Chris Skinner (00:39):
Wonderful. Quarter to four in the morning and a Blackbird in full song right above my head and two others singing further down the farmyard. 1st of June, dawn chorus is tailing off now at this time of the year. The sky is already getting light way over to the east. I'm just going to walk down to the duck pond and leave that glorious sound behind me. I've got four Goslings and they've spent their first night out of a little run that I've made to protect them from the foxes, but they're with their surrogate mum and dad. Oh, another black bird, different one with a slightly different song, a bit more warbler. That one. This time of the morning you feel you've got the world to yourself. I love it. Whoa, they're on the pond. Hello, Gozzies. 1, 2, 3, 4, and mom and dad, that's great. They're survived the night. No foxes. Hello little Gozzies. They're already half grown. It's beginning to get difficult to tell the difference between Gozzymodo and Mildred and their four charges. But Mildred, the ancient goose is really very happy. I dunno how long they've been on the water, but it's a good sign that they've got through the night. Perfect. The glorious 1st of June.

Matthew Gudgin (04:21):
June is with us and it's a lovely sunny day here for our weekly trip to High Ash Farm near Norwich square mile of beautiful Norfolk countryside. And our guide as always is Farmer. Chris, Chris Skinner. Chris, hello.

Chris Skinner (04:37):
Hello Matthew. Don't call me June is here. I'm Chris for certain. Well, what a wonderful site. We've got dark clouds threatening way in the distance, but a little bit of sunshine at the moment. And we're in one of the wildflower fields at High Ash Farm and it is a real wildflower field. It's absolutely amazing.

Matthew Gudgin (05:01):
Is this oxide daisy?

Chris Skinner (05:02):
Yes, it's about a week from coming into full flower. There's an odd pink flower over there, which looks like a loop in but much smaller and that's sainfoin. And we'll talk about that a little bit. We'll visit another site for that and each week we get a barrel load of questions. And there's one really interesting one to start us off this week. I dunno if you'd like to read it.

Matthew Gudgin (05:28):
Yes. Anna Miller. Hello Anna in the Wenning Valley in Yorkshire who says, we've got a fantastic floodplain meadow in the Wenning valley here. Are they well established on your farm? And have they been there for many years or did you redevelop them as part of conservation efforts? If so, did you use yellow rattle? Was there much that came through from the seed bank? Do you have orchids or any other interesting flora in them? Do you see agricultural flora around other field margins such as cornflower, poppies, marigold? So a lot to unpack there. You tell me, but I can see the wildflower evidence in front of me here.

Chris Skinner (06:05):
Yes, and we have the annual ones as well. There's always lots of poppies. Corn marigold is a real favourite here. Cornflower as well. Lots of flowers, sort of annual ones. And this is a perennial wildflower field. It's been here a great many years and we're standing on yellow boulder clay. It is really unusual soil type. And underneath that is a layer of clay with lots of chalk in it and underneath that is pure chalk. And so it's ideal for one of those flowers that's mentioned. And what we do at this time of the year is we kind of follow the wild flowers through the seasons. We started off with sort of dandelions early on and then it'll finish with tweed right at the end of the season. And ivy, so there's wild flowers sort of unfurl themselves. They all offer something special for pollinators.

(07:10):
And there's a really unusual one around our feet. It's not tall at the moment, but it's a brilliant year because it's been warm. It's been very, very wet. As any farmer will tell you, we're always complaining about the weather. And in a week or two, these quite scarce flowers around our feet will be over a foot tall. They're all about six to eight inches tall at the moment. And so I'm going to do something unusual this week. Matthew. I have bought underneath my arm a little waterproof blanket. It's the ground sheet for one of my tents. We're not allowed to camp in Norfolk. You see, you can have the little ground sheet, but I think there's an ancient bylaw that says you can't stay in a tent in Norfolk. It's called loitering with intent. So sorry,

Matthew Gudgin (07:59):
I wondered where that was going. By the way, Rat is with us and Rat looks very happy in this situation.

Chris Skinner (08:05):
 He does. He loves this. I'm just going to pop this on my for you. It's a luxury little mat here and Rat is immediately on where we're going to lay on. Now you've got to meet these flowers in front of us. They're orchids at eye level, so we're going to have to get down on that. I'll un unfold a bit for you so you don't get wet feet and in front of us are amazing. Well Rat gave me a kiss. He's very pleased with this arrangement. He's laying down beside me now the first time you see one of these, it's one of those things that kind of stick in the memory for the rest of your life because they're just so unusual, almost weird. So they're called Bee orchids and there's one just over here. And basically each one of them is in flower at the moment and the whole field is scattered with them.

