A local bird enthusiast, has had many sightings of the rare and magnificent goshawks in the parish. They have been spotted in Hen Wood, and possibly Coombe Woods and Chappetts Copse. Historically goshawks have had a long history with East Meon. The Bishops of Winchester embraced the sport of hawking here in the 13th century, A ‘mews’ for goshawks was built here in 1248 and a certain ‘Richard’ was employed as a hawk trainer in Read more…
Sunday 2nd August saw the Hay Harvest completed in a very good time by 20+ volunteers. The hay was well dried, which made it much easier to collect. The hay was sent to Butser Ancient Farm, who were very pleased with the quality. They plan to make one or two ‘iron age’ haystacks with it, before feeding it to their animals.
At 3.00 pm on Sunday 2nd August a working party will be gathering the hay in All Saints churchyard. This is done every year as part of the process to develop a wildflower meadow in the churchyard. You are welcome to join in this work. Please contact Graham Davenport at grahammdavenport0@gmail.com if you available to help.
Blackberries are now ready for picking throughout the Parish. These blackberries pictured are at the top of Halnacker Lane and are particularly abundant. Yum yum!
Yes, it is that time of year when the blackberries will soon be ready for picking. The bramble flower nectar is one of the main sources of food for the comma butterfly in the summer months. Blackberries should not be confused with dewberries which are ripe and in the hedgerows now. Dewberries are bigger than blackberries, have fewer segments and are covered in a bluish bloom.
Lady’s bedstraw is now flowering throughout the parish. It has a wonderful honey like scent. This picture was taken of a great flush of flowers on the footpath from South Farm to the South Downs Way. Flowers of the bedstraw family where often used in the stuffing of mattresses in medieval and early modern times, hence the name. Lady’s bedstraw was often used for the pillows as it has the strongest and sweetest scent, plus Read more…
Silver-washed Fritillaries are flying around in the sunny glades in Hen Wood today.
There a some wonderful patches of wild thyme flowering near the top of the path from South Farm to the South Downs Way as the track enters into a sunken section.
Meadowsweet is very fragrant, it has a smell like that of aspirin. This is due to the plant containing salicylic acid, similar to the synthetic acetylsalicylic acid of aspirin. Meadowsweet (filipendula ulmaria) originally had the latin name spirea ulmaria hence the link to the commercial name of ‘aspirin’.
This bee is taking advantage of one of the musk thistles now flowering on Park Hill. The musk thistles have a lovely scent, but take care when you get close up to smell them!