Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Frog Chorus

I was rather taken by a video posted to the website of the Friends of Grosvenor and Hilbert Park of frogs frolicking in the pond there. So, armed with my trusty camera I decided to see if we had any on our local patch, The Common. I wasn't disappointed.

Mrs Anke and I decided our best bet was Fir Tree Pond. This is a real safe haven for amphibians of all kinds. The commotion that greeted us was nothing short of amazing, there were hundreds of little green snouts poking up all over the surface and bubbles rising from every spare space.

The carpet of frog spawn was covered in frogs in amplexus, or mating to you and me, I have to admit that I bumped into the Warden, Steve Budden, and he taught me that word. They were writhing all over the spawn and depositing more clumps of new eggs by the minute. The most amazing and quite wonderous thing of all was the noise that this was all generating. Even above the traffic noise of Major Yorks Road you could hear the incesssant growling of frogs. There's only one way to experience it, apart from going there yourself which I highly recommend you do very soon, and that is to watch the short HD video I took (I highly recommend setting it to HD, turning up the volume and watching it full screen).

I've also put up some more photos of the frogs of Fir Tree Pond in a gallery so click to go see them after you've seen the video.

Nightjar Walk

With Springwatch season now upon us we decided not to watch last night's episode and instead experience our very own live episode by taking a night time walk with some good friends over at RSPB Broadwater Warren, Tunbridge Wells's very own bird reserve.

Everyone watches and listens carefully for Nightjars.

To coincide with Springwatch the RSPB are holding a week-long series of nighttime walks around the reserve to spot Nightjars, Woodcocks and Owls. You can have a look at some of the photographs we took of the walk over at the Nightjar Walk gallery.

Mrs Anke scans the tree tops.

The big question is did we spot any? Head on over to Mrs Anke's Nightjar Walk blog post to find out.

The Men, and Women, of Trees

With Spring beginning to pop its little nose above Winter it's time to start getting out there and enjoying our green (perhaps not so green at the moment) spaces. We thought we'd take some fresh air over the Common this week to have a look at the latest tree clearances.

Wiligh Oak Tree with plaque.

If you were to do the same as us and take a lunchtime stroll to the very edge of our lovely Commons, you might happen to find yourself beside a busy roundabout and notice a very forlorn-looking tree. But, this is no ordinary tree, and certainly one that would never be cleared.

Take a knee in the mud and brush aside the fallen leaves and you'll find a small stone plaque which reads: "Whiligh Oak. The gift of Lord Courthope, President Men of the Trees, planted by members of Summer School. 24th July 1954."

What's a Whiligh Oak? Who was Lord Courthope? Who are these mysterious Men of Trees?

Whiligh is an estate in nearby Wadhurst, it was the home of Lord George Courthope. He was a Justice of the Peace and a Member of Parliament for Rye for many years and was created a Baronet in 1925 and a Peer in 1945. His estate was renowned for its splendid oak trees. The timbers from Whiligh were used in the roof of the original building of Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster.

The mysterious Men of Trees conjured up pictures of strange men in costumes dancing around over the Common in my mind when I first read the plaque, but they are actually much friendlier and more important than that. Founded in Kenya in 1922 by forestry officer, Richard Baker, they are an international movement that protects and plants trees for habitat restoration, to alleviate poverty and to feed people in poorer countries. They have been responsible for the planting of nearly 30 trillion trees all over the world. The Summer School was an early local environmental group that was an offshoot of this movement and celebrated a meeting by planting a tree.

Princess Anne's Oak.

Got you in the mood for trees? How about a nice walk to another famous local tree? If you wander across the Commons towards town you'll eventually find Princess Anne's Oak (hopefully).

Overlooking London Road, right opposite the Bridge Club, this oak tree is said to have been planted around 1700 to commemorate the visits of Princess Anne (later Queen) to Tunbridge Wells between 1684 and 1698. The railings around the trees are Victorian and were restored in 1995 when a plaque was also affixed. It is one of the oldest trees on the Commons.

Go on, take half an hour to get some fresh air this lunchtime and go and explore our Commons, you never know what you'll find.

All The Buzz About Bees: Part One

There has been a lot of media coverage lately about the plight of our honey bees, according to some statistics it's estimated that 70% of crops are dependent on, or benefit from, bees and they are worth approximately £220 million per year to the economy. It's been said that in the last two years we have lost up to 15% of our bees and when you think that an amazing one in three mouthfuls of the food we eat is dependent on pollination you can see just how scary the situation is.
So, when I got an invitation from a good friend to go and see him checking on his bees I couldn't resist.

The hives complete with their own weather station. Click here to follow the bee's weather station on Twitter. Click for larger image.