(09:01):
You can see as a kind of pink haze spreading away into the distance. And each one looks as though a bee has landed on the plant and it's got pink wings, brilliant pink wings. That's why I said they're quite weird.

Matthew Gudgin (09:18):
Yes, it looks like the body of a bee, isn't it, with that furry sort of feel to it.

Chris Skinner (09:21):
Exactly. And so you can actually touch that little body bit and it does feel furry to the touch. Yes, you're right, exactly like a bees body. So they are really unusual and we think over periods of time that the orchid developed this bee like structure on the lower petal if you like to attract bees to come and mate with it. And that was a function, but there's a mystery which hasn't really ever been solved. And it's like this throughout nature that be orchids are self pollinating.

(10:03):
So why would you want to attract a bee? So maybe originally they were pollinated by bees, but very few people including me have ever seen bees landing on them. Although it looks like a lure is the only way to describe it. So there we are a really strange plant as well because down the edge of the field last year it was pink, absolutely pink with thousands of the orchids. And I walked there yesterday for today's podcast just to have a look. I knew it'd be brimming with them and it's not one to be seen. And that's absolutely typical of them. One year you can have thousands in an area and the next year they don't appear for four or five years. They're erratic beyond belief in their appearance.

Matthew Gudgin (10:54):
Orchids are a much loved department of the plant world though, aren't they? And some of them are extremely rare.

Chris Skinner (11:00):
Yes, we have. We've got five or sometimes occasionally six species here each year and over the next week or two we'll be visiting some of them. We have pyramidal orchid, we did one a couple of weeks ago actually early purple orchid or long purples as they were called in Shakespeare's Hamlet. And they just have different flowering times and some are, as you said, incredibly rare, but these have just started flowering. So if you're out and about walking in the countryside really anywhere in the UK particularly be orchids spring up here, there and everywhere, particularly on chalk soils, it's a good time of year to see them. So we're kind of heading up if you like what to look out for as well. So these are only what, 6, 8, 10 inches tall? Something like 200 and 250 ml tall in new money if you like,

Matthew Gudgin (11:57):
Three pink petals.

Chris Skinner (11:58):
And they should be over a foot tall in about a week's time. And some of them can have 8, 10, 12 flowers on them. And I have seen them about 18 inches tall so they can get quite tall, particularly on a year like this when there's adequate moisture. We're on a south facing clay slope and so it's absolutely perfect for them with that high pH content. And one of the questions has also had, do I have yellow rattle? And here it is right in front of us, a young yellow rattle plant in flower as well. And I have seen bees working on, although rattle yellow rattle is a semi parasitic plant and it feeds on the nutrients in the roots of neighbouring plants, particularly grasses look. And it's growing about an inch away from that bee orchid there.

Matthew Gudgin (12:48):
Did you have to reintroduce some of these species?

Chris Skinner (12:50):
No, this is a funny thing about orchids. The seed is so small it can be wind blowing rather like sycamore seeds can blow off. They have a little wing on them and when you get the autumn gales, but we think, or I think there was a weed seed bank if you like, although you don't like to call them weeds. They are right, they behave like weeds sometimes because they come up so prolifically.

Matthew Gudgin (13:19):
That was Rat sneezing by the way.

Chris Skinner (13:20):
Yes it was. It wasn't me. Yes. He's obviously sniffed a bee orchid. He's going off to do some exploration now. So I think with the weed seed bank here in the soil there was perhaps orchid seed, but they do get themselves about because deer graze and neighbouring fields or graze in this particular field because of the sainfoin there, which is a favourite food for the large mammals, including hares at the farm.

(13:47):
And if they brush past the orchids, the tiny seeds, it'd give you an idea how small they are. One pyramidal orchid can produce 40, 50, 60,000 seeds from a single plant. One teaspoon of orchid seed will more than adequately seed this whole 30 acre field. So it's absolutely microscopic. So they're full of surprises and if you just start to get interested in our wildflowers, then a good place to start is with orchids because they are so varied in the way they appear, the way they look and they are exotic. There's one there with huge pink wings and it really does look like a pink bumblebee has landed on it and that's why they're entertaining and amusing. And of course all the orchids have a familiar characteristic. If we dug one up, they're all the same. All species called a double ovoid tuber. One tuber would be larger than the other and the smaller one will be foddering this year's green growth.

