Blog - Blog

I have lots of good days working at Westonbirt Arboretum, who wouldn’t? But the day I picked up a cheque for £250,000 (the first instalment of a £500,000 award) definitely tops the list.

For today’s blog I decided to headed up Willesley Drive to see how some of the trees I looked at last week had changed. We’ve had a few cold nights so I was expecting quite a bit more colour and that was certainly the case.

After a glorious weekend of sunshine, I stepped out into Silk Wood on a dull, overcast afternoon to take the leaf colour temperature.

It's a week since my last autumn blog and I took another walk around today to see how the colour is progressing.

Paul Hayden has been making Windsor chairs from green wood for more than twenty years. He regularly runs chair making courses at Westonbirt, using the Silk Wood Barn as a venue for a traditional workshop.

Not wanting to miss out on the first signs of autumn colour, I ventured out of my office for a stroll round Circular Drive today to see what I could see.

As the summer draws to an end, I always start to think about our annual planting programme.

‘Hidden Voices’ is an inspiring project being run by that participation and learning team at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, engaging community groups in environmental issues.

I can’t believe it, after 12 months of working on Treefest, we are now only 4 days away.

Well the last month or so has been a busy one for the RSPB at Westonbirt! We’ve held a whole host of hands-on family events, which I hope many of you joined us on. For those who didn’t, here’s a summary…...

At last years’ Treefest the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum invited visitors to put their dreams on the leaves of The Tree of Dreams.

Back in June Matt Parratt from Forest Research and a team of volunteers completed the first stage of a comprehensive survey of the vegetation communities and plant species of the Downs.

Catering always plays an important part in a festival, and this year at Treefest, we'll have some new caterers with some exciting menus on offer.

I am a highly skilled, traditional craftsman with a flair for individual design, having built up over 27 years experience in joinery.

Massive thanks to Ecotricity, one of the Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum corporate supporters, who hosted me at their Sustainability in Sport Match at Forest Green Rovers yesterday.