Hunting Hall

Fences and trails

2012-01-17T03:14:00.000-08:00

Winter is traditionally the time when farmers look to their field boundaries; ditches, hedges and fencing. Tom has quite a few new fences to build around the farm to protect new hedging from livestock. Andrew (our son in law-to-be) kindly lent a hand with the first stretch around the Croft, a field divided into small pig and sheep paddocks behind our house. As they worked, Tom had the inspired idea of creating a new trail between the end of the fence and the little runner (or tiny stream) around the North of the farm, leading out onto the farm road. Lately Tom has been working by himself, putting in posts, nailing wire and netting, clearing undergrowth and trying to skirt an old pig wallow (where is the water coming from?!). The trail peters out beyond the goat field at present (and it may only be suitable for the more adventurous walker) but the dogs and I have been enjoying an evening outing around this previously inaccessible part of the farm.

Andrew's new fence along the side of the Croft

The fence line boarders our new disabled access path and we will plant a hedge alonside.

Here is the start of the new walk around the pig's croft where the big sows live.

I've been trying to clear away overhanging branches and brambles from the track.

Tom at work in the evening sunshine, watched by 'Bracken' the goat (below). Bracken is harness trained and can pull a small cart. Unfortunately he enjoyed standing on the newly stretched fence wires to see what Tom was up to... which did not endear him to anyone!

The fence line skirting the old pig wallow (below).

This small paddock, along with the goat's field, is in organic conversion so Tom will keep his newly born lambs here this spring.

An Anniversary Whitebeam

2011-12-24T04:26:00.000-08:00

To celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary and 60 years of farming at Hunting Hall we planted a Whitebeam. Thank you for editing the video Tommy!

Happy Christmas everyone from all at Hunting Hall!

Autumnal colours at Hunting Hall

2011-11-27T04:03:00.000-08:00

We have had some lovely weather this November and the autumn berries have been spectacular. These photographs were taken on my walk around the farm last Sunday morning.

Newt Cottage garden

The new bird hide

Our new easy access footpath

The farm trail through the Top Dene

Tom's new small 'bridge'

The old bridge in the Top Dene

The South Low Burn

Hurry up! Let me though please.

Lowick Community Orchard at Hunting Hall

From the top of the farm looking East towards The Fuffins and Newt Cottage

Meg's Wood. Bella (the dog) likes the small crab apples - here she is debating if she can reach them by jumping.

The old farm lonnen - once the main road to Lowick and probably used by pilgrims travelling to Holy Island.

Looking through to our organically managed pasture.

The cottages' gardens

Building a bird hide

2011-10-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

Our new bird hide was built today. It's aptly named because all bird-life was 'hiding' at least 4 fields away escaping from the din of happy workmen (and they were a happy bunch), but we hope the braver wildlife may return to the pond to be viewed from our posh new hide... eventually.

Derek Allan, a local joiner, designed and built sections of the hide in his workshop and then brought along his team to assemble it today. It's not finished yet - we're going to give it a live grass roof and it needs some seating, but it is an excellent little house. Thanks Derek and friends!

Was it a golden eagle?....

The Pond Field Footpath

2011-10-17T03:01:00.000-07:00

As part of our efforts to help everyone explore the countryside, we have just finished making a disabled access footpath leading to the Pond Field pond.

A local joiner is busy building a bird hide to view across the pond and he has grand ideas for a floating jetty. It's only a very small pond and at the moment his plans seem to be covering most of the water surface...

This weekend we planted the Doddington Pippin in the Community Orchard. This variety of apple tree was discovered in the old orchard of a local farm. It seems unique to the area, therefore we've had cuttings grafted by a professional nursery and the young whips were sponsored and planted by local people.

Err - we aren't mentioning the Doddington Pippin that Bella the dog decided to play with... let us just say that we will await the growing season next spring with some anxiety!

Northumbria in Bloom Gold

2011-09-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

We’ve just been to the Northumbria in Bloom award ceremony where our community orchard won a gold medal in THE DURHAM TROPHY for Best Conservation Project. A huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has supported the orchard – it’s been a tremendous success!

