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In this captivating episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin wander through High Ash Farm’s breezy late August pastures, where September’s dawn heralds autumn’s subtle arrival. Autumn hawkbit carpets the hillside with dazzling yellow blooms, its serrated leaves hiding antioxidants and vitamin C, a medicinal marvel for eyesight once mistaken for hawk bites, thriving in close-grazed grass amid drought. The month’s changeling nature unfolds with Norway maples blushing pink, whispering of flamboyant colours and brisk northwesterlies to come. Viper’s bugloss dazzles in cobalt blue, its bristly leaves and snake-like stems a toxic deterrent, while seeds mimic viper heads, echoing ancient remedies for bites. In Cantley Hill Plantation, a fallen ash tree—snapped by winds—reveals ash dieback’s grip, its skeletal form a mystery amid drought and over-abstraction, a poignant loss in a landscape scarred by 1987’s hurricane. Listener tales of robin’s pincushions, tardy tadpoles, and insect absences weave into this lament, as the farm’s live show beckons on October 19th at Norwich’s Maddermarket Theatre under a freshening sky. From Saxon "hara" hills to family histories at Stoke House, this episode celebrates nature’s cycles amid shifting seasons.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/17787602-episode-2-36-hawkbit-bites-and-tree-tombs.mp3?download=true

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Please email any questions for Chris to answer on the podcast to
Chris@highashfarm.com

This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
Support us here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-12
or from the Podcast page here:
Podcast | High Ash Farm

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Join Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin on a sun-drenched late August morning at High Ash Farm in the Norfolk countryside. This episode explores the serene beauty of the farm’s lake, where a majestic young mute swan is moulting amid darting swallows, vibrant kingfishers, and upending mallards. Discover the perils of lead poisoning for swans and the thriving aquatic plants like gipsy wort and flag iris. Venture to bountiful hedgerows laden with hawthorn berries, blackthorn sloes, and rose hips, signalling a spectacular mast year for wildlife. Delight in the orchard’s overflowing harvest of Victoria plums, Cox’s apples, and the quirky native medlar tree. Chris answers listener questions on peculiar rose galls, lingering tadpoles, and the alarming decline in swifts and insects. The episode closes with a poignant reading of Kevin McManus’s poem “The Turning of August,” capturing the subtle shift from summer’s warmth to autumn’s edge. Perfect for nature enthusiasts seeking a poetic glimpse into rural life’s rhythms.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/17747895-episode-2-35-lakeside-moults-and-orchard-opulence.mp3?download=true

Support the show

Please email any questions for Chris to answer on the podcast to
Chris@highashfarm.com

This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
Support us here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-12
or from the Podcast page here:
Podcast | High Ash Farm

Send us a text

In this breezy episode of the Countryside Podcasts, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin confront August’s slate-grey skies at High Ash Farm, where autumn’s approach stirs poignant reflections. The grey partridge, a red-listed farmland icon, haunts Chris’s memories—once shot in coveys of 50, now vanishing due to habitat loss, early harvests, and predator control, despite biodiversity plans. Chris’s experiment with bird scarers mimics shooting’s toll, revealing an 80% drop in bird numbers on disturbed fields, a call to halt the hunt. Swallows cluster on wires, juveniles dreaming of South Africa, their parents teaching the final flights. Listener queries on box moth woes, chaffinch displays, and dry ponds enrich this lament, as peregrines prowl and the farm’s live show looms on October 19th at Norwich’s Maddermarket Theatre under scudding clouds.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2432378/episodes/17722572-episode-2-34-grey-ghosts-and-autumn-winds.mp3?download=true

Support the show

Please email any questions for Chris to answer on the podcast to
Chris@highashfarm.com

This podcast is brought to you by High Ash Farm. To support our efforts in creating this content, please consider making a small monthly or one-off donation. Your contributions help us with production costs, and after expenses, every penny goes towards conservation and maintaining free public access at High Ash Farm.
Support us here:
https://donorbox.org/podcast-12
or from the Podcast page here:
Podcast | High Ash Farm