FlowerScapes at the Floral Fringe Fair

Last weekend saw the Floral Fringe Fair at Knepp Castle. Our company FlowerScapes advised event-goers how to plant nectar and pollen rich flowers to help our declining insects. The fair was a great success and had a lovely mix of wildlife, vintage, yummy food, plant and craft stalls. Knepp Castle is privately owned by Sir Charles Burrell, and has been in his family for 220 years. Until recently most of the land on the Estate was devoted to traditional arable and dairy farming, but in 2001 they shifted their focus entirely, and embarked on a series of regeneration and restoration projects aimed primarily at nature conservation and a less intensive way of meat production. This method of re-wilding has been successfully introduced in Holland.

Strange and unusual plants being sold

Knepp Castle

Our FlowerScapes stall, before being prettied up with flowers

Not just vintage cars but people too.

Vintage bus

View of the castle and fair

Willow weaving

Lots of plant stalls

Vintage brocante

Steve in action at the FlowerScapes stall

Although there was a constant stream of people, because the stalls were spread out, the atmosphere felt relaxed

I want one!

Wood and willow weaving stall

Restored camper van, yep, want one of these too!

A nice event and the event goers really nice too, all very interested in creating more insect-friendly planting.

Seedy Sunday

Seedy Sunday is the UK's biggest and longest-running community seed swap event, held in Brighton each February. In return for a donation or in exchange for seed they have saved, growers can choose seeds from dozens of traditional varieties of garden vegetables, to take home and grow. It is also a campaign to to protect biodiversity and protest against the increasing control of the seed supply by a handful of large companies.

We've been meaning to attend the event for a couple of years now, but for various reasons - mostly to do with a lack of organisation -  we have never managed to get there. Until this year, when FlowerScapes finally managed to have a stall, manned by me, your guest blogger for the evening, Kattegat's hubby.

The FlowerScapes stand, with our new jars of seeds

 At the heart of the event is, obviously, the seed exchange, where members of the public can bring their spare seeds to exchange for something new and different. But around three-quarters of the hall was taken up by other, related stalls - allotment societies, Friends of the Earth, a mushroom producer, the Brighton & Lewes Beekeepers, community composters, even a cooperative pub!

 

Being Brighton - home of the UK's first Green MP - the turnout was fantastic; over 3,000 people came through the doors, more than twice as many as in 2012. And the atmosphere was great, everybody very interested and friendly.

I was given an early slot to off-load my wares - 8.30 in the morning - and had the stall all set up by 9.00. That gave me an hour to wander around, drink thermos coffee and recover from the early start. But once the doors opened (there was a queue outside, apparently) at 10.00, I was on duty, on my feet and talking to the Great British Public for the next six hours solid. During that period I had maybe 2 or 3 minutes at the most without someone to chat to.

Before the hordes descended

By mid afternoon I had run out of 5g packets of seeds, had given out dozens of leaflets and was starting to flag. But the visitors kept coming, and right up to 4.00 people were still stopping to chat, even as I was packing away.

Everyone I spoke to had something positive to say about our work, and the new range of seeds in honey jars attracted lots of complements.

All in all, a very successful - if exhausting - day.

The wildlife of Kefalonia

Today's post is a little about the marvelous wild - and not so wild - life of Kefalonia; being a tad nature crazy, we try not to miss an opportunity to photograph it! And there was plenty to shoot. Surprisingly though, a lot of it was rather fast moving in the heat!

Beautiful Scarce swallowtail butterfly. They fluttered around the whole Greek island. The British subspecies is confined to the fens of the Norfolk broads. This is partly due to the distribution of the sole larval foodplant, Milk-parsley. The continental subspecies is less fussy and will feed on many kinds of Umbellifer, such as Wild Carrot.

There were lots of lovely wild cats, very curious and very hungry. This was one of the downsides to the island, there is no spaying or castrating, so the numbers of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies grow in the spring and summer, when the tourists feed them, and then die of starvation and/or disease in the winter months. Shame really to think these lovely cats are doomed.

Ants are everywhere, in great numbers. Worldwide they are a very successful species. BB found a large dead centipede in the swimming pool and wanted to bring it home. However, as it was dripping wet, I laid it in the sun to dry and within minutes it was being carried off by these ants, using 'co-operative transport'. Love their little pointy bottoms! The Mediterranean Tiger centipede is the largest in Europe and can grow up to 150mm in length. They are nocturnal and venomous and can give a nasty bite.

Lots of damsel and dragonflies

And bee hives, seemingly everywhere. No sight of people keeping just one or two in their back garden, more that a few kept 250 plus hives. Interestingly, by late August most of the wildflowers had been burnt to a crisp by the Mediterranean heat, so what were the bees foraging on?

There weren't many wildflowers at this time of the year, but here's a honey bee on a thistle

The beaches of Kefalonia are nesting grounds for Loggerhead turtles. They spend most of their life in saltwater and estuarine habitats, with females briefly coming ashore to lay eggs. Along some of the local beaches these nests were cordoned off to prevent disturbance. Loggerheads are considered an endangered species and are protected by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

We saw several turtles in the sea when we were out swimming

The island pollinators are heavily dependent on the exotics planted in gardens and hotel grounds

Sleepy head!

This brown butterfly fell into the sea :o(

Little rustlings in the undergrowth turned out to be these small brown lizards.

Cats, cats and more cats!

This is Cheeky, who every day lived up to his name.

The ants provided much amusement; this was a 30 feet long trail (before heading off into the bushes) of Harvester ants.They carry amazingly large loads of seeds and such back to the nest.

Cicadas everywhere, the noise so characteristic of the Mediterranean!

This is the European hornet, Vespa crabro.

Caught up with a local beekeeper who kept 250 hives in his 'spare' time, he's also a mechanic! I bought some of his excellent Thyme honey.

BB feeds a bite of apple to our neighbour horse

Pretty livestock, being looked after by the traditional shepherd, who each evening herded the flock from one field to another

This is Spotty, he's very sweet natured.

This is Jasper, getting a little too comfy on our table!

Xylocopa violacea, the violet carpenter bee, is one of the largest bees in Europe. It is a solitary bee and makes its nests in dead wood. They are incredibly pretty bees, but a little intimidating when they fly close by.

The Oriental hornet, Vespa orientalis, is a hornet which looks very similar to the European hornet, and is quite common  in the Mediterranean area. It is a rather large specimen!

Lots of pretty bugs and beetles hiding in the foliage.

A group of 'our' kittens arrive to dine on left-overs!

So there you go, a sample of the amazing non-human life on a very special island!

Hope you are having a peachy week!