Autumn Highlights. Pressing time on Apple Day down Clovelly

It is Apple Season – so Clovelly Village are holding their Third Apple Day with lots of lovely apple crafts and activities. On arrival at Clovelly you will see apple pressing by Gatcombe valley outside the Visitor Centre, so please do bring a bag of apples. Watch them being pressed and taste the fresh juice. Or if you wish, you can bring more for pasteurisation and bottling for which there will be a charge. 

Crafts and and activities

On entry to Clovelly (free for children under 7 years old), you will find the Apple crafts and activities in the Visitor Centre from 11:00-16:00. The round shape of the apple with the great reds and greens makes the apple a perfect base for creating art. So enjoy some Apple Art with The Plough and either carve, sculpt, decorate or do all of them with your apple.

There will also be live music, apple bobbing, apple stamping and making corn dollies.

Storytelling

Isabella Necessity on her Story Bicycle will be there to tell stories of her orchard escapades and share snippets of apple folklore. Isabella is a bicycling botanist who loves to share stories from her incredible journeys around the world with the people she meets along the way. She has flown with the blue butterflies of Brazil in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest, outwitted trolls in the fjords of Norway, learnt Kung-Fu on the Mountain of Kunyu and rested in a robin's nest on Dartmoor. With delightful storytelling, gorgeous illustrations, unexpected wonders and a handsome Story Bicycle called Dilys, Isabella will whisk you away to another world.

Farmers market and competition
There will be a small farmers market, including a pick of pumpkins, vegetables, herbs, and cider amongst other stalls. Merry Harriers Garden Centre will also have some of their interesting products on display. The RNLI will be hosting our Apple Crumble competition (so please bring your crumbles at 10:00 to enter). They will be also selling lovely homemade cakes and apple deserts.
Harvest Hunt, Garden Tour and Chef demonstration

At 13:00 pm, families can take part in a fun Harvest Hunt with the Clovelly Tour Guide, Jana Edwards, who will take you down around the craftyard and Mount Pleasant. She will tell spooky stories and looking for clues to win a harvest treat back at the Visitor Centre. Please book your place on arrival as spaces are limited.

Also this year, our Head Gardener, Lucy Halliday, will offer a garden tour at 14:30. Then don't miss our Chef demonstration at 16:00.

Clovelly Apple Day. Photo copyright Terry Annis (All rights reserved)

Clovelly Apple Day. Photo copyright Terry Annis (All rights reserved) 
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Apple Day October 24, 2018

Timings

Apple pressing: 11:00-13:00

Apple day activities: 11:00 – 16:00

Chef Demonstration: 11:30-12:30

Harvest Hunt 12:30-13:30

Garden Tour: 14:00-15:00 

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Tap link for Clovelly Events

Be (bee?!) kind to hornets, says charity

A leading local wildlife charity is hoping to bring the plight of the humble hornet to the public’s attention.

Devon Wildlife Trust is worried that a spate of recent news stories about the threats to native nature by the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) is resulting in the persecution of our home-grown hornets.

Asian hornets are devastating to honey bees, with the invasive insects raiding and destroying colonies. There is now growing fear among the UK’s beekeepers who are worried that the presence of Asian hornets threatens the future of the honey bee.

Confirmed reports of Asian hornet nests in North Devon in 2017 and in Cornwall in September have fuelled these concerns.

However, the charity Devon Wildlife Trust believes that fears over the arrival of the Asian hornet is now leading to the misguided persecution of another separate species, the native European hornet (vespa crabro).

The Trust’s Steve Hussey said:

“We’ve had several people telling us via social media that they think they have an Asian hornet nest on their property and asking can they destroy it? Other people have told us that they have already gone ahead and destroyed nests, suspecting them of belonging to Asian hornets. Unfortunately, where we’ve been able to do further investigation all the cases have proved to be European hornets and not the invasive species.”

“This is really unfortunate. European hornets are a beautiful and vital part of our environment. They also help us by helping to keep in check many insect species that gardeners consider to be pests.”

“European hornets are also struggling and their persecution is one of the factors behind this recent decline. Other countries are now urgently acting to conserve their remaining hornets; in Germany, for example, since 1987 it has been illegal to destroy a hornet nest. We need to look after our native population too.”

Devon Wildlife Trust recommends that people be aware of the threat of Asian hornets and they should immediately follow official guidelines on suspected cases. This means not destroying the nest and instead carefully photographing the insect without disturbing the nest and submitting an on-line sighting report to the GB Non-native Species Secretariat (NNSS).

Steve Hussey said:

“Telling a native European hornet apart from an Asian hornet isn’t always easy. Our native hornets are slightly bigger, while Asian hornets tend to be smaller and of a darker colour, not yellow, especially on their thorax (middle section) and abdomens (tail section).”

“However, it is easy to be confused, so our advice is always not to destroy a nest, but instead to report suspected sightings of Asian hornets to the NNSS.”

“It’s now easy to make a report via their website www.nonnativespecies.org. There is even an App that you can download for Apple and Android phones. The alternative is to risk doing harm to an already struggling part of our native British wildlife.”

European hornet emerging from its nest - Photo copyright Devon Wildlife Trust (All Rights Reserved)

 

 European Hornet's nest - Photo copyright Devon Wildlife Trust (All Rights Reserved)

Theft leaves wildlife charity short for winter

Thieves have left a local wildlife charity struggling with a hole in their roof and a deeper hole in their pockets after they struck at one of its nature reserves.

Staff at Devon Wildlife Trust’s Meeth Quarry nature reserve, near Hatherleigh, arrived at work last week to find that thieves had smashed their way through the roof of their workshop and then proceeded to loot its contents.

The burglars stole a quad bike belonging to the charity along with three chainsaws and other equipment. They then escaped using the quad bike, driving it along the Tarka Trail, which runs through the reserve, to Petrockstowe.

In all Devon Wildlife Trust estimates that around £7,000 of equipment was taken, while the cost of repairing the roof of its building could run to many thousands of pounds.

Speaking for the charity which cares for 50 nature reserves in Devon, Stuart Hodgkiss said:

“It was an upsetting day for our staff. In the short term the lengthy clean-up and repair operation has been disruptive taking them away from their work for wildlife. 

However, more troubling is the longer term theft of equipment. Our nature reserves are entering their busiest period, when vital autumn and winter works are scheduled. The loss of a quad bike and chainsaws means that this work will suffer both at Meeth Quarry and at the other North Devon reserves staff cover.”

Meeth Quarry was once a massive clay extraction quarry with open pits and even its own railway. But production at the quarry ceased in the 1990s. In 2012 its 150 hectares were made a nature haven by Devon Wildlife Trust. In the years since it has become a popular local place to visit by people eager to explore its network of paths and cycle tracks. The reserve is also home to some special wildlife including species such as the rare wood white butterfly, strawberry spider and hundreds of migrating birds.   

Anyone with information on the theft which took place on the night of Wednesday 12  
September should contact the police by calling 101 quo ting crime reference number CR084233/18.

https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org