinches, the collectivenoun for goldfinches, is a
charm, a charm of goldfinches.
That's so evocative of kind ofhow they tinkle as they pass
(35:03):
through.
Another thing that I wasthinking of, and I've just
picked them up relativelyrecently because they went quiet
for a while, that arelong-tailed tits.
And I don't know if you'refamiliar with long-tailed tits,
but they're almost likelollipops because they've got
quite long tails and they'requite small bodies.
And as they fly, they seem tobe just sort of, they have this
(35:24):
sort of, this trail of a tailbehind them.
And they went quiet for alittle while.
Obviously, they were breedingin the woods and hedges and so
forth and they've just startedto reappear and if you listen
closely you can actually justhear the little kind of the
contact noises they make andthese are kind of just so quiet,
(35:46):
but if you listen you can hearthem but the collective noun for
long-tailed tits is a tribe,which is quite fitting really
when you see them travellingaround and they'll go in lines,
and it is a tribe of long-tailedtits as these them going
through little bits of scrubbywoodland or hedgerows or that
(36:08):
sort of habitat, and it's reallyquite something and you see
them sort of making their waythrough and they're so cute and
hey I tell you what I'm not agreat one for anthropomorphising
but I think they're cute, soyes, long-tailed tits with the
tribes of long-tailed tits andthe nests interestingly the
(36:29):
nests are sometimes described asnests of a thousand feathers.
Because they're almost entirelymade up of feathers they've
collected on their littlejourneys around the place.
But it's interesting.
If you keep your eyes and yourears open, you can find all
sorts of things.
And there's all sorts of folkstories about birds and their
(36:50):
habitats.
And I'm just looking aroundthis little bit of...
bit of scrubby woodland on theedge of this these fields the
fields are full of rape they umand there's a few beans and a
field across the way there butthere's a nice little bit of
wetland on associated with thisthis bit of farmland and it's
(37:10):
got juncus in there but alsoI've been hearing the drumming
of snipe snipe are wading birdsand They're kind of really quite
secretive.
But if you kind of just settledown there, early mornings and
evenings are the best.
You hear them drumming.
And the drumming is thevibration of their tail
feathers.
(37:31):
And it's part of their display.
And...
they will kind of just, theywill kind of go really quite
high in the sky and you can hearthe kind of sort of noise they
make.
But when they're on the groundand they have this little
contact noise they make, it's...
And it's quite funny when yougo, what is that?
(37:53):
You know, you come and, oh yes,oh yes, it's a snipe.
And snipe, if you're notfamiliar, are kind of wading
birds, as I've mentioned.
And they're round and they'renot very big.
They're about the size of akind of blackbird sort of size.
But they're crypticallyplumaged and they're stripy and
they're beige and browns.
But they've got incredibly longbills and they'll probe into
(38:16):
soft mud looking forinvertebrates that live in the
mud.
But their plumage reallyreflects where they live.
They like to live in these damphollows.
which we still have indecreasing sort of quantity, but
we still have them in certainplaces.
And these little wet damphollows are filled with or can
(38:41):
be filled with Junkers.
Junkers is a damp loving plantand you always recognise where a
damp area is when you seelittle groups of Junkers growing
there.
And Junkers is quite asucculent really.
It's got fleshy leaves andquite long and spiky.
And when it dies it becomesquite brown.
(39:03):
And so if you see snipe, acommon snipe, standing in front
of or in some juncus.
It's really quite hard to pickout because their plumage almost
reflects the vegetation aroundthem, this juncus vegetation.
So yes, you've got to be sortof quite on the ball ready to
(39:24):
pick them out.
And in the wintertime, we getjack snipe, which are slightly
smaller, and they come acrossfrom the continent to winter in
this country.
And we also get wood which area bigger version and of the
snipe and they're kind of thisbeigey gingery brown colour and
they're a little bit bigger andthese birds actually I've just
(39:47):
remembered they've got anamazing thing they've got their
you know birds have their theireyes kind of well down their
faces but actually these snipeand woodcock have got their eyes
quite high up their heads andthat allows them it gives them
360 vision so yes there's athere's a wealth of birds out
there and to look just on thefarmland and farmland fringe.
(40:08):
So I'm here doing some surveywork, and the majority of birds
I'm seeing, I'm hearing, and youcan hear them, skylocks.
Fantastic.
So, it's still going to besummer for a wee while longer,
so get out and hear someskylocks.
Gan canny, folks.
Carl Stiansen (40:35):
And so, to the sound of War Blackbird and
Catherine Tickelland Bandplaying the Morpeth Rant, here's
Tom with some things to begetting on with in the garden.
Tom Pattinson (40:53):
So it's jobs for the week time.
There's been so much dryweather recently and hot that
plants recently put out into thegarden, vegetables sown,
planted, ornamental plants, eventhings which are planted in the
autumn are starting to show thestress.
(41:15):
If there are no waterrestrictions, try to keep those
that deserve to be, keep goingalive, try to give them water
first.
Get a list of priorities forwatering, as long as there's no
water restrictions, becauseyou're going to lose them,
unfortunately.
That's really important, firstand foremost.
My strawberry plants, whichwere put into a new bed just
(41:39):
about three, four months ago,they've been feeling the
pressure, getting some lovelystrawberries from them, ripe
strawberries already, andthey're netted against the
blackbirds, of course, butthey've been showing stress, so
I've had to water those just tokeep them going.
I'm indoors, undercover at themoment.
I'm also keen to keep thetomatoes going.
(42:01):
They droop at the slightesthint of no water.
During the day, sometimes youhave to water them twice in a
day at present.
Ventilate the greenhouse asmuch as you can.
and damp down the floor.
If it's a flagged floor, well,if you have a flagged floor,
then put water on there.
It helps build the humidity,keep down the heat.
(42:23):
The tomatoes, they'll droptheir leaves very quickly, but
if you catch them in time, theyrecover.