The orchard was also part of Lowick in Bloom's village entry which was awarded a gold medal as well. The members of Lowick in Bloom have worked tremendously hard to transform our village into a pretty, flowery, cared-for place with a great community spirit. Congratulations to all!

Organic

2011-09-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

Our grassland, sheep flock and community orchard are now in organic conversion. We’re managing them organically in the Organic Farmers and Growers scheme, so in two years our lambs will be certified organic, and a year later, the fruit. It’s an exciting step for Hunting Hall!

2 Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Awards!

2011-08-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

The Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty award ceremony took place last night. Hunting Hall had been shortlisted for two Awards for Excellence; Farming and Land Management and Sustainable Tourism.... and we won both categories!!!

Our Farming and Land Management entry was made in partnership with our tenant, W.L. Douglas and Son. We’ve planned lots of wildlife conservation projects on the farm together and the Douglas’s have carried them out and made it possible for us to continue our work for wildlife at Hunting Hall. Huge thanks, James, William and family!

Thank you to the Northumberland Coast ANOB for a super evening and to everyone who has supported and helped us in our environmental work at Hunting Hall. We are extremely chuffed!

A Blessing, a Picnic and a Concert!

2011-07-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the 17^th of July, Rev. Victor Dickinson led a small service to bless our Community Orchard at Hunting Hall.

We processed around the orchard

At the end of the Blessing, Electra sang for us.

And next, our picnic!

The following concert in St. John the Baptist Church, Lowick, was a great success. Over 100 people filled the church for wonderful performances by recent and present students of of St. Mary’s Music School Edinburgh. The proceeds of our 'Music for the Orchard' concert went to Lowick in Bloom, Lowick Community Orchard and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

A huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who made our event so special and such a success!

Music for the Orchard

2011-07-13T01:12:00.000-07:00

You are invited to a

Musical Performance

in St. John the Baptist Church, Lowick

on Sunday, 17th July at 7 pm

The concert will be preceded by a

Blessing of the Orchard

and

picnic

in Lowick Community Orchard, Hunting Hall Farm

at 4.30 p.m.

Young musicians, Alice and Roberta Burn of Hunting Hall,

will be joined by 3 talented friends,

recent and present students of

St. Mary’s Music School, Edinburgh,

to perform a selection of works

for harp, voice, clarsach

and Northumbrian smallpipes

Tickets: adults £5, children £3

available at the door or in advance from Hunting Hall

To raise funds on behalf of

Lowick Community Orchard, Lowick in Bloom

and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

For further information or tickets, please contact

Tom and Karen Burn, Hunting Hall, Beal

Tel.: 01289 388652 Email: kburn.huntinghall@btinternet.com

Our Performers

Top photograph: Electra Lochhead, Clara Hyder and Roberta Burn

Above: Alice Burn and Emily Hoile, finalists in BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year.

Above: (with harp) Roberta Burn

Sheep Shearing

2011-06-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Graeme Sinclair came to clip our sheep today. Here he is in action. A huge thank you to Graeme for his patience and help!

The Farm in Early June

2011-06-05T03:38:00.000-07:00

Crosswort grows in profusion along the banks of the Low Burn. In the distance you can see the farm trail bridge Tom built over the Low burn and beyond are the buildings of Hunting Hall.

Phacelia planted in the nectar and pollen seed mix

The 'wild' strip we have created along the side of this rape crop can be seen clearly in this photograph. The Farmhouse is at the end of the track.

Crosswort

The Low Burn

The farm cottages from across the Denes

One of the farm trail footbridges

Flag iris growing close by one of the young willows we planted a few years ago

A farm trail way marker

Chain Bridge Honey Farm have several hives on our farm at the moment. Here is one hidden in the edge of a rape field.

Look at the bees in the sky above the rape

Mr Bates' roller which he kindly lent us to roll the orchard ground.

Hunting Hall seen from the highest point on the farm

One of the stiles on the farm trail

On the way to Meg's Wood

Meg's Wood which we planted in 2002

The Lonnen

Down the old track which would once have been the main road from Lowick - leading pilgrims from the Roman road to Holy Island.

Along the Lonnen

Home!

