We recently came across this old photograph shot in the 1950’s!

Sixty years certainly have seen changes at Bracken Hill.

This small cabin is sadly no longer part of the property but is adjacent and still there.It clearly shows how open the landscape used to be before the trees had grown up to their majestic stature as can be seen today!

We would like to thank the Gale-Thomas & Young Families, the original owners of Bracken Hill & its grounds for the use of this archive material.

Although some are making nests and preparing for new offspring, as the Jays aggressive gutter clearance testified this week causing the broom to spend a lot less time in the shed than one would like, some have yet to wake from Winters slumber.

This group of six, with their moth friend are still in hibernation on one of the boundary fence posts in the lower meadow.

Amazing!

Who’d have thought it.

Two weeks ago the hill and the lodge were engulfed in a minor BBC meteorological aberration as this photograph clearly testifies!, but despite the vagaries of the licence fee natures time clock keeps rolling on.

The snow drops have now emerged and as they begin to bloom you start to notice all the other shoots and buds that are waiting for their genetic time clocks to get things moving.The woodland floor previously an autumnal carpet of fallen leaves, pine needles and cones now sees the green shoots of the bluebells forcing through to the light.

It will only be a matter of weeks before the whole area is a dusty carpet of blue, we can’t wait!

No not Radio 4 but WIFI!

For those wishing to access the internet on their stay ( and there are a few) Bracken Hill Lodge now has wireless internet access for your laptop computer, or iphone. Please contact us on your arrival and we will happily give you the secret code!

We apologise to everyone who has been trying to visit the site for the last couple of days.It seems that the world wide web had indigestion and the site went down. Peter our fab IT guy now tells us that the sticky tendrils of the web will now reach out to us all again, so lets hope it remains that way!

The lower meadow saw the first siting on the hill this year of a Green Woodpecker.He seemed quite at home foraging in an area close to the boundary where shrubs had been disturbed only the day before, momentarily taking flight to land on the northern face of a large adjacent pine, the greening of the bark providing a perfect backdrop to his dusky plumage! We hope this was not just a flying visit and he will be a regular sight.

Nature discards an awful lot in the move towards winter. The oak & chestnut trees throw down a vast carpet of golden leaves, chestnuts that are not snuffled away buy the squirrels are there for the picking with the whole of Bracken Hill has a quiet stillness. But nature is never very quiet for long.

Despite the sense that winter will never end, and the snow a regular visitor spring is definitely in the air, with green shoots emerging all over the hill.

It has been a busy time lifting the leaves, pruning shrubs and preparing for the onslaught of colour that the vast rhododendrons will bring in just a few weeks.The snow drops and violets are slowly starting to emerge and I am sure that the daffodils are not that far behind!

Welcome to the new Bracken Hill diary!