One of the things you'll see isone or two fruits maybe, if the
soil's been allowed to dry, outaround their roots they may
have blossom end rot but thataffects individual fruits on
(42:44):
their dark patch appearing atthe very tip of the fruit and
spreading gradually it justaffects individual fruits so
just remove those if you sufferfrom that I'm also removing some
leaves from the tomatoes at themoment lower leaves when i
first planted them there wasquite a lot of space between
them now there's quite a thicketdeveloping we've got the fourth
(43:09):
truss on the tomatoesdeveloping the first truss lower
down they're not ripe yet butit's time to remove some of
those lower leaves with a sharpknife which I'm going to do so I
have a fair view of the pots soI can water the pots.
I also water the substrateborder in the greenhouse which
(43:32):
the pots stand on that has to bedone daily sometimes twice
daily i am feeding once a weekI'm alternating between a liquid
feed and the pounded feed I'mthinning out the grape vine
bunches but that's timeconsuming can't do it all I'm
talking about if we've got toomany actually embryo bunches of
(43:56):
grapes I'm actually talkingabout thinning out the whole
bunch of grapes every now andagain.
So this vine, it's an old vine,30, 40 years old, but there's a
younger one about 15 years old.
They have to support thesebunches of grapes, so I'm
thinning some of them out.
Also, there's just not time forthis at the moment, but on an
(44:19):
individual bunch of grapes, ifyou can get some scissors and
sharp scissors, and you canreduce, decimate the fruits
themselves, that gives youbigger fruits and more room from
the spread, stopping mildewforming.
time consuming....
all of this reminds me, to keepsowing lettuce outside...
I'm thinking about the lettuceand radish every two to three
(44:42):
weeks at the moment we just goleaf lettuce we don't grow the
hearting lettuce because it'sbeen taken up to about three
months 90 days to form a heartand then they're gone in one go
so we have leaf lettuce cut andcome again salad bill, the red
one or rosso as well and to keepthem fresh keep them watered if
(45:03):
you don't water them oftenenough that have a bitter taste
and they're no good to you.
So, sowing every three weeks orso to keep things fresh and
tying up the sweet peas andremoving tendrils.
I've got a single sweet peaplant to every cane and removing
the tendrils and tying them inas they grow rather than letting
(45:24):
them become a bit of a thicketof growth with the tendrils
clinging on.
You get smaller, shorter stemsand possibly not the top quality
of blooms that you see at theflower shows so we're removing
the tendrils and tying the sweetpeas we're already picking the
sweet peas which is good andit's just mid-June Looking
(45:46):
around at the herbaceous border,there's been quite a lot of
wind recently.
It's never satisfactory tyingthem up or staking them,
supporting those plants whenthey've been flattened by the
wind.
So if it hasn't, there's beenquite a bit of wind, if it
hasn't flattened them already,get some ties in.
Those that need support, getsome canes or pea sticks or
(46:07):
something of that nature.
Outside, sowing herbaceousplants.
Herbaceous perennials in fieldsoutdoors, June and July are
best months for doing that.
Or throw some wallflower seedsas well.
Sow those.
Net those strawberries.
Don't let the birds get all ofthem.
Whatever you're doing nextweek, enjoy your gardening.
Speaker 01 (46:32):
You've been listening to gardener Tom
Pattinson.
Birder Tom Cadwallander fromthe British Trust for
Ornithology and Steve Lowe fromthe Cresswell Peel Tower.
Don't forget you can listenback to all of our previous
programmes via the Nature Gardenpodcast.
That's the Nature Gardenpodcast.
I'm Carl Steinson.
(46:54):
Thanks for listening and enjoyyour gardening and time outdoors
with nature.
Bye for now.
Hello and welcome to the Nature Garden Podcast
(00:22):
with me, Carl Stiansen, and theWeek-ending show team from
Lionheart Radio.
Thanks for joining us on acanny wee wander down the garden
path and country lane with thebirds and the bees and the
flowers and trees in thisepisode.
It's time for some self-careand safety and we should all
(00:44):
take our time to listen to TomP's advice.
Tom Cadwallander's out andabout in the uplands of
Northumberland and enjoying thecollective nouns of birds.
And we'll also find out alittle bit more about this
rather mysterious sound.
Any idea what this is?
We'll tell you more later.
(01:06):
We're going medieval with SteveLowe for a colourful
re-enactment at the CresswellPeel Tower.
Plus some top tips for thegarden from Tom P.
All coming up on the NatureGarden Podcast.
Intro and Theme tune (01:25):
Pri
Carl Stiansen (01:43):
Gardening is creative and rewarding and makes
us feel happy most of the time.
(02:04):
A couple of days ago bone-drydusty soil blew into my eyes
while I was emptying some plantpots causing hours of pain.
It made me think about taking alittle bit more care and, would
you believe it, this week, asif by magic, Tom Pattinson's
prepared his annual address tous all on safety.
Tom Pattinson (02:27):
We've had some superb weather recently.
Long, hot, sunny days.
Not much rain.
Dry conditions.
Relaxing.
Time to get out in the garden.
One of the safest places youcan imagine.
No traffic.
No risks.
(02:47):
Absolutely fabulous.
Everyone dreams of a garden torelax in.
Grow vegetables, fruit.
Do what you want.
The kids can play.
Run riot.
Enjoy themselves.
Let off steam.
That's the picture.
But what's the reality?
Every year around this time, Ijust cannot resist.
(03:09):
making one point, and thatpoint is beware of a garden.
Relax as much as you possiblycan, but question whether it is
the safest place for you.
I think it's time to do anassessment of how your garden is
run, the plants that are inthere, and how tired you are.
(03:31):
Accidents I'm thinking about.
Now, I know that's a strangething to bring up at this time
of the year, But I think it'sbest at the beginning of a
summer period when we're allgoing to be out there relaxing,
I think it's time to give you aheads up and say, don't forget.