More work in our new orchard

2011-05-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

We've been putting a layer of whin dust on our community orchard paths today - this should make them much more pushchair/wheelchair user friendly!

Tom let me loose with the hired roller!

The new orchard car park entrance has also been started this week.

2011-05-07T02:44:00.000-07:00

Tom and Stewart, with his digger, have been marking out more of our community orchard paths and filling them with hardcore today. The job was begun in March but had to be stopped when heavy rain turned the ground to a quagmire.

Today they’ve finished the work in very dry conditions. Unfortunately, at the moment you’d have to be a very confident wheelchair/pushchair user to tackle these tracks; the fine layer of whin dust that will cover the rough stones is missing and the tractor has left random ‘speed bumps’ and man pits. Tom has even replaced a signpost in the middle of one of the paths in slalom style. Hopefully we’ll get the top layer on and rolled flat in the next few weeks.

Tom has also had to re sow and roll some of the grass seed. Where the heavy machinery had churned up the wet ground in March the autumn sown grass had died. We have bought some ‘floristically enhanced’ grass seed to fill in the gaps.

All 82 trees are alive! There are green spikes sticking above tree tubes throughout the orchard – and even a sprinkling of blossom. Hunt House, an old variety of apple used by Capitan Cook’s men to prevent scurvy on long journeys, must be the slowest fruit tree in the orchard (in Northumberland?) to grow. We have two trees of this variety and I have been convinced they were dead... but I’m happy to say I found a tiny (and I mean tiny) bud on the last leafless Hunt House today. Tom and I have been watering the trees each week (with occasional help gratefully received from friends and family) and were pleased to see how well the new mulch mats kept the ground moist around the trees in these very dry conditions.

Our lives have been very busy recently. Not only has Tom been lambing but we’ve also had several interesting visitors to the farm. 41 members of the North Northumberland Bird Club walked our fields on Saturday, led by Roger Manning – a wonderfully knowledgeable gentleman. On Tuesday, an RSPB representative walked the fields with us to give advice on land management for farmland birds. He explained we need a few more areas of cereal based seeds to replicate an old-fashioned poor weedy crop – perfect for many endangered wild bird species. Tom is going to sow some field corners with this cereal seed mix very soon. I have shown representatives of the local Rotary club around the farm trail and next week I am looking forward to a visit of members of the Icelandic Tourist board who are cycling to the farm. I love showing people around the farm - their enthusiasm, advice and encouragement is great!

2011-04-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

This must be one of the muddiest, smelliest jobs! One of the farm ponds, which we created in 1992, was becoming choked with weed and silt. Dredging always makes such a mess, the banks become a sea of mud and the water a cloudy soup. It also damages the established eco system... but if we didn’t dredge the pond all the water would eventually disappear beneath a dense mat of weed and grasses. We will try to leave an area of the pond untouched so that pond life will still have a sanctuary.

John and his excavator are dredging this afternoon. Unfortunately an excited twitch of the wrist at the wrong moment flicked a scoopful of black slime all over himself and his cab. He is not a happy-chappy (we did try not to laugh)!

Alice has taken some old split tree tubes from the surrounding small woodland. These were the first trees we planted on the farm 19 years ago. The workmen had to cut down a few branches to get the dredger in place. Below is the very first crop of timber from our woodland!

Planting Our Orchard

2011-04-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

52 people met in a field at Hunting Hall farm on Mothering Sunday to plant a community orchard near Lowick village. It was a tremendous effort! Local people, from the ages of 2 to 80, worked hard through April showers to plant 82 heritage fruit trees. Each tree had been sponsored by a member of the public, and there were some wonderful old varieties chosen for the orchard; an Isaac Newton apple tree, which is said to be propagated from the tree in Isaac Newton’s garden under which 'the notion of gravity came into his mind occasion'd by the fall of an apple,'; Hunt House, a fruit that was enjoyed by Captain Cook’s men to prevent scurvy; Bloody Ploughman, an old apple associated with the story of a poor ploughman who came to a sticky end, and many more unusual fruit trees from R V Roger Ltd Nursery. We'd like to thank the nursery for so much help with such a complicated order and for the donation of two crab apple trees for our orchard. Trees propagated from a local orchard at Doddington will be planted at Hunting Hall in the autumn.