The beautiful Summer weather was in full force when we donned our beekeeping suits and headed out into the garden. There in an lovely overgrown corner were two busy hives. We walked towards them very slowly trying not to make too much noise, which is what aggravates them the most. It was interesting to note the amount of bees lying dead on the ground, apparently flushed out of the hive by other bees after they have served their purpose and being surplus to requirements.

Getting ready to smoke the hive. Click for larger image.

We edged closer and stood right by the entrance of the hive and watched some of the remarkable behaviour on display. Bees arrived along their preferred flight path carrying saddlebags of pollen on each side of their abdomen, some were bumping into us as we stood a bit too near their path as their vision is infra-red and they can't see some colours. Worker bees were lined up along the hive entrance and furiously beating their wings to help cool down the interior, some were pointing their little rumps at us and spraying pheromones into the air, and all the time hundreds of bees were landing and taking off with all their assigned jobs to do. They always follow the same course to their feeding grounds, taking off high along the path and returning lower as they are so laden. I noticed that some bees were head-butting each other before flying off, rather than being some aggressive act this is a communication tool that means fetch more water. Extraordinary little creatures indeed.

Bees coming and going. Note the bee upside-down furiously beating his wings. Click for larger image.

The lid of the hive was opened, which was actually very difficult as the bees seal everything with wax, and using a special set of tools the first of the frames was gingerly lifted out of its chamber. We were looking to see the quality of the honeycomb, how much of a brood there was and if the queen was there. This brood wasn't as good as other season's but still there was some good signs of honey production and larva.

Prising open the hive, stuck fast with beeswax. Click for larger image.

We needed to lift off the top chambers to get to the bottom chamber where the queen lived and where the young were born. The queen lays her eggs in the centre of this lower chamber and works her way out in circular fashion as to produce a ball effect, so as you get towards the centre you get more eggs and more activity of bees tending to them. We didn't see the queen bee this time around, she could have left the hive or was hiding deep within but it was wonderful to watch the worker bees helping clean out cells and prepare others for new young.

Looking at the brood from the lower chamber. A honeycomb cell can either be for storing honey or for raising a single bee, most here in this image are for young but there is honey where the finger is pointing. Click for larger image.

The upper chambers are where all the honey is stored and the queen can't get up there because of a special grille with holes too small for her. There was plenty of honey in these chambers but this will be needed by the bees for sustenance so no honey for us to eat yet, we have to wait until after the peak of breeding season for that.

A closer look at the bees at work. Click for larger image.

It was getting very very hot in the suits now and after checking all the frames in this hive the sounds of the bee's buzz was changing tone telling us they were getting agitated. Every few minutes hundreds more bees were arriving from far and wide with their day's collection of pollen so we closed the lid and left them to their work.

Check back in late Summer for another post when we gather the honey to put into jars and into our tummies and some great tips on how to help save the bees.

A huge thank you to Rob for letting me be his Bee Apprentice for the day, I had an absolute fantastic time, I learnt a lot and can't wait to watch the honey being made.

Foraging in Nature's Larder

Garlic growing on the banks of the River Grom.

A lovely Spring morning, the wife wanting a foodie angle for her next blog post and me wanting a nice photogenic walk came together in the form of a woodland forage. What were we after? Well we are right in the middle of wild garlic season so we headed to where we knew there would be some growing.

You'll find wild garlic in semi-shaded, moist conditions, near or among bluebells, and usually on the banks of a river. This pretty much describes perfectly the banks of the River Grom in Friezland Wood, the pretty bluebell wood you walk through from town on your way to High Rocks.

Alas the bluebells the wood is famous for were still asleep when we arrived but that wasn't what we were after so we followed our noses along the river banks. We'd almost reached High Rocks when the wife spotted some of the distinctive wide green leaves on the opposite bank, unfortunately across eight feet of water, as luck would have it as we looked for a way to safely cross without getting wet we walked right into a pungent clump of the stuff. Perfect.

We opened up our bag and picked as much as we needed from lots of different clumps and soon we had filled our small bag. Whilst we were down there the wife thought it would be a good idea to pick some nettles for another recipe she had in her mind, although she later came to regret that after forgetting her gloves. Ouch.

Mrs Anke picks some succulent leaves.

If you don't fancy foraging down in the woods to pick some like us, but we heartily recommend you do, you should also consider going along in a month or so to see the garlic flowering when it's reaching the end of its season. It should be the perfect time to see the delicate white flowers nestled amongst the flowering bluebells. Truly beautiful.

So, what did we do with our wild garlic, you'll have to pop over to my wife's blog to find out.