Health and safety riskassessment I'm talking about.
(03:51):
These are phrases which areused in the workplace generally.
But every year, believe it ornot, there are thousands of
accidents in and around thegarden.
How do I know?
Well, I see some of them in thenewspapers, in the press, in
the media.
But the Royal Society forPrevention of Accidents, ROSPA
(04:15):
for short, could tell you, visittheir website, about safety in
gardens.
And they just report, as far asI know, those that are
reported.
Accidents which take people toA&E or small injuries units.
How many times in the gardenare you stung by a nettle?
Have a thorn in your finger.
(04:36):
Or cut yourself.
Find some glass or an accidentwith a knife.
And they go, should I go to A&Eor not?
Well, what are we looking at?
Oddly enough, the last time Iread a ROSPA report, they named
a few, something like the top 10causes of accidents in and
(04:57):
around the garden.
And believe it or not,lawnmowers were up near the top
there.
Flower pots.
secateurs and pruners, spades,electric hedge trimmers, plants,
tubs and troughs, shears,garden forks, hoses, sprinklers,
garden canes and sticks.
Perhaps it's time to check yourown garden.
(05:18):
Take a walk around any of thepathways.
What are they like?
Are they uneven?
Are they covered in algae ormoss or slime?
If that's the case, there's arisk of someone falling and this
is the most common occurrence.
Garden debris, which includespieces of wood, twigs, broken
glass, rusty metal or canes,they're just as dangerous.
(05:39):
Has a hose been left uncoiledafter use out on the patio,
around the garden, or have toolsbeen abandoned?
I know it's an old chestnut,but standing a rig against a
wall with the metal tinesresting on the ground, that's
just about the same as setting adangerous trap for an
unsuspecting passer- by.
(06:00):
someone else suspecting that itcould well be you if you forget
and tread on those tongues doyou have steps and ladders are
you climbing to tie in aclimbing rose a tall rounder
such as rambling rector are youclimbing ladders are you leaving
them around are they solid havethey got a solid foothold when
(06:24):
you start to climb them thosesmall steps are just as bad as
ladders think about these thingsThat's just the beginning.
Carl Stiansen (06:31):
Tom Cadwallander's been adventuring
in the Northumberland valleysfor a fair old chunk of his
life.
And this week, he's focusing onthe lush uplands and big skies
in the fabulous NorthNorthumberland National Park.
Tom Cadwallender (06:57):
As a young guy growing up in southeast
Northumberland, I was heavilyinvolved in the youth club at
our local school.
And one of the big things thatwe did was actually, we did our
Duke of Edinburgh's award.
And yes, many, many years ago,I can hardly believe it now,
(07:17):
it's such a long time ago, but Iindeed did my Duke of
Edinburgh's award.
And it's a mix up of all sortsof different things you have to
do but one of the big deals isactually you have to have an
expedition camping and walkingand map reading and compass work
and all that sort of palaverand it's kind of it was an alien
(07:40):
beast for me then and it took alot of learning we had a lot of
training expeditions miniexpeditions and all sorts of
things Invariably though, wewould focus on North
Northumberland andNorthumberland National Park and
we did all our training in thisarea and in fact we had our
(08:04):
major expedition and I got mybronze award and I got my silver
and I didn't quite get my goldI ran out of time a little bit
but anyway I still achievedthose other two things but yes
it was the it was theexpeditions that really turned
me on to the countryside I usedto go camping with pals and
stuff like that but not reallydoing anything worthwhile but it
(08:27):
was those expeditions we had tosort of plot our courses with
the on the map using compassesand all sorts of things like
that and using local landmarksand habitats and whatever and
gradually over time I got agreat affinity with
Northumberland and indeedNorthumberland National Park and
I still to this day haveregular excursions inland to
(08:52):
kind of just explore the oldhunting ground if you like and I
find it quite fascinating justthe change and it's just to feel
the quite open spaces CharlesTrevelyan back in the last
century described Northumberlandas the land of the far horizons
and if you've ever walked theCheviots you'll kind of
(09:14):
understand what he's on aboutbecause there's forever just the
horizons just over there justover there the road rolling
hills of the North Cheviots justincredible and and yes I really
enjoyed my tramping aroundthose and I still do tramp
around and not as much as I usedto of course but I do like to
go into the the valleys of NorthNorthumberland.
(09:37):
And I think that's what theflavour of it is about.
You know, there's a dichotomyof valleys in North
Northumberland.
And they're wonderful.
Right from the kind of thenorth, which is actually
spreading onto the Scottishborder, we have the College
Valley.
And if you go up the CollegeValley, that leads you into kind
of the foothills of the NorthCheviot, the massif itself.
(09:57):
Cheviot is an old extinctvolcano, of course.
But if you go up the, there'stwo ways up from the College
Valley you can't drive the carthere but you can park at the
bottom and walk all the way upand there's two ways up one is
called the Hen Hole and it's agreat sort of craggy sort of
rocky bit to scramble throughand it gives you absolutely
(10:18):
wonderful views and the birdlife is pretty good too and the
plants are exceptional and theother way is through the Bizzle
and that's another rocky outcropbut it's slightly more rounded
but the Hedge Hope, which is abit more steep-sided.
But you come around fromcollege, the next one down is
(10:40):
the Hart Hope Valley, and that'sprobably the one, the valley I
spend most time in these days.
And I like to go up therebecause the In the past, it's
been heavily deforested.
And historically, kind ofprehistorically, in fact, the
North Cheviots were covered intrees, scrubby woodland, birches
(11:01):
and rowans and the like.
And those over the years weregradually sort of taken away.
And we have a lot of sheep onthe hillsides.
But actually, NorthumberlandNational Park are engaged in
quite a good programme ofreplanting.
and there's a lot of nicescrubby woodland going back in
there, particularly in the hardoak valley.
And the reason I like to gointo those little valleys and...
