Helen Kelly, the head of Norley’s primary school, has let me know that she would very much appreciate a similar effort. One of NWG’s core objectives is to ensure our younger community members will become effective stewards, so it has been decided that we would indeed go a few copies better and provide books for each of the classes as well as the Norley Scouts, Cubs and Beavers. THE LOST MOSSES REFOUND BULBS As before, NWG has been checking for snowdrops, with 5000 bulbs having been planted last year. The signs are pretty good with the lovely little flowers showing all around the village. The number will only get better and better, especially if we follow Edward Augustus Bowles’ famous advice to “Stir them up regularly” and split them up after they’ve flowered every three years and plant some in the green when we have large clumps to divide. Daffodils by now will be in full bloom, though some varieties like Early Sensation have been flowering since January. The ones at the Memorial Garden and Crabmill Lane will look especially fine. All our work there mowing, raking, removing leaves and pernicious weeds will again have helped to make a splendid show. The cyclamen coum flowers in the churchyard are looking wonderful despite the attention of Peter Rabbit and his cousins! The bluebells we planted in the “Wild Wood “next to the church are showing, as are others around the village. The ones in the wood are natives, whereas many of the others are Spanish or its hybrids. I set out in last year’s March edition the difference in detail, but in summary, the flowers of natives have white creamy pollen, with a distinct, sweetish scent. The scentless Spanish bluebell flowers (often pink and white ones too), have blue pollen, although the hybrids will vary. Norley’s children : will not be “Lost for Words”! Readers will recall that last year I praised the wonderful, magical beautiful, the Lost Words book which was created by Robert MacFarlane to celebrate the disappearing words of everyday nature, from acorn and wren to conker and dandelion, It has caught the imagination of both children and grown ups alike and already become a cultural phenomenon with help from a crowd funding campaign by a school bus driver to provide the Lost Words book to Scottish Schools. See: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/10/ the-lost-words-campaign-delivers-nature-spellbookto-scottish-schools Norley News | March 2018 | norleynews@mail.com
In February’s edition I mentioned Katie Piercy, CWT’s erstwhile Delamere Mossland Officer, and she, as promised, has written up the summary of the work carried out during the project into a wonderful report. It is well worth looking at and can be found at the bottom of the page at http://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/lostmosses. In a valedictory email Katie recalls the fantastic wildlife in Delamere: a slender bodied Downy emerald dragonfly darting above a dark lily pool, over one hundred fluttering green hairstreak butterflies at Shemmy’s moss, listening for her first bog bush cricket on a bat detector, spotting grass snakes amongst the rushes, watching snipe rise from the ground and zigzag across the sky, startling nibbling voles and shrews and watching hundreds of ladybirds take flight on a sunny day. All of this, and so much more, has taught Katie just how important this landscape is for wildlife. The work carried out over the last four years will help to strengthen and expand what already exists and maybe even bring about new unforeseen benefits. Such places were once characterised in the seventeenth century as “The Air nebulous grosses and full of rotten harres; (noxious gases) the water putred and muddy, yea full of loathsome vermine; the earth spuing, unfast and boggie”. Fortunately, such views, which were current even quite recently, are now seen as not only retrograde but positively harmful, even dangerous. The seminal book (first published 1988 rev 2015) by Jeremy Purseglove, Taming the Flood, shows clearly why we must harness nature rather than vainly trying to repress it. We need to use the whole landscape to absorb the increasingly heavy rains due to climate change before they reach the rivers and inevitably result in devastating floods. The restored mosses are indeed good for all of us, not just wildlife. NWG MEETINGS in March: Tigers Head and Work Days See our website for details, the Work Day in March will be Saturday 24th (avoiding Easter the following weekend). Everyone is most welcome at both.
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