Pretty blue flowers and their green leaves in patches of sunlight in a wood
In the sunlight this afternoon: Chionodoxa naturalized in Bentley Old Vicarage nature reserve (www.harrowncf.org/BOV_home.html). Not a native species, but very pretty.
Free homes for birds! Workers at The Toureen Group have donated their time to create gorgeous sturdy bird boxes from offcuts of wood (see image). If you'd like one or more to put up in your garden contact Steve Bolsover at admin@harrowncf.org.
A marsh behind a rickety post and rail fence with woodland trees on either side; there is lots of standing water in the marsh.
The marsh at the north end of Summerhouse Lake in Bentley Priory is now properly waterlogged, thanks not only to all the rain but also the work of TCV volunteers who a few months ago cut channels to make sure it stayed wet.
Main picture shows two people shovelling earth around a set of logs set in the ground - this is a loggery. Inset shows four people using ropes to carry one big log to the loggery.
TCV @tcvnational.bsky.social volunteers created a second enormous stag beetle loggery at Bentley Priory today, helping to tidy up the logs created by our coppicing project and those created when we cleared a big oak that had fallen across Deer Path. Thanks everyone!
Two men building a vertical pile of half-buried logs and filling the gaps with earth, beside a fence with open grassland to the right
Yesterday volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social built a gorgeous big stag beetle loggery with logs from the coppicing work in Heriots Wood, Bentley Priory. The sky looks grey but it did not rain and we even got sun at lunch time!
Snowdrops in bloom in the rain
Snowdrops in bloom at Lady Gilberts Orchard this afernoon.
Two volunteers cutting into a tangle of old blackthorn scrub. In the foreground the enormous pile of cut branches that they have already created.
Yesterday volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social cut scallops into the mature scrub edge of The Greensward at Bentley Priory. The scrub will regrow providing new young shoots and leaves for animals that prefer that - for example Brown Hairstreaks, which prefer three year old blackthorn.
To me it is the "Womping Willow" (but Willows DON'T do that!)
An oak tree in a small wood, with bare branches bending this way and that in a crazy "Womping Willow" sort of way. Evergreen trees frame the oak to left and right.
Not a great picture but shows the thrashing "glad hands" growth pattern characteristic of oaks - but in this case taken to extremes. A lovely old oak at Sylvia Avenue open space. To the right are some of the non-native cypress trees that we hope to remove, giving the oak a better chance of survival.
A patch of green grass with a London LOOP finger post and a spanking new information panel about the site.
Yesterday Harrow Council installed an information panel at Sylvia Avenue Open Space www.harrowncf.org/Sylvia_Avenu... giving information about this pretty little site. The artwork was created by local volunteers. You will have to go visit the site to read what it says!
Winter sun on a green marshy area beside a lake. Volunteers are working - on the right two are coppicing alder trees, on the left two are digging and filling wheelbarrows with mud.
Volunteers from The Conservation Volunteers @tcvnational.bsky.social worked at the marsh on Summer house Lake in Bentley Priory today, a beautiful cold sunny winters day. We coppiced alder and dug canals to make sure that the marsh remains wet. Thanks everyone!
Four people looking at a sunlit bank, onne on her knees taking a photo with a camera.
We went off looking for flowers (yes, they have to be in bloom!) at Bentley Priory today as part of the bsky.app/profile/bsbi... New Year's plant hunt. Here we are recording a flowering white dead nettle!
A group of longhorn cattle relaxing in a grassy field with a thicket of thorn behind.
The longhorn cattle are now back on Spring Meadow at Bentley Priory (photo taken today); the intention is that they will browse the young shoots of bramble as they appear in spring and help the transition of the bramble patches to open grassland.
A length of blackthorn twig with knobbly side branches bearing brown buds. A single white egg nestles on the point where a side branch leaves; it has a lovely complex pattern like a geodesic dome.
Brown hairstreak butterfly egg spotted at Newton Farm last week (12th December 2025). One of two we spotted without looking very hard - no doubt there are more.
A woodland swamp on a misty wet day, dead trees rear over the water like old fashioned dinosaurs. A volunteer in an orange jacket is measuring up a boardwalk in the background.