(11:23):
explore or re-explore this is akind of a different bird life
in those in those little placesum you can find species like
cuckoo in not abundance butregularly um and ring ouzel, the
mountain blackbird, ah geezring ouzels are just wonderful
(11:43):
they're like blackbirds they'reslightly bigger but they're
black and they've got this whitecrescent around their breast um
and then really quite uncommonbut they're they're focused in
one or two little valleys in innorth Northumberland and indeed
throughout the west of thecounty but this is where i like
to go it's near enough for meand they're they're migrants and
they come in in sort of latemarch and they'll be gone by
(12:04):
July time um but it's great togo in there and you hear them
chuck chuck chucking but if yougo in into those valleys you
know you're going to see otherkind of migrant birds you're
going to see wheat ears thewhite rump of the wheat ear and
the gray gray hoods and theseare birds which are wintering in
Africa and they come and breedhere in this part of the world
(12:25):
it's one And the other kind ofmigrant that we have of that ilk
is the whinchat.
Now, you may have come acrossthe stonechat, which is the
resident cousin of the whinchat.
The stonechat is a kind of a,the males have a lovely pink
breast, but black hoods andblack backs and little bits of
white flashes on the wings and abit of white on the rump as
(12:45):
well.
But the windchat is the samesort of shape, but it has a big
eye stripe.
It is more gingery.
And you hear them.
You can hear them around theplace.
They've got a similar cold,similar sort of chatty weather.
And they get their name fromthe noise they make and that
chuck, chuck, chuck.
and the stone chat it's justlike two stones being jabbed
(13:06):
against each other and it's uhquite evocative really, but it's
these kind of species that youkind of look out for, and you
get into the scrubby woodlandsuh and you're finding siskins
and you're finding siskins areare sort of mini green finches,
and they're lovely actually intheir in their plumage and their
green plumage with little greenflashes and their black hoods
(13:27):
males and the red polls arethere with the little patches of
of pinky red on their foreheadwhich gives them their name the
red pull and these birdsfrequently scrubby woodlands in
the pine forests that are upthere and uh the the the upland
forests are really quiteinteresting now they're becoming
much more established they'rereally very very interesting and
i find them uh i really enjoyspending time there and you come
(13:50):
back down from from the theHart hope valley and the next
one down is the is the Breamishvalley the Ingram valley it's
really quite popular it's notquite different because it's not
as steep side it's much widerand you can see the geological
formation is much moreinteresting or much more varied
if you like and the humanhabitation is quite evident in
(14:14):
the Breamish Valley and then youcome down a bit further and you
get down to the Coquet Valleywhere as a youth that was the
valley I spent some time in Iused to go into the upper
Coquetdale and into the AlwinValley that's where I cut my
teeth really in terms of uplandbirding, and again ringing, and
I did actually find a nest ofthe raven. Raven really is a
(14:40):
species that was heavilypersecuted and they're now just
getting a foothold back into theuplands, in fact there's a
coastal breeding raven aroundthese days in Northumberland but
they're heavily persecuted andravens are are one of my
favourite birds actually.
They're quite canny.
They have a sense of humour,almost.
(15:01):
But they're the big crows.
And if you see the gape of araven, and gapes are the inside
of their mouths, and it's lovelypink.
It really contrasts with theblack of their plumage.
another bird of the uplandswhich has really had a
(15:21):
successful sort of 30 years isthe buzzard or the common
buzzard to distinguish it fromthe other species of buzzards
they were extinct I rememberseeing my first common buzzard
in Northumberland 30 years agoand since that time they've
gradually increased theirpopulation and we see them right
down onto the coastal plain nowbut they're really common in
(15:44):
land and they've reallyestablished themselves and most
seen changes in the birdpopulations we're seeing new
species uh coming in um and butother species are going away
medipipids are still as abundantand a lot of meadow pipits will
will actually leave this partof the world and actually winter
in North Africa and it'sincredible really, but yes, it's
(16:05):
North Northumberland;Northumberland National Park is
pretty special place you know, Ithink so.
Carl Stiansen (16:17):
Tom Pattinson is urging us to think this week and
always before we snip and mow.
Here's part two of his safetyaudit and some tips that could
save you a lot of pain andtrouble.
Tom Pattinson (16:32):
Well hello, it's me again.
Full of gloom and doom, butit's for your own good really.
Think about accidents happeningin the garden.
Remember, you're checking itout to see, have a general
survey, see where accidentscould occur.
(16:54):
We can't stop them all.
That's why they're calledaccidents.
They're accidental.
But we can plan a little bitbeforehand.
Before you start any gardening,physical activities, hedge
cutting, trimming, mowing, forinstance, consider whether
protective headgear, eyeshields, gloves, footwear are
necessary.
Of course they are.
(17:15):
protect your eyes if you'retrimming the hedge pieces are
flying around all over the placeif you haven't at least got
spectacles on put something onto protect your eyes your hands
your feet if you're lawn mowingdon't do it with flip-flops on
or soft shoes and especially ifit's one of those mowers which
(17:37):
floats around my goodness it'sjust not worth thinking, well it
is worth thinking about ifyou're using chemicals
fertilizers, herbicides,insecticides, whether they're
liquid, granular or powder form,don't leave them hanging
around.
Use a type of gloves whenyou're handling.
(17:57):
They must be locked away, awayfrom children, especially if
they're children around.
And oh my goodness, pleasedon't think about decanting.
If you have a bottle of Contairliquid decanter, a liquid
insecticide, for example, or aliquid herbicide, don't even
think about decanting it intoanother bottle and leaving it
(18:20):
without a label in a shed wherechildren can gain access.
Pardrin tools, I'm thinkingabout those as well.
Those hedge trimmers, thelawnmowers, if you're using
them, any electrical appliances,for goodness sake, really you
should have an RCD, a residualcurrent device, that is, you
(18:43):
plug it into the main socket andand then you plug your device
into the RCD and if there's anaccident, if the blades stick or
any moving part sticks, whetheryou're cutting the hedge or
mowing the lawn.
