Promoting & Enhancing The Natural Beauty of the Sid Valley
Urban trees make towns a more liveable space for people, this isn’t just wishful thinking, there is clear evidence for the benefits of sharing your space with trees. Sidmouth Arboretum’s recent tree survey shows that much of our valley is blessed with very manyRead More
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The Woodland Trust have a new management plan for Core Hill Woods, which includes a project to save the existing veteran trees, and to also create veteran trees of the future – part of an exciting project funded by East Devon National Landscape’s FarmingRead More
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One of the glories of the Devon countryside is the miles of hedgerows that divide the land into the small fields that are so different to the wide open countryside of arable areas such as East Anglia. Devon is historically a pastoral landscape. PriorRead More
Leave a comment One of the first signs that spring is on the way is to see Hazel catkins lengthening and waving in the wind. These lambs’ tails as they are known in some parts, are the male flowers releasing their pollen, but how many of youRead More
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Druids were the pagan priests of Ancient Briton, some 2,000 years ago. Druid means “knower of the oak” and for them, the oak, the apple and the yew were sacred trees. They observed the festival of Alban Arthen or Yule from which our termRead More
Leave a comment People bring Holly into their homes for Christmas and the tradition goes back into pre-Christian times with Holly seen as a symbol of eternal life defeating winter. There are many myths and legends about Holly, but it is also an important part of ourRead More
Leave a comment No, not a new Christmas game, a new nature survey that needs local volunteers. Mistletoe has an air of Christmas magic and is steeped in folk lore and mythology as Janet Dowling told us last year (Sidmouth Herald 10/12/2022), but that mythology is bound up in its curious lifestyle. Mistletoe doesn’t growRead More
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Looking across the Sid Valley today, we cannot fail to appreciate the beautiful mature trees that line our hedgerows and make such a contribution to one of the most beautiful, iconic and popular landscapes in the country. These hedgerow trees support wildlife, clean ourRead More
Leave a comment Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Our conker trees are being devoured from the inside, their leaves are being mined, but they don’t mind. This year’s hot dry summer has caused some of our trees to turn brown as if there is an early autumn, butRead More
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