Tagged with: National trust
Posts (14)
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Rodents meet royalty
Martin Aaron
The red squirrels at Plas Newydd, Anglesey received a royal visit last week when Prince Charles popped in. The prince was there to see for himself just how successful the re-introduction project had been in the the woodland surrounding the historic house. Prince Charles during his visit - image courtesy of the National Trust: Six squirrels were brought to Plas Newydd (a former stronghold for the species) in October 2008 and held in woodland enclosures for a few weeks, before being released into the woods over the winter. A red squirrel - image courtesy of the National Trust: They bred successfully and the squirrels can now be found throughout the estate. Some have even crossed the Menai Straits to recolonise Gwynedd. The mixed deciduous woodland has a high canopy and great arching boughs - perfect habitat for red squirrels. Plas Newydd is open daily except Thursday and Friday from 11am - 5.30pm. Gull
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Plight of the bumble bee
Martin Aaron
This summer, the 成人论坛 joins forces with the National Trust for a national campaign, launching on Monday 17 May to investigate the plight of honeybees in Britain. The Bee Part Of It campaign is supported by 成人论坛 Local, Springwatch and wildlife presenter Kate Humble, who now manages her own bee hives at home. Bees are the world's most important pollinating insects and honey bees are worth around 拢200 million a year to British agriculture. Their dramatic decline in numbers recently has become a cause of global concern. Bees, along with other pollinators like butterflies, moths, beetles, and hoverflies are crucial to the entire ecosystem. Albert Einstein is alleged to have once said that, without bees, humanity would die out in four years - now there's a scary thought! Perhaps Hollywood should stop making movies about apocalyptic global warming scenarios and focus on the extinction of bees instead? As Iolo Williams recently mentioned - the biggest threat to our planet is mankind and it is us who will ultimately suffer. Nature will resume, long after we're all gone... As part of the build up to this campaign I've been asking you to send in your best bee photos. Here's a gallery of some of the best ones so far. All native bees have been in decline for some time and a combination of factors are believed to be responsible: habitat loss, pesticides, and disease are key. A bee by Steve Tynant: Recent poor summers have also caused enormous damage to honey bees: a third of all colonies were lost in 2008. Matthew Oates, the National Trust's Chief Conservation Advisor, says: "Bee consciousness is vital and we can all help; we can do simple things like planting bee friendly plants and flowers to encourage bees into our gardens. We want more people to understand the crucial role that bees play in our food chain." The main focus of this campaign is the honey bee, and as part of this project, Radio Wales has adopted two new hives on National Trust property.The first will be at Dinefwr in West Wales. The second hive location has yet to be confirmed. Each hive comes with a bee keeper who'll look after the hive for the summer and hopefully deliver up to fifty jars of honey at the end of the season. I've already bought a new toaster! ;) We'll monitor the hives progress for the duration, and you'll be able to follow the story locally on the Jamie & Louise show as well as on the 成人论坛 Wales Local websites. We're also giving away packs of bee friendly flower seeds in June (details to follow), and bees will feature at the Springwatch Wild Days Out. In the meantime, find out which species of flowers are bee friendly from the RHS website and get planting. Bee keeping isn't just a rural operation - bees can thrive in villages, towns, and cities, as long as the conditions are right. Bee Facts: There are 250 species of bee in the UK consisting of bumblebees, honeybees and solitary bees. Pollination delivers 芒锟铰�14.2bn to the European economy, most of this is through bumblebees and honeybees. Bumblebees have smelly feet. They produce oily secretions to inform other bees which flowers have already been visited Source: The Bumblebee Conservation Trust That's it for now. If you've got a story concerning bees in Wales then do get in touch. I can mention it here in the blog and pass on any useful information to colleagues involved in the campaign. Gull Having trouble identifying bees? Try the BWARS image gallery.
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What a wheel
Martin Aaron
A Roman water wheel is being unveiled at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines in Carmarthenshire, two thousand years after the Roman miners left this part of Wales. The wheel has been painstakingly recreated by local craftsman - Harry Guile, based on an original fragment found buried in the mines during ...
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Cooking up a storm
Martin Aaron
A fifth series of 成人论坛 Two Daytime's Great British Menu has just started, and viewers in Wales can look forward to seeing three Welsh chefs being challenged to source ingredients in and around National Trust properties in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Bangor. The series kicked off with a double bill at 6.00pm on Tuesday, 6 April on 成人论坛 Two and the Wales round will be broadcast later on in the series. The series will follow three chefs each week as they unearth the very finest produce from the farms, gardens and neighbourhoods surrounding their local National Trust house or countryside location. The Wales edition will feature the following chefs: James Sommerin from The Crown at Whitebrook near Monmouth who will be sourcing his ingredients from the National Trust property at Stackpole in Pembrokeshire. Aled Williams from Plas Bodegroes, Gwynedd who will be working with ingredients from the 18th century Welsh gentry estate at Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion. Richard Davies who lives in Bridgend but who works at the Manor House Hotel & Golf Club, Wiltshire. He will be sourcing ingredients from PenrhynCastle near Bangor, Gwynedd. After putting their culinary skills to the test in the kitchen, each dish will be judged by a former Great British Menu champion. The eight regional winning chefs - including the Wales winner, will compete in the final round, to create a magnificent British meal that the judges consider fitting for the finale banquet for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall. With over 200,000 hectares of farmland, the National Trust and National Trust for Scotland are the UK's biggest farmers - providing access to a wealth of delicious local ingredients from growers, farmers and other producers linked to the estates.