Matthew Gudgin (14:58):
Well all the orchids and all the plants on this field are now getting very well watered as it's started to pour.

Chris Skinner (15:02):
 Yes. So I've brought this sort of ground sheet so I think you can put that over your head

(15:14):
We've got to stand back up. There's quite a heavy shower heading our way. So I'll be a gentleman and I'll drape this around your shoulders.

Matthew Gudgin (15:22):
Alright, here we go. Yeah, there it's nice and dry. That's very kind. Rat doesn't seem bothered at all. So we're on High Ash Farm. It's the Countryside podcast with Chris Skinner. I'm Matthew and Rat. Well the star of the show is just bounding through the grass there and hasn't got a care in the world. This is Nirvana for him, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (15:43):
Oh, absolutely nothing. He likes better.

Matthew Gudgin (15:48):
It's a typical English summer's day, isn't it? One minute you are sheltered from the rain. And that tarpaulin came in handy and now we're bathed in sunshine as well, Chris. And we've come right to the other side of the farm.

Chris Skinner (15:59):
Yes, we're in Stoke Holy Cross now Matthew. The farm goes to Arminghall, Caistor St Edmund is the centre of the farm. And this is in Stoke Holy Cross. So almost feel I need a passport to come this far away from the farm. And I planted this one again, we're overlying chalk, but it's gravel over chalk this time. So it's really unusual soil type. The whole farm is a variety of different soil types. It's how the glaciers dump the soil on top of the chalk layer millennia ago. And so it's a huge challenge, always has been to farm it, but you kind of go with what you can grow here and it was drought stricken soil. And I decided because right next to a public footpath, which I've created here, a permissive walk to entertain the local population, of Stoke Holy cross to keep on good terms with them.

(16:59):
And I popped this in 20 years ago and I used the high legume content again because the pH, soil lime content, if you like, is very high here. It's around about pH eight. And so the main plants I put in was clover and then a close cousin, which is also a legume. And I've talked about it several times before, but only because it's an absolutely brilliant pollinator. The deer grazes it at the farm, they love it as well. And I'm just looking ahead, we only had rain 10 minutes ago and it is absolutely swarming with bumblebees. A lot of the sainfoin plants have one or two bumblebees on, and this field in front of us is kind of magenta pink, I suppose. It's a tall plant and particularly does well in years like this when there's been adequate moisture.

Matthew Gudgin (17:53):
It's up to about hip height, isn't it? Something like that.

Chris Skinner (17:56):
Yes, yes. And it's also really deep rooted, so it's extremely drought tolerant as well. And each of the flowers is just extraordinarily beautiful. It's that conical shape. And if we just grab one here, it's beautiful. And when you look at the actual flower, it's got these little lines on the petals. Can you see them

Matthew Gudgin (18:18):
a pinstripe?

Chris Skinner (18:19):
Yes, exactly what it does look like pink and white stripes and a hint of blue there. And they're called honey guides and that's why the bees love them because at the base of each of the flowers is a nectary. And that's what those bumbles over there are feasting on. Look at them, they're just stunning. The buff tail bumble bees and a red tail bumble bee next to them. And there's also lots of honeybees working on here as well. That's a juvenile buff tail just going through there and another,

Matthew Gudgin (18:51):
oh, he's a beauty isnt he.

Chris Skinner (18:51):
Look at that. Absolutely. And if you look carefully on the hind legs of the bees, they have what's called a pollen basket. It's going from one flower to the next at great speed. It's just hopefully going to come round. And you'll see these strange sort of almost like growths.

Matthew Gudgin (19:10):
 honey coloured.

Chris Skinner (19:11):
Yes, that's pollen on the legs. There they are. And it's gathering.

Matthew Gudgin (19:15):
 He's got plenty, hasnt he?

Chris Skinner (19:16):
Yeah. And it will carry that back to wherever it's nest is. And the nest can be half a mile away and that bee knows exactly where to go. Kind of makes a beeline if you like, for its home when it's fully laden and it's quite a weight, it can be up to 20% of the weight of the bee in pollen. And it also has what's called a honey stomach as well. And it's gathering nectar. Nectar and honey are rather different products.