If, say, you're cutting thehedge and the cord gets in the
way and you actually cut throughit, or a neighbour starts to
(19:04):
talk to you and you get inconversation as you're cutting,
cut through it, there's a chanceof electrocuting yourself.
But that doesn't happen if youhave an RCD attached.
It cuts the currentimmediately.
It probably costs somewhere inthe region of 20 pounds, 25
(19:24):
pounds, maybe not even that.
What price do you put on yourlife?
I'm thinking about back strain,a simple thing.
Lifting.
You're going to lift something,move it, a bag of compost, a
heavy bag of compost, orsomething in the nature, a heavy
pot on the patio, which has asingle plant in it.
(19:45):
Have you got a salt barrel, oris there an easier way of doing
it?
Don't try to lift it byyourself.
Back strain is one of thecurses, and don't keep planting
or cutting or bending down fortoo long.
That's a strain on your back,and it gradually catches up with
you, believe me.
Buy some kneelers, knee pads.
There are lots of differentpossibilities there.
(20:07):
The garden pond, I'm thinkingof that as well, and the
barbecue, water and fire, what acombination.
Is the garden pond, is itcovered?
It just needs to be about acentimeter deep, 30 centimeters
deep afoot if a child falls intoit and that's it.
The barbecue, excitement aroundthe barbecue.
(20:28):
I'm thinking of burnt fingersand leaving it unattended.
What about plants?
I take tours of the poisongarden at Amick.
voluntary tour volunteer i amthere and I've had my eyes
opened in recent years I wasaware of poisonous plants before
of course but the simple plantsaround your garden which are
(20:50):
poisonous to you I'm thinking ofthe lupin laburnum, the sweet
pea, the seeds of those a broomseeds from the cytosis or broom
which you just finished asgolden flowers recently, oh it
just goes on and on, lily of thevalley, monkshood, delphinium,
foxglove, they're all harmful.
Honeysuckle, beautifulfragrance, but the berries that
(21:13):
it forms, they're harmful too.
There are other plants in thegarden which can give you a
nasty burn.
I'm thinking of things likerue.
You'll rue the day you touchedit, you really will.
In the daylight, giving youblisters, euphorbia, and things
like that.
Oh, a whole list of plants.
(21:35):
Pick up a book or take a tourof the Alnwick Poison Garden.
Pick up a book on poisonousplants, basic stuff.
If you have youngsters runningaround, grandchildren, your
children, youngsters coming tothe garden, give it a lot of
thought, please.
And if there's just one personavoids an accident and they've
(21:57):
heard this, then I'm a happyfellow.
After this, I'm going to have anice, harmless cup of tea,
Carl.
Carl Stiansen (22:07):
And now for something a bit different.
It's time to take a classictrip back to the medieval ages
as we join Steve Lowe,Rosa Mundi re-enactment and the
Living History Group atCresswell Pele Tower.
Steve Lowe (22:30):
What can you do here at Cresswell Pele Tower?
The sun is shining.
It's a bit breezy, butotherwise it's looking
fantastic.
And I'm joined by Dave Bowen,who's one of our volunteers and
works with us on the LivingHistory Group.
Hello.
So we've got with us today,we've got a group called Rosa
Mundi.
Rosa Mundi, that's right.
It's one of the premiermedieval reenactment groups in
(22:51):
the country.
And they look fantastic, don'tthey?
Oh, they're absolutely amazing.
I mean, you know, people thinkpeople used to look all grey and
dull back in medieval times.
You should see the palette ofcolour in their costumes.
Yeah.
It's absolutely beautiful tosee.
And obviously against thebackdrop of the walled garden,
which is looking particularlynice today.
(23:11):
It does, doesn't it?
Yeah.
At this time of year, it's ariot of colour.
So we've got, what, six orseven massive tents up there.
We've got a leather worker,arrow maker.
We've got a demonstration ofspinning on the medieval great
wheel with various differenttypes of fibre, so spinning
linen fibre, silk.
They've got silkworm cocoons,and they're actually giving
(23:33):
demonstrations.
Oh, fantastic.
How you extract.
Baking in a traditional claywood-fired oven.
Right.
That's what the smell is.
The smell is.
Just on the wind.
It's absolutely marvellous.
And I ate one of the bunsyesterday and it tasted
delicious.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, well, I don't know where Iwas at that time.
Probably stood upstairs,probably.
Yeah.
Or maybe I was stuck in thestocks.
(23:55):
Well, that's very true.
Yeah.
Because it's a terrible job andsomebody's got to do it.
So we've got all ends of thespectrum here, mostly to do with
daily life.
rather than martial.
Absolutely, yes.
I mean, obviously we've got theFletcher making arrows.
But yes, no gunfire today.
Craft and domestic lifeorientated.
(24:16):
Thanks, Dave.
I hope the day goes reallywell.
We're just at the start of it.
So fingers crossed, mate.
And thanks for all your help aswell in getting this organised.
You and Peter and Lynn,everybody have done a grand job.
It's been an absolute pleasure,Steve.
Cheers, mate.
Thanks.
Cheers.
Hi, Ian.
Are you all right?
You're with Rosa Mundi.
I am.
(24:36):
Yeah.
Tell us about Rosa Mundi.
Well, we specifically like toreenact the 15th century.
Right.
The name, Rosa Mundi, meansRose of the World.
Okay.
And the flower has red andwhite petals.
So it's sort of...
Yeah.
When you're doing Rose of theRoses, it means we can swap
sides, you know, as we feel weneed to.
(24:57):
Yeah.
And we like...
We obviously do the batteryenactment, but our main thing is
to do what we've calleddomestic and crafts.
Yeah.
So we cook food to the originalrecipes.
We recreate the crafts, like Iusually do, fletching.
There's people doingcalligraphy, and we even mint
(25:17):
our own coins.