We had the idea to create a community orchard for Lowick village at Hunting Hall last year. The project has been a great success; we've designed and created the site and applied for planning permission for public access. Later this summer hard paths winding through the trees and an area for car parking will be completed, so that the orchard will be accessible to all. We hope it will become a lovely area for the village, with benches next to the paths to help visitors relax and enjoy the fruit trees (though it may be some time before the trees bear fruit!).

We would like to offer a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has supported Lowick Community Orchard and helped to plant trees on Sunday 3^rd April. A full set of photographs of the day's events may be found on the Hunting Hall Facebook page.

A Community Orchard Hedge

2011-03-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

On the 22^nd March we began planting the hedge along our new orchard site. The soil is really hard next to the car parking area – so I hope the plants grow! It’s a mixed hedge – full of fruiting shrubs; wild cherry, wild plum, blackthorn, hazel, blackberry etc.

We’ve planted about a 20^th of the hedge so far and it’s going to take a long time to finish. If anyone has a spare evening and would like to help – we’d be delighted : ) Just let us know!

Surprise!

2011-03-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Look what appeared out of hiding today! I'm not sure where the goose has been nesting but she's a very proud mother. The whole flock are protective; though I wish they wouldn't keep standing on the goslings!

My-Newt Makeover

2011-02-13T03:20:00.000-08:00

We have been tremendously busy for the last few weeks, wielding paintbrushes in Newt Cottage. Tom has smartened the bathroom, re-sanded and oiled the kitchen bench, every curtain has been cleaned and we have altered the living room seating with the addition of a new, pretty sofa. I love the new warm, welcoming colours!
The choice of paints in the cottages has always been left to me; Tom is very colour blind and caused a great deal of amusement when he admitted he thought he had originally painted Newt Cottage living room green – when it was really peach! This time we’ve re-painted Newt Cottage from top to bottom (almost) and I’ve chosen light, neutral tones; an Ecos off-white in place of creamy yellow, and Farrow and Ball environmentally-friendly emulsion lime white to replace the living room peach (Tom’s green!). The Fuffins, too, has benefited from our energetic winter cleaning spree; the wall colours may remain the same but much has been re-painted and cleaned – leaving our cottages spick and span!

We’ve not only been toiling in the cottages. Work on the community orchard we are creating at Hunting Hall has finally begun. At the end of January, with the tremendous help of our friend Andrew Tumily, we put up a fence along the side of the site. This gave our orchard a definite size; at last we could see our graph-paper plans taking shape. Last week a digger began making a hard standing area for cars. Once this work was underway, Graham Cross brought his mini digger to create the orchard paths. With help from Tom on the tractor leading sub base, Graham has dug out and filled most of the footpaths that will eventually wind between heritage fruit trees. Unfortunately, at the moment these paths are island walkways through a very muddy field.
The orchard project is Hunting Hall’s contribution to help the tremendous community spirit that is blossoming in Lowick village. Several very special ladies began ‘Lowick in Bloom’ a few years ago and, not only has the village been transformed into a pretty flowery hamlet, these ladies have nurtured local pride in Lowick village and inspired a new sense of community. Peeping up through the mud of the orchard are snowdrops given to us by an ‘Orchard Friend’. They are a good symbol of the hopeful beginnings of our new project.

Music to Herald the New Year!

2011-01-05T06:54:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from all at Hunting Hall!

2011 promises to be an exciting period, as we begin some wonderful new projects on the farm. We will tackle more wildlife conservation work, make new footpaths, plant our community orchard and create a farm classroom. It’s tremendous to have such a busy, dynamic schedule ahead and it's certainly had a tuneful prelude!