(19:45):
Nectar has about 70% moisture or water in it, whereas honey, the bees work all day, they work all night and they fan the nectar to get the right specific gravity. And once that happens they seal it over and that's what we call honey. So they're busy working away, but the plant is really good. It's nitrogen fixing, so it's taking nitrogen infinite atmosphere with special little what called nodules on the roots and that enriches the soil around the plant as well. So not only do you get tall sainfoin plants, we look at the grasses here as well. That's going to end up over a metre tall. That grass that's tall, meadow fescue, that particular one. So legumes enrich the soil, whether it's beans, beans you're growing peas, lupins, as I said before. And all the members of the clover family and some of the vetures as well, they're all the legumes.

(20:46):
And it's glorious, isn't it?

(20:47):
i just feel the sun coming out. We're only three weeks away from the longest day, Matthew, June the 21st. And it suddenly changes in a moment. The weather at this time of the year,

Matthew Gudgin (20:58):
You can feel the warmth and the lovely colour here as well. It seems to glow the pink. And I think the bees notice certain colours more than others, don't they?

Chris Skinner (21:07):
Yes they do. They're attracted to colours and particularly purples at this time of the year as well. And I said you could come back in a week's time and this will be bright yellow with all the sort of dwarf legumes that grow in the understory there. Things like bird's foot trefoil is one particular one and that's a great favourite with some of our day flying moths as well. So in a week or two we'll have patches on this field in front of us.

(21:38):
We can walk in and 20 or 30 moths fly up. Because they fly in the daytime as well. And they're Burnett moths, six spot burnetts we call them. And they're iridescent greens and almost the colour of this sainfoin with purple on the top side of the wings as well. But this is absolutely glorious. I could stand here all day. Oh, and there's wild carrots in flower as well. Sort of one of the umberllifers of the

Matthew Gudgin (22:05):
white flower.

Chris Skinner (22:05):
Yes. But just walk in a step or two, we won't hurt anything. This is just extraordinary. When you say bees are in short supply, just look,

Matthew Gudgin (22:23):
It's every flower virtually,

Chris Skinner (22:25):
Nearly every flower. And that's the result of having wild flowers that flower throughout the three seasons of the year at least every year. And so gradually over the years, the number of pollinators has built back up and got a real reservoir that over winter only the adult queens over winter. But this will be mown in about late August, September time, right when everything's finished flowering. And the secret is to cut and remove it. You imagine if you chopped this and left it all here, it would be a mulch to stop anything growing, any gaps in the crop. And look at Rat. He's being the obedient dog for once in his life. He's sitting by my feet. I think if he ran out in there, he'd get completely lost.

Matthew Gudgin (23:16):
You wouldn't would you Rat?

Chris Skinner (23:17):
He knows where his home is and he knows where his food is. Let's put it like that.

Matthew Gudgin (23:21):
Oh, it's a bit like me. Really?

Chris Skinner (23:23):
Yes, right. Anyway, we've got several more questions to answer, but there's another flower, just the other side of this field. We'll just drive around and have a quick look because it's a perfect time of year to see it and it's a real mystery plant. So we'll just hop back in the truck and go for a quick drive.

Matthew Gudgin (23:56):
Got to say if you want a picture of the rural iddle of England, then here we are on this particular point on High Ash Farm. We're very high up. We can see woodland, we can see horses grazing. And then on the neighbouring property down in the river valley we can see cattle as well. That is so beautiful.

Chris Skinner (24:15):
My neighbouring farmer, that's Neil Peasgood. And that's his cattle grazing the old marshes right up to the edge of the River Tas. And so it's a very deep steep sided valley that is close to three quarters of a mile wide. And the A140 is on the far side. train just going up to Liverpool Street in London from Norwich. I mean, why would you leave Norwich? Oh goodness.

Matthew Gudgin (24:40):
I think I'm in the right place.

Chris Skinner (24:42):
Yes. And so that was obviously full of water millennia ago and presumably that's all up on the ice caps these days.

(24:49):
And I can just see the top of Norwich Cathedral in the distance over there.

Matthew Gudgin (24:53):
It's a little stiletto heel pointed up. And that is one of, it's the second tallest spire in the UK.

Chris Skinner (24:59):
Yes, Salisbury is the tallest, just top trump Norwich by a few feet. But our cathedrals like to sink a little bit. It's right by the River Wensum at that point. And it's on marshy soil. How they built it. I do not know, but we've got some sort of stiletto type plants right beside us. Matthew, just look at these. But before we go in, some are coming up and they haven't yet come into flower and they're curled over and it looks a little bit like a snake and very appropriate. Just come over here. These are stunningly, stunningly beautiful plants. It's probably one of the deepest blues that you can possibly imagine. And it's called Vipers Bugloss.

