plan © APG Architects

Folly Farm - nearly there!

Even the incessant rain of the past days can’t disguise the fact that Folly Farm is looking fantastic! The stonework almost glows with its careful restoration, the new areas around the reception area are just about complete, inside the restaurant the gleaming kitchen can just be glimpsed through the new hatch, and around past the amazing conference centre the bothies are about to be fitted out. Building work is due to complete by the beginning of March and the electricity was switched on just last week. Meanwhile Lucy Owen is pulling together a fascinating course programme, and we’ve already been approached by several schools to book the education programme in the spring.

Plans for a grand launch are in hand – hopefully to co-incide with the Trust’s 28th birthday at the beginning of May – we’ll be firming this up by the end of January. Read about it here FIRST!

a well managed rhyne

Man of the moors

James Field, our North Somerset Levels and Moors Officer has sent in a poem by one of the farmers he works with on the Levels, called "Born of the Moor" and it paints a really evocative picture of the North Somerset Levels and Moors. The farmer wishes to remain anonymous but we are delighted that he’s let us share his poem wiith our members...

Here I am but a man of the moor
Between the Mendips and Bridgewater shore
This level land of shades green
A mosaic formed by water and of rhyne

This land of withies and of peat
Which I have learned how to treat
Like the needs of a precocious child
Which intends forever to remain wild

Summerlands where the county gets its’ name
For winter is flood and teeming with game
Migrating flocks linger on to feast
For here is not the time for man or beast

Man has tried to tame you by hand and horse
As swans gracefully browse the watercourse
Where water is king they are the Queen
A whiteness in reflections of the scene

With moist soils and a lengthening day
Grass grows abundant by early May
Cattle graze and bloom on this spring flush
For everything now is green and lush

And in the meadows the flowering heads
Sway in the yellow, purple, pinks and reds
Butterflies dance among as it grows tall
Long before the mower makes it fall

And in the evenings of this broad sky
A multitude of starlings join to fly
To whirl and swirl in waves of display
Then down among the reeds to end the day

He quiet stillness and then glorious sound
Is what the listener like me has found
The whispering breeze through poplar and willow
Sends me to slumber with head on pillow

To the splendour of colours at sundown
As it casts long shadows across the ground
Of willow and poplar post and gate
I stand and gaze there to appreciate

The low horizons and enveloping sky
For here is where I will stay and die
For I am but a man of the moor
Between the Mendips and Bridgewater shore

orange tip

Exclusive - Capture a Butterfly!

The beautiful butterfly images we shared with you in the last Trust magazine can sit on your desktop as a screensaver or wing their ways to friends as e-cards.

As part of our recognition of the importance of our membership we're always on the look out for special offers and opportunities - and now you can download these FREE screensavers or send an e-card. Click here or select the downloads button above.