The year has begun on a musical note. On the 28th of December Tom took our youngest daughter, 16 year old Roberta, and her harp to join the National Youth Orchestra in Oxfordshire. Roberta was very nervous about playing with this large, prestigious orchestra of 170 musicians from all over the country, but she soon found that everyone was very kind and supportive and she absolutely loved the music (especially Prokofiev Scythian Suite). After a week of rigorous rehearsals and workshops, the orchestra members are on their way to perform in Liverpool tonight, 5th Jan.. They are also performing in London at the Barbican on Friday and Leeds on Saturday. Why not go along and support them if you are in the area? Find out more at: http://www.nyo.org.uk/

Alice, our daughter who is 18, had a stressful December as she auditioned at several music conservatoires for a place to study in September. Alice has studied Northumbrian smallpipes as her first instrument at music school – but, as there are no Northumbrian pipes tutors at conservatoires, she has had to audition on clarinet. A few days ago she was extremely delighted (well, a bit amazed, actually) to discover she had been awarded a scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music. Well done Alice!Alice has just taken delivery of the new CD recorded by The Windy Gyle band, of which she is a member. Full of true Northumbrian tradition, this is a super lively collection of tunes recorded by Alice’s good friend and pipes teacher, Dr Anthony Robb. I’ve put some CD’s in the cottage – so if you’d like one as a memento of your holiday, please let me know.

We’ve had three lovely professional musicians staying in The Fuffins this week and they joined us to see in the New Year on Bamburgh beach. It was a harmonious opening to the exciting year ahead!

2010-12-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

Northumberland is snowy!
Meg has requested a white landscape on the blog to show our wintry conditions, so above is a photo taken by Roberta whilst sledging at the weekend.

Roberta, wrapped warmly in her Dad’s padded overalls, had a great time playing in the snow with a school friend. Ploughing through drifts that were knee-deep in places, they careered down the dene hillside on plastic sheep feed bags.

Tom isn’t as happy. We’ve tried waving cheerfully through the window, from our nice warm office, as he’s trudged backwards and forwards through the snowflakes, hat pulled well down and shoulders hunched against the cold... but he’s had a frustrating time. Every job takes twice as long in the snow; stock needs more feed, bedding and fresh water.

Here’s a list of Tom’s disasters:
The tractor wouldn’t start
The water pipes were frozen and had to be defrosted with hot kettles
The snow has brought down the electricity cable so there is no power to half the farm buildings
We can't get out of the farm in anything but the 4x4
... and worse of all...
A barn roof has collapsed under the weight of snow.

I think Tom has had enough snow...
but the countryside looks pretty!

Bubbling pans of ragwort and wool

2010-11-15T04:05:00.000-08:00

A smell of boiling wool and simmering weeds permeated the farmhouse this summer, as Roberta’s school art project took shape. Inspired by our natural surroundings and her own small flock of 5 sheep, Roberta chose ‘The Northern Shepherd’ as her theme and set to work spinning, dyeing, rug making and stitching to create a bag from the fleece of Hunting Hall sheep.
If you look back to June’s ‘Fathers’ Day Clip’ blog entry you can see Roberta spinning. For weeks Roberta sat watching Doctor Who DVDs whilst treadling away at her spinning wheel. When the DVD got exciting the wool became very over-spun as her feet went twice as fast! Finally, with a bit of extra help from Granny, she had enough spun yarn to start experimenting with natural dyes.

First the hank of wool needed to be slowly brought to the boil with a mordant to make the dye take to the wool.

Then Roberta picked her dyestuffs (this is ragwort)
and chopped it up to boil. Soon bubbling pans of plants and wool steamed away on the stove. Roberta just needed her pointy hat and she wouldn’t have been out of place in a potions lesson with Harry Potter!Here is Roberta with her dyed wool. The colours were made using, tea, coffee, ragwort, yarrow, walnuts, brazilwood, cochineal and turmeric.
The dyed yarn was then chopped into short lengths and Roberta knotted it into a canvas (just as for making a latch hook rug). The design she created included the curve of a sheep’s horn and the shapes and shades of fields in autumn. Above, forming the top of the bag, lay heather topped Cheviot. Finally the canvas was backed with hessian to make the bag pouch, and webbing straps were added. Hand stitching the backing to the canvas proved awkward and the fight to get it to lie flat was lost the first time. A very flustered Roberta grumbled a lot, unpicked it, and started again.
The finished product was inspected
and (hopefully) approved.
Roberta designed the bag to hold her rug making bits and pieces - I wonder what the next project will be.