Oh, fantastic.
Right, I'll be over there for afew.
Yeah, you make yourself a richman.
Yeah, absolutely.
So you've been doing this for alittle while, then?
Yeah, quite a few years.
We started in the mid-90s withan event at Richmond Castle with
English Heritage.
Nice.
And it all sort of happenedmore or less at the same time
(25:42):
from there on.
We did a TV program as well forStop, Look, Listen, it was
called.
And after that, we sort ofexpanded...
bought tents of the medievalstyle so we could actually live
in the tents and stay in places.
And you've been staying here,haven't you?
We have.
We've been staying in thewalled garden, which is nice.
Excellent, yeah.
(26:02):
Good location.
And it means we can thenbasically set up, stay in the
tents overnight, and we're readyto go further public in the
next morning or however longwe're at a particular site.
Sounds fantastic, to be honestwith you.
I mean, it looks fantastic,I've got to say.
So what are you wearing?
Pretty well 15th century gear.
I'll start at the top with myhat, which has a gild of
(26:25):
Fletchers.
Yes.
And the bow from Richard III.
Yeah.
And then...
As a slightly older chap, Iusually have this, which is like
a hair cover called a coif.
Coif, yeah.
Younger lads tended to not wearthem at the time.
No, right.
But they were almost unisex.
Yes, women tend to always havethe hair covered.
Having your hair covered wasseen as a sign of being a decent
(26:49):
person.
Right, okay.
Well, I trust you now then.
Yeah, you're safe.
Yeah, yeah.
And then after that, it'sdoublet and hose.
And underneath is a thingcalled a paw point.
Yeah.
Which means four points.
And that's to hold your hose upso there's no braces.
Everything's tied on withlittle ties.
Tied to the top.
To the top.
(27:09):
Yeah, yeah, right.
And how comfortable is that?
When you first wear it as aman, it feels really
uncomfortable.
But you kind of get used to theoddness of it.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the hose themselves.
Yeah.
Very hard to describe.
Sort of like people think ofthem as almost like a stocking.
Yeah.
(27:29):
But made of wool.
Made of wool, yeah.
And then mine are footed, so Ihave...
Basically, it goes all the waydown your leg and into your
foot, so it's like a onesie.
Okay, right.
Is it itchy?
No, the wool is boiled, so it'sactually quite soft.
So it takes away that, yeah.
And then our medieval footwear,which is copies from finds in
(27:50):
London.
Right, yeah.
When they were doing all thedocklands excavations, they
turned up loads of old shoesthat were thrown into the river.
Right.
So we have them copied in styleto keep everything...
you know, looking right andbeing right.
Well, everyone looks to theport.
That's the thing, isn't it?
Yeah.
You feel the port, I guess,when you're wearing the right
(28:11):
things.
Once you've got the kit on, yourealize, well, firstly, what
the restrictions are and thingslike that.
So because you're literallytied in as a chap, bending over
is sometimes quite difficult.
So you see illustrations ofthem where they've loosened the
ties at the back so they canmove around more.
Yeah.
And the same with the women'scostumes.
(28:33):
The dresses that they wear arevery, very long.
They're always ground length.
So there's always like a drag.
The freedom of movement,though, for other activities.
Yeah.
And then the other thing thatpeople are quite interested in
is a thing called patterns,which is a wooden shoe that you
(28:54):
fit over your normal shoe.
So if you're walking around inthe mud or something like that,
it just lifts you up.
And that would have been...
the norm in a village orsomething like that.
And probably quite noisy whenyou're walking around.
If there's like a cobbledstonework and lots of people are
wearing patterns, it getspretty noisy.
Pretty noisy, yeah.
Well, I mean, that's a reallygood description.
(29:15):
Thanks very much for that.
And you're actually quitecolourful as well because most
people think, oh, medieval drab.
Yes, no, the colours...
We often get that, oh, it'squite colourful, because I think
a lot of people are influencedby films where everything
medieval is brown or grey.
The reality was they used allkinds of dye, some of them
(29:35):
staggeringly expensive, so thatyou had a really good array of
colours throughout.
Do you actually have a guy oranybody that does dye in your
group?
We have people who...
We'll do the dyeing of the rawmaterial.
Yes.
So when the wool is spun, it'sthen dyed to that particular
(29:58):
colour.
We do have a lady who spins aswell on a wheel called a great
wheel.
Yes, I should say todayactually.
So you can get some idea of howthey used to work with the
spike that Sleeping Beauty isalways talking about where it's
sticking out of the side of thegreat wheel.
So if you passed by, you'reable to get stuff like that.
(30:18):
So all the things that you'retalking about, they're actually
pretty much ingrained inliterature and all sorts of
stuff as well, aren't they, whenwe think of it in a wider way?
Well, all I was going to saywas thank you, but also...
just to encourage people tocome along and see you guys,
really.
Yes, it's worth coming along.
We always engage people inconversation about things that
(30:40):
they're particularly interestedin.
And very often, even if theperson you're talking to doesn't
have the knowledge, we knowsomebody who can talk to you
about that.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Well, thanks very much, Ian,and hope you enjoy your day.
Yeah, thanks for being at thePeel Tower.
Cheers, then.
Carl Stiansen (30:58):
And you can find out more about Rosa Mundi and
their displays atrosamundi.org.uk.
That's rosamundi.org.uk.
The incredible sound there ofsnipe drumming.
(31:19):
I had the pleasure of hearingthat in Scotland just after
Easter.
And now, well, from our own,very own, gaggle of field
reporters, Tom Cadwallander'shere to tell us more about the
amazing snipe and the collectivenames of birds.
Over to you, Tom Cad.
Tom Cadwallender (31:40):
You may remember I've mentioned this
countless times before.
