What a June it was! Rain and yet more rain in hugely ferocious downpours interspersed with a few sunny intervals. The vegetation grew and grew so that it was full on with the strimmers, mowers and blowers to keep everything…

  The Friars Meadow County Wildlife Site has changed dramatically over the years as the management has extinguished the coarse grasses. Time was, in high summer, when mists of Yorkshire Fog grass pollen would drift in dusty swirls as the…

May is the month when the natural world is bursting with exuberance, the month of annual rebirth and renewal of life. Whilst all of us will come and go, nature will come and go and come again and again for…

Shortly we will witness the return of grazing livestock for the new season and thus continue the very ancient tradition of summer grazing on the riverside. The cattle are absolutely crucial to the management of the Sudbury Common Lands pastures…

The first day of March is apparently supposed to mark the first day of spring. This may be the case for those who like to neatly categorise the passing days and months into an orderly manner. Nature, however, works to…

Following on from the incredibly mild conditions that prevailed until the very last day of 2015, winter is now firmly in the driving seat. Wet and cold conditions are to be expected but those on our television screens were terrible…

Last autumn stretched well into December with many trees and hedgerows holding their coloured leaves long after they would normally have fallen. This coupled with record breaking warm days has certainly made this winter shorter even if there is severe…

The end of July proved to be disappointingly cool and very wet for those wishing to get outside but the rain was much needed and has done wonders for reviving the grass for the cattle. With the annual thistle topping…

As the mercury soars through the summer months the riverside really ‘fills up’ with people intent on enjoying the fine weather. So for a few weeks there is a considerable amount of extra activity and plenty of rubbish but come…

Over the past few weeks the riverside pastures have looked absolutely stunning by any stretch of the imagination. The Devon cattle returned from their winter quarters to graze on the lush grass among the swathes of golden buttercups all set…