Lowick Community Orchard

2010-11-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

The past few months have been very busy at Hunting Hall as we have been planning several new exciting projects. Our tenant, Mr Douglas, has given us a tremendous amount of help and invited Hunting Hall to join his application to be part of the government’s environmental scheme, Higher Level Stewardship. His kind offer has given us access to funding for several wildlife and people friendly projects on the farm. In the next few years we hope to create more footpaths, a bird hide, new hedges, muddy scrapes for wading birds and eventually a farm classroom.

We have always enjoyed working with local people on projects to enhance the countryside and this autumn we hope to make a community orchard for our village. We have taken an acre and a half of farmland land close to the village out of cereal production and invited local people to join us in creating a Community Orchard. Our Higher Level Scheme application has given us the opportunity to apply for funding for disabled access paths, seating, information boards, a hedge, fence and a car parking area.

We launched the orchard project in Lowick village hall in September and explained that we would like to include heritage varieties of fruit trees in the orchard. A nursery in Yorkshire proved to be the closest able to supply these tremendous old fashioned fruit trees – some of which have wonderful histories; there’s the Bloody Ploughman, Sir Isaac Newton’s tree and many more.

We even discovered a local variety of apple tree that is unique to the area growing on a nearby farm which will be grafted and specially grown on for us. The support we have had from everyone has been tremendous; we now have over 50 trees sponsored and ordered for our orchard which is well over half the trees. We hope the Lowick Community Orchard will become a very special place for our village.

If you would like to know more about the orchard or are able to help by sponsoring a tree (from £18.00) please visit our orchard website http://www.lowickcommunityorchard.org/ or email me for more information. A gift tree sponsorship makes a great present for a friend!

Flying the Flag

2010-09-22T03:26:00.000-07:00

The big, gnarled pear tree in our orchard was uprooted in last winter’s gales and, as it fell, it toppled the old farm flagpole.

No one knows the origins of this rusty pole. It has stood tall against the hen house wall for as long as we can remember. Back in 1955, when the young Mrs. Burn (Tom’s Mum, Margaret) returned from her honeymoon, she first noticed the flagpole with a Union Jack proudly flying to mark the return of the happy couple. It’s not a very old pole, made out of water pipe screwed together. Could it have been erected for the Coronation, or perhaps a relic of wartime? Tom’s Mum and Dad didn’t fly a flag again. Next to it, by the hen house wall, Tom’s Dad planted a pear tree, but this never bore fruit until the autumn after his death. This was a sad reminder of the old saying - ‘pears for your heirs’!

The fall of the pole at the beginning of the year spurred the young Burn family into action.

This summer Alice sanded down the metal and painted it.

She’s such a clean worker!

It took team work with the help of friends to get the pole in place.

Bella and Whin (the dogs) supervised the proceedings.

Meg bought her Dad our county flag for his birthday

..and now we have a Northumbrian flag flapping in the breeze above the farm. We love our county; our roots go back for many generations and we’ve worked hard to look after our environment and our natural heritage. We'll fly our flag with pride!

Night Life on the Farm

2010-08-18T06:20:00.001-07:00

Photo: Barn Owl over the Fuffins garden by the Unsworth Family

Mike, who’s staying in Newt Cottage this fortnight, has brought his telescope to view our lovely clear Northumbrian skies, free of light pollution. Unfortunately, thick cloud has been hampering his star gazing... but he has commented on the quiet stillness of the farm nights. He could even hear Jenny (Mum’s dog) snoring gently... except he couldn’t – what Mike was listening to was the young barn owl wheezing away in the ash trees at the bottom of the garden. He isn’t the only one to be confused by the sound; a few years ago Mum telephoned Tom to say that she could hear a sheep with pneumonia in the field at the end of the garden. Tom pulled on his boots, grabbed a torch and went out to rescue his poorly sheep – but couldn’t find anything... The same thing happened again the next night – but this time Tom could hear the gentle hissing too. Eventually he realised the noise was coming from above him. He swung the torch beam upwards and there were the shining reflective eyes and button beak of a fluffy young barn owl chick, blinking down at him from a hole in the tree. We all had a good laugh when he told us he thought he had a sheep in a tree! Late evening the eerie bark of a fox comes across the fields from the wildlife haven of the dene and badgers snuffle heavily through the overgrowth in the croft. They’ve been enthusiastically scraping in the grass along the sides of our farm track.