I'm fascinated by the seaside,coastal environments, and I live
my life...
almost by the seaside and I'mout on the shore almost every
day and it's fantastic and I'vementioned before about
volunteering on Coquet Island,in fact, just last month I was
(32:03):
kind of waxing lyrical I thinkabout spending there and helping
out with monitoring of birdsout there But the thing that's
popped into my mind this morningis that whilst I was on Coquet
Island, I was surrounded by acommittee or committees of
(32:24):
terns, sandwich terns, rosyterns, common terns, arctic
terns.
They're all there squawkingaway.
And when they lift, and they dothat on a regular basis for no
apparent reason, it's called thedread.
So you see these clouds ofterns And they're sometimes
(32:45):
called kettles as well.
But it's a committee of terns.
But also, whilst I was on theisland, we kind of wandered
around and checking out things.
We had a pandemonium ofpuffins.
And that's the collective nounfor puffins, a pandemonium.
And the collective noun forturns is a committee or a
(33:06):
kettle.
and the uh it's fascinating soit really is quite interesting
this whole idea of collectivenouns and I'm never sort of far
away from the kind of thethought of it, and here this
morning, it's really quite earlyand I'm doing I'm doing more
survey work that's in land and Idon't get a chance to come in
land very often and but when Iido it's absolutely magnificent
(33:29):
because...
you might be able to hear the,there's some cattle behind me
sort of mooing and mooing andwhatever.
But if you just listen soclosely, I don't know if you can
pick it out.
Skylarks singing.
I'm surrounded by an exaltationof skylarks.
Can you hear it?
Yeah, there's a little squad ofthem here.
(33:51):
Obviously, there's been ahatching, and they're all up in
the air singing away.
And it's absolutely glorious.
It's wonderful, and it's agreat privilege to be out here.
And so, an exaltation ofskylarks.
That's another collective noun,if you like.
Can you hear them?
Oh, wonderful, absolutelywonderful.
(34:14):
Also in the background, you maywell be able to pick out reed
buntings.
They're cool.
And sedge warblers with theirkind of typewriter-y, chattery
way, sort of as they kind ofshoot through their song.
We're getting a little late inthe season now, in the breeding
season, so a lot of these birdsare kind of just going through
the last throes of theirbreeding process.
(34:38):
Or I can hear some meadowpippets too, squeaking.
But the other thing I've beenhearing a bit this morning, I've
heard the goldfinches, theyhave a little tinkling noise.
And goldfinches, the collectivenoun for goldfinches, is a
charm, a charm of goldfinches.
That's so evocative of kind ofhow they tinkle as they pass
(35:03):
through.
Another thing that I wasthinking of, and I've just
picked them up relativelyrecently because they went quiet
for a while, that arelong-tailed tits.
And I don't know if you'refamiliar with long-tailed tits,
but they're almost likelollipops because they've got
quite long tails and they'requite small bodies.
And as they fly, they seem tobe just sort of, they have this
(35:24):
sort of, this trail of a tailbehind them.
And they went quiet for alittle while.
Obviously, they were breedingin the woods and hedges and so
forth and they've just startedto reappear and if you listen
closely you can actually justhear the little kind of the
contact noises they make andthese are kind of just so quiet,
(35:46):
but if you listen you can hearthem but the collective noun for
long-tailed tits is a tribe,which is quite fitting really
when you see them travellingaround and they'll go in lines,
and it is a tribe of long-tailedtits as these them going
through little bits of scrubbywoodland or hedgerows or that
(36:08):
sort of habitat, and it's reallyquite something and you see
them sort of making their waythrough and they're so cute and
hey I tell you what I'm not agreat one for anthropomorphising
but I think they're cute, soyes, long-tailed tits with the
tribes of long-tailed tits andthe nests interestingly the
(36:29):
nests are sometimes described asnests of a thousand feathers.
Because they're almost entirelymade up of feathers they've
collected on their littlejourneys around the place.
But it's interesting.
If you keep your eyes and yourears open, you can find all
sorts of things.
And there's all sorts of folkstories about birds and their
(36:50):
habitats.
And I'm just looking aroundthis little bit of...
bit of scrubby woodland on theedge of this these fields the
fields are full of rape they umand there's a few beans and a
field across the way there butthere's a nice little bit of
wetland on associated with thisthis bit of farmland and it's
(37:10):
got juncus in there but alsoI've been hearing the drumming
of snipe snipe are wading birdsand They're kind of really quite
secretive.
But if you kind of just settledown there, early mornings and
evenings are the best.
You hear them drumming.
And the drumming is thevibration of their tail
feathers.
(37:31):
And it's part of their display.
And...
they will kind of just, theywill kind of go really quite
high in the sky and you can hearthe kind of sort of noise they
make.
But when they're on the groundand they have this little
contact noise they make, it's...
And it's quite funny when yougo, what is that?
(37:53):
You know, you come and, oh yes,oh yes, it's a snipe.
And snipe, if you're notfamiliar, are kind of wading
birds, as I've mentioned.
And they're round and they'renot very big.
They're about the size of akind of blackbird sort of size.
But they're crypticallyplumaged and they're stripy and
they're beige and browns.
But they've got incredibly longbills and they'll probe into
(38:16):
soft mud looking forinvertebrates that live in the
mud.
But their plumage reallyreflects where they live.
They like to live in these damphollows.
which we still have indecreasing sort of quantity, but
we still have them in certainplaces.
And these little wet damphollows are filled with or can
(38:41):
be filled with Junkers.
Junkers is a damp loving plantand you always recognise where a
damp area is when you seelittle groups of Junkers growing
there.
And Junkers is quite asucculent really.
It's got fleshy leaves andquite long and spiky.
And when it dies it becomesquite brown.
(39:03):
And so if you see snipe, acommon snipe, standing in front
of or in some juncus.
It's really quite hard to pickout because their plumage almost
reflects the vegetation aroundthem, this juncus vegetation.
So yes, you've got to be sortof quite on the ball ready to
(39:24):
pick them out.
And in the wintertime, we getjack snipe, which are slightly
smaller, and they come acrossfrom the continent to winter in
this country.