(25:46):
It grows on impoverished soil. Comes into flower this time of the year, early June, right through to the beginning of July. And it's got his name. All buglosses have the same. It really comes from a word like oxes tongue. And if you just look at the plant, the whole plant is covered in fine hairs. And if you touch the stem, just have put your finger on the stem.

Matthew Gudgin (26:12):
Oh, prickly. Well, not prickly as in just furry.

Chris Skinner (26:15):
It feels like a tongue, an ox's tongue. So bugloss, it's tall. This one will be up to three feet tall because of the dampness of the soil, although it's pure sandy gravel that we're on. And one of the very interesting features of it before the flowers open, they're bright pink. The little pink buds look absolutely stunningly beautiful.

Matthew Gudgin (26:38):
And then they turn a more blue colour. But that very, I mean it's such an attractive colour that isn't it?

Chris Skinner (26:43):
Yes, it is. Long stamens coming out of each flower, very attractive, particularly to moths at night for some reason more so than bees during the daylight hours and then the seeds starts to form. You can see some of the flowers already started to form. And again, if I just pull one of the flowers to the side, it looks exactly like an adders head, hence viper, which is the name of our only poisonous reptile and It looks like an adders head all curled up there ready to kind of pounce out at you.

Matthew Gudgin (27:21):
Hopefully it doesn't.

Chris Skinner (27:21):
What a lovely name though. Vipers bugloss. And because the whole farm is covered in unusual flowers like this, they're some away in the distance. It's always a pleasure to try and capture them at the beginning of each of their seasons and particularly this year when there's lots of moisture. This one's looking absolutely perfect. So there we are. Beautiful, beautiful plants. Not common, but again, like the bee orchids we saw you suddenly spring up in masses in one particular place and you might not see them again for a year or two. They're very erratic in their appearances, but beautiful nonetheless. I mean it's difficult to capture that blue, but I just feel amazed that this is a wild flower rather than the sort of pride and joy in the centre of your garden display. Just nature does it just naturally.

Matthew Gudgin (28:29):
The email address is chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk and every week we get dozens and dozens and it's terrific to hear from everyone. Lovely questions. We're picked out a few from the post bag and here's one from someone whose surname I think you particularly enjoy. Janet Raven.

Chris Skinner (28:47):
Yes.

Matthew Gudgin (28:49):
Janet says, dear Chris, please could you identify this photograph of a young caterpillar found on I think a horn bean leaf, a small branch had fallen onto the ground and it was underneath when I picked it up. So what do you think, Chris? We've got the photo here in front of us.

Chris Skinner (29:04):
Look, and it's an absolutely brilliant picture, which helps a lot. It's a caterpillar of the winter moth, and that's a really common species. Generally we find them on these oak trees that are near us where we're standing beside a road here at the entrance of High Ash Farm. And it's one of the commonest caterpillars, an unusual moth. It's called the winter moth because it flies in the coldest time of the year, around about the shortest day. The males seek out the females which are wingless. They've only got rudimentary tiny little stumps of wings that are left. And the caterpillars then hatch out in the canopy, up in the oak trees and let themselves back down to the ground on silk and threads. So they're really brilliant food for other great tits, blue tits at this time of the year. They've all got all these young fledglings but caterpillars Matthew, you just walk around here?

Matthew Gudgin (30:01):
Thanks for the photo by the way. That was a terrific shot.

Chris Skinner (30:04):
Yes. That's a tall, furry plant. It's called verbascum phoeniceum, the hoary mullein. And it's a favourite plant for another species of moth called the mullein moth where right at the entrance of High Ash Farm, right by the road. And the caterpillars wreck people's mullions that grow in their gardens. Just walk here and I'll show you what I mean.

Matthew Gudgin (30:31):
Right on the roadside verge here. Oh my word. It's a very fat caterpillar there. And several others.

Chris Skinner (30:37):
Several others.

Matthew Gudgin (30:38):
And this mullein is just gone, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (30:40):
Yes, it's absolutely.

Matthew Gudgin (30:42):
look at the size of him.