Some of our night time flying wildlife can be very beautiful; Roberta found an elephant hawk moth trapped in our back kitchen, which we showed to the family in the Fuffins before placing carefully on the honeysuckle at the back door. Unfortunately the other flying kitchen visitor last week, in the form of a frightened bat, was not such a handsome fellow to look at. Tom eventually managed to catch and release it after much uncoordinated flapping on the part of both the bat and ourselves!

Our favourite new visitor to the farm has been sited on several balmy summer evenings. Water voles lived on the farm when I was a child but an invasion of mink in the 1980 decimated the water vole population along the Low Burn. About 10 years ago the return of the otter to the burn chassed off the last of the mink but the small pocket of water vole, known to be living upstream, has taken until now to move back to Hunting Hall. This photo of our water vole was taken by the Unsworth family in the garden of the Fuffins. Thank you for the wonderful holiday photographs Peter, Claire, Lauren and Emily-Kate!

Alice's Walk

2010-08-02T08:02:00.001-07:00

As I’m on my school holidays, I thought it was my turn to update the farm blog. One of my favourite evening activities is to go for a walk around the farm trail, so several nights ago I thought I would take the camera with me.

As I left the farmyard the geese were enjoying the evening sun sitting at the edge of the dene, with their two goslings, now almost fully grown.

The lambs were very curious to see what I was doing and weren’t daunted by our dogs, Bella and Whin snuffling around!

I reached Meg’s wood, from which you can see back over to the farm.

I took some pictures of the area where we would like to create the Lowick Community orchard (but more on this next time!)

The light was fast disappearing and Bella and Whin decided it was time for a rest!

In the dusk I found a spiders web laced over a wheat ear.

It was getting a bit dark so I trotted home.

By Alice

The Scrap Book Poem

2010-06-30T02:52:00.000-07:00

In each cottage we have a wonderful book full of our visitors’ inspired words and colourful pictures; there are descriptions of favourite treasured corners of Northumberland, children’s careful works of art, holiday photographs posted to us to accompany happy reminiscences of days spent exploring castles and countryside. They are very special books and I always enjoy looking back through them, remembering all the new friends we have made over the past years and reading of each guest’s delight in their holiday.

Last week Margaret and Ian Kirkton visited Newt Cottage for a week of glorious sunshine. This was their first visit to the farm and we loved their company! On Friday, after they had left, I discovered in the beautiful, spotless cottage, this poem in the scrap book:

A fantastic place is Hunting Hall,
Where hunting isn’t allowed at all.
Birds and mammals move at ease,
Round the meadows, in the trees.

Along the burn are geese and fish,
Walk amongst them – if you wish.

Down the hill, along the dene,

Is the most beautiful meadow I’ve ever seen.

Sit upon the wooden seat,
With orchids growing at your feet,
Watch the hares with ears so black,
Playing together on the track.

Meg’s wood is a special place,
Bird song fills the air.
Have a moments solitude –
Sit and linger there.

See peacocks, hens and baby pigs,
As in the yard they roam.
Take it all to memory,
For when you return home.

Margaret Kirkton (and Ian) 24.6.10

A Father's Day Clip

2010-06-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

A year of farming seasons has gone by since I started this blog and we have returned full circle to clipping (or shearing) time. On Saturday Tom and Roberta brought in the sheep. This, as I’m sure I will have mentioned before, is never quite like ‘One man and his Dog’. Whin, the border collie, is frightened of sheep, therefore the rounding up is mostly carried out by very hot and bothered humans running around the field, whilst the dog stays safely behind them and gets shouted at a lot.

This year Roberta is carrying out an art project which involves using the wool from her own sheep to make a bag. Roberta has 4 pet rare-breed Teeswater sheep and a lamb. Armed with the camera on a warm Father's Day, she set off to record the first stage of her project.