Monsters in the swamp: Pynding Mersc at Stanmore Common last week (7th December 2025). We love waterlogged dead wood - lots of specialized fungi and invertebrates need this ecological niche.
Three volunteers with cutting tools cutting young trees, these are sprouts from hazel coppice.
Volunteers from the TCV coppicing hazel at Bentley Priory today. As set out in the manangement plan, we coppiced a third of the hazel; another third will be coppiced next winter, and the last third the winter after that. The wood is not wasted: most will be used for fencing on other reserves.
A white globe in grass, what appears to be smoke all around it (actually its spores that it has just puffed out).
While working at The Scrape yesterday we found a puffball and set it puffing.
On the left, a pond full of cut birch and other young trees, a large house behind. On the right, the same pond cleared of the cut trees.
Before and after our emergency working party this morning at The Scrape, Wood Farm, clearing an enormous number of trees that vandals had cut and dumped into the water - one of the best quality ponds in Harrow.
Yellow gorse bloom and green stems againts a blurry background of white birch trunks and blue sky.
Gorse in bloom yesterday under blue sky at Stanmore Country Park. We are glad that we did not timetable any outdoor work today - the weather is horrible!
Low sun illuminates a wide grassy path through woodland; two people cutting grass and bramble with brush cutters, another walking with a rake.
A lovely winter day at Stanmore Country Park today. Volunteers cut bramble on John's Ride to keep the ride open and maintain the grassland flora. We are using our lovely quiet Stihl battery brush cutters.
Low sun through woodland lights up patches on the leaf litter covered ground and highlights hazel leaves.
Low sun gives heightened colour to the green bramble and yellow hazel leaves in woodland at Old Redding Nature Reserve this afternoon.
Two people raking up cut grass in a meadow, trees around, oaks still in leaf, others now bare.
Volunteers raked up cut grass and bramble at Bentley Priory today to help preserve the species-rich grasslands. It was damp but not nearly as bad as predicted! This is our last raking session; now we move on to winter activities.
Six people raking in a grassy meadow; patches of blue sky and white cloud but the people are wrapped up warm!
Volunteers from Sainsburys raking cut bramble at Bentley Priory today to help preserve the species-rich grasslands. Thanks guys!
Four men pulling a tarpaulin laden with (wet, heavy!) cut bramble to an arisings pile just off the grassland in the adjoining scrub.
Volunteers from William Hill at Bentley Priory today - thanks guys! They raked up cut bramble then moved it to piles off the grassland; we hope this will reduce the bramble growth next year and encourage the growth of grassland flowers. The sky was blue and the sun shone!
Scrub and green grass on a moist day at Bentley Priory, trees in the background
The lovely ball of mistletoe in Furze Heath, Bentley Priory, photographed on a soggy misty morning today. This plant has been growing on that branch for at least ten years. Kissing under it would likely result in lots of scratches!
Grassy ride with different autumn colours on the trees; one volunteer cutting back bramble with a battery brush cutter.
Lovely colours at Stanmore Country Park this morning as we used battery brush cutters to cut back the bramble along the edges of the grassy glades.
Four people moving a green tarpaulin full of cut brambleto the edge of a grassy meadow.
Volunteers from the Building Research Establishment today at Bentley Priory moving one of the many piles of cut bramble that they had raked up. Removing the bramble will help restore the species-rich grassland. Thanks guys!
Colouring leaves and bright red berries on wild Guelder Rose
Guelder Rose berries and foliage at Bentley Priory this afternoon.
Two people filling wheelbarrows with cut bramble in a soggy field; trees behind them all colours of green and orange.
Nice autumn colours at Bentley Priory today as volunteers from the Conservation Volunteers @tcvnational.bsky.social raked cut bramble to protect the species-rich grasslands.
Two men raking in grassland, longhorn cattle behind
Volunteers from @tcvnational.bsky.social raked cut bramble at Bentley Priory today to preserve the species-rich grasslands. Thanks guys! The cattle spent the morning eating acorns; then the one closest here investigated our arisings pile and had fun tossing it about and having a good neck scratch.
