Exploring Falmouth's Victorian cemetery with Brigit Strawbridge-Howard and Chloe Eathorne - Part Two

 

The woodpile to end all woodpiles

Quite a bit of organising had occurred beforehand to arrange for everyone to be at the same place at the same time with the gear checked and batteries fully charged. However the plan for what was to follow was deliberately less detailed to allow for more spontaneity between Brigit and Chloe and allow the conversation to take its own path. Nothing was rehearsed, there were no second takes.

I guided the group around the cemetery and as we walked we all chatted together, only when we started filming did Jon recording the sound and myself with the camera fall silent – well largely so, I did add a snippet of information in the next video.

Simon Penna, the Grounds and Facilities Manager for Falmouth Town Council has an understanding of the ecological value of deadwood. In our Kimberley Park he left a dead Ash tree standing for years that became home to a variety of insects and a nest site for Blue Tits until its state of decay made it unsafe. There are still two tree trunks that have been left in the park.

This approach is still uncommon, so as I led Brigit towards a Pine tree that had fallen in a storm, I expected them to be surprised, as they approached it I switched the camera on and pressed record.   

What delights me about this video is that it revealed to me a different way of experiencing the cemetery. In fact I have to say when visiting the cemetery I usually focus on its parts and slip into cameraman/photographer mode or concentrate on its insects and wildflowers. When I do sit down for a break my mind tends to work through the changes I have seen and sort them into positives and negatives. How much is the ever expanding area being taken over by three cornered leeks becoming a problem, being one example. 

So to listen to the conversation flow from exploring the holes bored into the trunk, to childhood memories and then onto the benefits being in nature can bring to our wellbeing was for me, quite magical.

As we continued our walk we bumped into two researchers from the University of Exeter's campus at nearby Penryn checking nest boxes that had been recently been installed by the Cornish Jackdaw project. For more information see the link below.

Lois, one of the researchers, agreed to give Chloe an overview of why they were in the cemetery and to demonstrate how they checked the nest boxes without using a ladder.

Links

To buy a signed copy of Dancing with Bees from Brigit visit: http://beestrawbridge.blogspot.com/

The wildflower Hour: https://www.mixcloud.com/THEWILDFLOWERHOUR/

The Cornish Jackdaw Project: https://www.wildcognitionresearch.com/cornish-jackdaw-project

Exploring Falmouth's Victorian cemetery with Brigit Strawbridge-Howard and Chloe Eathorne - Part One

Falmouth's Victorian cemetery in Spring.

It was a search to see an Ivy Bee that first led me to the older parts of Falmouth cemetery and I was not disappointed, I found both ivy and bees. This was back in 2014 and since then it has become a special place and a passion project for me.

During 2015 I began recording some of the insects in the cemetery with a focus on the solitary bee, bumblebee and solitary wasp species to be found there. The highlight was the discovery of the nationally rare cuckoo bee, Nomada hirtipes that has few records in Cornwall. Although it was the number and variety of species to be found there that equally signifies its value for wildlife.

By 2016 responsibility for the maintenance had passed to Falmouth Town Council. This prompted me to write a booklet (Nature in a sacred place: Falmouth cemetery) detailing its value with a list of species I had recorded there and my thoughts on its maintenance.

The council responded positively and this has led to an ongoing conversation with Simon Penna, the Grounds and Facilities Manager. For me this has been both an education and a pleasure to see how he and his teams have both adapted some of my ideas and innovated  their own. The result of their work can be seen in the cemetery today.

It may surprise you but all of this is not the result of a lifetime interest in bees and the natural world. For most of my life it was photography that was my passion and this led me into a career in television.

Like many people who up to attending one of Brigit’s talks or reading her book, Dancing with Bees, I only knew of honeybees and bumblebees. Filming an interview after a talk she gave at Garden Organic in 2013 opened the door on a much bigger world that is all around us yet mostly overlooked. For the first time I heard of solitary bees and that we have more than one type of bumblebee.

While I walked away from the talk more knowledgeable about bees, even more amazing things were to follow. Visiting my veg patch in my garden bees were appearing all over it and a variety of types too. Admittedly I later discovered quite a few were hoverflies, learning to tell the difference is something all beginners have to go through. Even so I was still seeing quite a few bees with three bumblebee species visiting a patch of chives in flower alone. To cap it all that summer I found four bumblebee nests. I still find watching workers returning to and leaving their nest fascinating and it gives me a real David Attenborough moment.

That autumn I moved down to Falmouth and after settling in, the following year I went out to discover Ivy Bees, found the cemetery and started a new chapter in my life. 

So ten years later when Brigit raised the possibility of visiting the cemetery this spring on Instagram I not only jumped at it, I rather cheekily asked if she would be happy to do some filming. After a phone chat we decided on filming interviews and I started to search for an interviewer. 

Chloe Eathorne as well as being a Cornish poet is also a journalism student who presents and produces The Wildflower Hour, a weekly radio show on Source FM. Having listened to her interview with sound Artist Justin Wiggan which I highly recommend (link at bottom of page) she seemed the ideal choice. Meeting with Chloe for a tea and chat we discussed ideas for the filming and the possibility of also using the audio to produce an episode of her radio programme. We settled on the idea of a relaxed walk around the cemetery with a mix of interviews and conversations between Brigit and Chloe.