And we also get wood which area bigger version and of the
snipe and they're kind of thisbeigey gingery brown colour and
they're a little bit bigger andthese birds actually I've just
(39:47):
remembered they've got anamazing thing they've got their
you know birds have their theireyes kind of well down their
faces but actually these snipeand woodcock have got their eyes
quite high up their heads andthat allows them it gives them
360 vision so yes there's athere's a wealth of birds out
there and to look just on thefarmland and farmland fringe.
(40:08):
So I'm here doing some surveywork, and the majority of birds
I'm seeing, I'm hearing, and youcan hear them, skylocks.
Fantastic.
So, it's still going to besummer for a wee while longer,
so get out and hear someskylocks.
Gan canny, folks.
Carl Stiansen (40:35):
And so, to the sound of War Blackbird and
Catherine Tickelland Bandplaying the Morpeth Rant, here's
Tom with some things to begetting on with in the garden.
Tom Pattinson (40:53):
So it's jobs for the week time.
There's been so much dryweather recently and hot that
plants recently put out into thegarden, vegetables sown,
planted, ornamental plants, eventhings which are planted in the
autumn are starting to show thestress.
(41:15):
If there are no waterrestrictions, try to keep those
that deserve to be, keep goingalive, try to give them water
first.
Get a list of priorities forwatering, as long as there's no
water restrictions, becauseyou're going to lose them,
unfortunately.
That's really important, firstand foremost.
My strawberry plants, whichwere put into a new bed just
(41:39):
about three, four months ago,they've been feeling the
pressure, getting some lovelystrawberries from them, ripe
strawberries already, andthey're netted against the
blackbirds, of course, butthey've been showing stress, so
I've had to water those just tokeep them going.
I'm indoors, undercover at themoment.
I'm also keen to keep thetomatoes going.
(42:01):
They droop at the slightesthint of no water.
During the day, sometimes youhave to water them twice in a
day at present.
Ventilate the greenhouse asmuch as you can.
and damp down the floor.
If it's a flagged floor, well,if you have a flagged floor,
then put water on there.
It helps build the humidity,keep down the heat.
(42:23):
The tomatoes, they'll droptheir leaves very quickly, but
if you catch them in time, theyrecover.
One of the things you'll see isone or two fruits maybe, if the
soil's been allowed to dry, outaround their roots they may
have blossom end rot but thataffects individual fruits on
(42:44):
their dark patch appearing atthe very tip of the fruit and
spreading gradually it justaffects individual fruits so
just remove those if you sufferfrom that I'm also removing some
leaves from the tomatoes at themoment lower leaves when i
first planted them there wasquite a lot of space between
them now there's quite a thicketdeveloping we've got the fourth
(43:09):
truss on the tomatoesdeveloping the first truss lower
down they're not ripe yet butit's time to remove some of
those lower leaves with a sharpknife which I'm going to do so I
have a fair view of the pots soI can water the pots.
I also water the substrateborder in the greenhouse which
(43:32):
the pots stand on that has to bedone daily sometimes twice
daily i am feeding once a weekI'm alternating between a liquid
feed and the pounded feed I'mthinning out the grape vine
bunches but that's timeconsuming can't do it all I'm
talking about if we've got toomany actually embryo bunches of
(43:56):
grapes I'm actually talkingabout thinning out the whole
bunch of grapes every now andagain.
So this vine, it's an old vine,30, 40 years old, but there's a
younger one about 15 years old.
They have to support thesebunches of grapes, so I'm
thinning some of them out.
Also, there's just not time forthis at the moment, but on an
(44:19):
individual bunch of grapes, ifyou can get some scissors and
sharp scissors, and you canreduce, decimate the fruits
themselves, that gives youbigger fruits and more room from
the spread, stopping mildewforming.
time consuming....
all of this reminds me, to keepsowing lettuce outside...
I'm thinking about the lettuceand radish every two to three
(44:42):
weeks at the moment we just goleaf lettuce we don't grow the
hearting lettuce because it'sbeen taken up to about three
months 90 days to form a heartand then they're gone in one go
so we have leaf lettuce cut andcome again salad bill, the red
one or rosso as well and to keepthem fresh keep them watered if
(45:03):
you don't water them oftenenough that have a bitter taste
and they're no good to you.
So, sowing every three weeks orso to keep things fresh and
tying up the sweet peas andremoving tendrils.
I've got a single sweet peaplant to every cane and removing
the tendrils and tying them inas they grow rather than letting
(45:24):
them become a bit of a thicketof growth with the tendrils
clinging on.
You get smaller, shorter stemsand possibly not the top quality
of blooms that you see at theflower shows so we're removing
the tendrils and tying the sweetpeas we're already picking the
sweet peas which is good andit's just mid-June Looking
(45:46):
around at the herbaceous border,there's been quite a lot of
wind recently.
It's never satisfactory tyingthem up or staking them,
supporting those plants whenthey've been flattened by the
wind.
So if it hasn't, there's beenquite a bit of wind, if it
hasn't flattened them already,get some ties in.
Those that need support, getsome canes or pea sticks or
(46:07):
something of that nature.
Outside, sowing herbaceousplants.
Herbaceous perennials in fieldsoutdoors, June and July are
best months for doing that.
Or throw some wallflower seedsas well.
Sow those.
Net those strawberries.
Don't let the birds get all ofthem.
Whatever you're doing nextweek, enjoy your gardening.
Speaker 01 (46:32):
You've been listening to gardener Tom
Pattinson.
Birder Tom Cadwallander fromthe British Trust for
Ornithology and Steve Lowe fromthe Cresswell Peel Tower.
Don't forget you can listenback to all of our previous
programmes via the Nature Gardenpodcast.
That's the Nature Gardenpodcast.
I'm Carl Steinson.
(46:54):
Thanks for listening and enjoyyour gardening and time outdoors
with nature.
Bye for now.
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