Chris Skinner (30:44):
What me or the caterpillar? Look, that's a good 50 millimetres long, stunningly beautiful. Look at these two at the top here. And the little brown dots are not eggs laid by the caterpillar. That's caterpillar poo or frass as it's called. And this fellow here, how do you describe that colour? It's grey stripes with little black lines on the grey all the way down the body. Then there are yellow segments, bright mustard, yellow colour, all the way down. And that's the caterpillar of the mullein moth. Absolutely beautiful creature. The moth itself isn't much to look at, but the caterpillars are striking. And that leaf down there, which is a good eight inches wide and two feet long, it's just reduced to a skeleton. That's all you can describe.

Matthew Gudgin (31:38):
It's just stalks. Yes, eat your stalks. You won't get curly hair. Come on, Neil from Framlingham Earl. Not far away from here. Very, very. It's just up there, isn't it?

Chris Skinner (31:47):
Yes it is.

Matthew Gudgin (31:48):
It's about a mile up there into this road. So Neil Freeman has sent us a photograph of some what looked to me like spider's webs. He says, we're big fans of the podcast. These photos were taken at Denton in South Norfolk and show what looks like spiderwebs completely covering a tree. The leaves look like they've been stripped from the branches. So maybe this and the webs were caused by caterpillars.

Chris Skinner (32:11):
Certainly were. And two podcasts ago we did this very caterpillar. It's either the small ermin moth or the brown tailed moth. Two species. Both of them make the caterpillars themselves spin their own webs so the birds don't eat them and spread out over the tree. And for some bushes like blackthorn and the one that we looked at, a spindle, both native UK species, completely defoliate the tree and end up leaving it looking the whole thing like a giant spider's web. Thank you. Brilliant picture again.

Matthew Gudgin (32:46):
Now of course in Great Britain we have some wonderful place names. And one of the best is, well, not many miles away from here, a place called slowly. And Tony and Frank are slowly correspondence and I think it's, Tony says, my hubby's new friend, can you let me know what it is? And there's a photograph of, oh, and it looks like a Beatle to me, but very brightly coloured.

Chris Skinner (33:12):
Yes it is. It's almost pale pink stripes on the top. On first glance, I thought, oh my word. It's a Colorado beetle, a real pest of potato crops, but it's not. It's a female cock chafer beetle. Again, quite a common species. And if you look at the male cock chafee, it's got these large club light antenna, all feathery ends on them. And the female has the same structure but much smaller. They're large beetles, they're just very cumbersome flyers. They tend to fly into you late evening when they circle oak trees. And sometimes you can have a couple of hundred looks like a swarm of bees going around the canopy of an oak. So there we are, a female cock chafer beetle,

Matthew Gudgin (33:56):
Julian Lawrence. Chris. Attached is a picture of our meadow in our back garden. The yellow is mainly rattle that has started coming up. And a great advocator of this as you are a great advocator of this. Can I ask what is the best way and when to collect the rattle seeds to help spread it again and keep it going? Or does it appear each year by itself?

Chris Skinner (34:21):
Yes, it will self perpetuate very readily. You'll need some grass in the base of your wildlife field because it's a semi parasite. Now you have to use your ears to find out when it's ready to harvest. What you do, you go up to the rattle plant and you give it a little shake. And if it rattles you know, the seed is ripe inside the little pods, which form, if you leave it too long, the seed will all be on the ground. It's like tiny little paper discs with the seed in the middle of them. And they're extremely light. A bucket falls only about a kilo in weight and you hardly need any four to five little seeds per square metre. And that should be enough to kind of set the rattle off. And the reason you grow rattle is it feeds itself on the grass. So the grass is less competitive in the wildflower environment and that lets the wildflowers flourish much more than they would otherwise do. Wild flowers and grasses don't compete very well with each other. The grass will always top trump the wildflowers, some of which are really delicate. So that's why we have rattle on the farm here.

Matthew Gudgin (35:33):
Wonderful questions. Thanks as always. Keep them coming, chris@countrysidepodcast.co.uk. And the sun out once again. It's glorious. It's June.

Chris Skinner (35:45):
Look at this though, Matthew. What a wait to finish another Mulian plant over there with all the black droppings. I'm laughing, but it's such a beautiful caterpillar and I think if you grow Mullin in your garden, then it's a small price to pay. Don't pick them off and squish them, enjoy them. And it's all part of nature as indeed we are.

Matthew Gudgin (36:08):
And that's it for another week from High Ash Farm. Enjoy summer. We yearn for it, don't we? For months. And once it's here, so much to enjoy.

Chris Skinner (36:17):
And the colours as well. Absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
This is a Sound Yard Production. Music is by Tom Harris.