On the day of filming we all met by the chapel and once everyone had been introduced, Chloe and Bridget were fitted with radio microphones. After this technicality we began our walk around the cemetery giving time to the ladies to chat and get to know each while exploring the cemetery.  Even so it cannot have been easy to relax with a cameraman (me) and sound recordist (Jon GD Brown) ever present.

Brigit is an ambassador for Caring for God’s Acre, a non-religious charity that supports groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy churchyards and burial grounds. So for the first video interview we asked her about the charity and its work. 

 

 

Links

To buy a signed copy of Dancing with Bees from Brigit visit, http://beestrawbridge.blogspot.com/

The wildflower Hour: https://www.mixcloud.com/THEWILDFLOWERHOUR/

Caring for God’s Acre: https://www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk/

New 2021 Guide to Falmouth's Urban Buzz meadows

 

Thanks to sponsorship from local
estate agent, Heather and Lay, print copies of the new 2021 Urban Buzz
Wildflower Meadow guide are being given to pupils in year 6 in all five of
Falmouth’s Primary schools. The guide covers both the wildflowers found in the meadows and the bees that they attract. Its distribution is being organised by Jacqui Owen, the Visitor & Community Engagement Officer for Falmouth Town Council in partnership with Cormac.

You can download your free copy here, https://bit.ly/3vkfkuV

Surprise discoveries in Fox Rosehill Gardens

 

I am not a great lover of winter, I do not look forward to
its arrival with joy. At best it offers a rest from the activity of the other
seasons. With shorter days and generally uninviting weather I spend more time
indoors. One of my favourite places to visit in Falmouth during winter is Fox
Rosehill gardens. Its collection of plants from around the world ensures the
gardens provide something of interest throughout the year. In this short film I
explore some of its attractions as I explored the gardens in early December.

 

When to cut an urban wildflower meadow

Early September saw the meadows in the terraces above Gyllyng Street receive their autumn cut and collect. These were the first of Falmouth's Urban Buzz meadows to be cut this year and the Cormac maintenance team did a superb job. The clearing away of the cuttings are a critical part of establishing a wildflower as it will reduce the fertility of the soil allowing the wildflowers to compete with the grasses. To see this so well done is very encouraging and signals that next year will be a good one for the meadows.

Lawn Steps meadows

The question of when to cut an urban meadow is an interesting one, which is to say there is more than one answer. The problem in deciding when to cut urban meadows stems from them not being tied to the agricultural calendar and the need to produce hay for winter fodder. Instead their purposes are more varied and sometime can even be conflicting. For example the attractiveness of a meadow can be seen to diminish as the wildflowers set seed and the meadows become less colourful and more untidy. This consideration would suggest a late summer or early autumn cut.

Another purpose for urban meadows is their benefits to wildlife especially pollinator insects. Mid to late October is a favoured  time to cut urban buzz to maximise their benefits to wildlife.

An autumn cut also benefits those wildflower species that flower and set seed late. Continually cutting early each year will impair their ability to establish themselves and thrive in a meadow.

If
the annual wildflower Yellow Rattle is being grown in a meadow it is
important that it is allowed to set and disperse its seed before the
meadow is cut. Unlike Poppy seeds that can lie dormant in the soil for
years and still be able to germinate, Yellow Rattle has a very short
period of viability. Usually the seed produced in a summer will not
germinate after the following spring. 

Another factor is the amount of grass present in a particular meadow. In the early years of establishing a meadow cutting more than once can reduce the vigour of the grasses and enable the wildflowers to better compete. This replicates the practice in tradition hay meadows of allowing cattle to browse after  the regrowth of the grasses following the hay cut.

From these examples and there are more, you can see I was not exaggerating when I said there was more than one answer. I would say that finding the right one is dependent on some trial and error and seeing how a particular meadow responds. Both gardeners and farmers know that it the experience they gain over time that gives them the knowledge to manage their land wisely.

I will explore this question in more detail in the 2021 edition of the Meadow guide. I will leave you with some more photos of the Gyllyng Street meadow's cut. 

New Video celebrating the Urban Buzz Wildflower Meadows in Falmouth

The restrictions imposed as a result of Covid-19 made the summer of 2020 very different. One change was to prevent the holding of the ParkLive festivals that normally held each month from April to September in Kimberley Park. In response the dedicated team behind the festivals moved them onto YouTube to streamed them live with an option to view later - you can find their channel here: ParkLive YouTube Channel

The Parklive festivals are built around live music performance from local singers and groups with the inclusion of other performing arts such as dance and spoken word. The move to streaming on YouTube allowed short films to be included which is when I received a phone call from Parklive Producer Simon Neild. Although surprised by the call, Simon has such energy and enthusiasm that I readily agreed to produce several short films.

With the meadows in each location now showing their individual character and potential they were the perfect subject for a short film. So without further ado, I proudly present my celebration of these magical meadows that truly are bringing something special to our town. 

 

 

Summer 2020 Guide to Falmouth's Urban Buzz meadows and wildflower indentification

This
is the second summer for our wildflower meadows and they are showing
their potential with over 30 wildflowers species appearing in various
meadows. This guide was produced as an introduction to the meadows and
to provide help to anyone trying to identify a wildflower. You can
download a free copy here, https://bit.ly/2SZRH9a