Here are the sheep waiting in the catching passage.
This is Roberta's sheep, Pip, in the process of being clipped by Graeme. Then the fleece is rolled (actually this is Roberta rolling a half-bred fleece). Below you can see her with Pip's fleece; the Teeswater fleece has a very long staple (long hair) and is very soft, therefore it was a bit too raggy to roll neatly.

Next we took a bit of the fleece to spin... but first Pip seemed to think it necessary to inspect it! I like the matching hairstyles in this photograph!

Here Roberta is using a 'jumbo flyer' on the spinning wheel. This is a big spool designed to produce thick, coarse rug wool. Unfortunately Pip's long soft fleece was really difficult to spin like this; it is best carefully carded (combed) and spun into a finer yarn. Roberta loved spinning and found it quite easy, but she decided to use another fleece for her project so that she could produce a lot of chunky yarn, quickly and easily, ready for the next step towards creating her art-project bag.

Images of Home

2010-06-14T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hawthorn the cat outside the Hunting Hall Farmhouse

The younger members of the Burn Family have told me it is time to update the blog (it's one of their links with home while they are away at school and work), so this morning I've wandered out of the farmhouse, around the garden and down the farmyard, to take photographs of Hunting Hall. I hope everyone will enjoy the pictures... but they're especially for you; Meg, Tommy, Alice and Roberta!The Farmhouse Garden

Geese on the grassy margins

Mrs. Margaret Burn (Grandma) and Jenny

Pigs in the corner pen
Mrs. Sow in the sunshine of the stackyard pig arks

Tom at work
Notice the use of modern technology at Hunting Hall!

A sow in the 'croft', next to our garden wall

Hunting Hall Open Day

2010-05-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

Till and Glendale Rotary Club invite you to

Hunting Hall Open Day

Sunday 6th June 2010
11.30 am - 4 pm

Join us for Pimm’s, a soup lunch
or an afternoon tea scone.

Explore our farm trail
Enjoy stalls, raffle, music and more!

Entry (which will include Pimm’s and lunch or afternoon tea)
adults £3 children £2

Some of the projects we are working to support are:

Canine Partners - dogs for the disabled
Aqua Box – drinking water filtration systems for disaster areas of the world
Thanks for life - planting crocuses to celebrate Rotary's efforts to eradicate Polio
The Lowick Community Orchard - creating a community orchard at Hunting Hall Farm for the people of Lowick

Please come along to Hunting Hall and support our first Rotary fund raising event -
have a great day out!

2010-05-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

Bella of Hunting Hall is a cheerful, friendly 9-months-old, Flat Coated Retriever. Like all young members of this breed she’s full of lovable enthusiasm and a has a very licky tongue. Recently, as all children should, she’s been to school where she has learnt key skills, polite manners and good behaviour! Tom and Bella have been regularly attending the Kennel Club Good Citizen’s Award training classes at the Northumberland Canine Centre. They’ve worked really hard together; Bella has proved an apt pupil and, although she has the attention span of a gnat, her friendliness and need to please has been appreciated by everyone. Last night Tom and Bella sat their Gold Award test.The hardest part for Bella (and most stressful for Tom) was the passing and ignoring other dogs because Bella always wants to go off and say 'hello'. Their many practices must have paid off because Tom had Bella nicely ‘to heel’ and quickly brought her back close when she thought about joining her passing friends.The ‘sit and stay’ is their forte. Bella is really good at waiting for Tom, even when he’s out of sight. They’ve been practicing all over the farm – in fact if you’ve visited recently you may have found a large back hairy dog sitting abandoned in the middle of the farmyard, peering around with anxious, sad eyes hoping Daddy would come back and ‘release her’ soon. On the night she behaved beautifully and the two came home tired but triumphant clutching their certificate and rosette. Well done both of you – you deserve it and thank you to everyone at the Northumberland Canine Centre!

Spring has definitely arrived at Hunting Hall. We have had several excellent ornithologists recording bird life on the farm, which is plentiful and varied. There was a blackcap sitting only yards from me as I ate my sandwiches in Newt Cottage garden last Friday. Our not-so-wild geese began splitting into groups at the beginning of the year. They refused to be shut in together at night and made a lot of squawking as they argued and paired off. Gradually, over the last few weeks, they have come back together again... with an addition.Where the mother was nesting, we don’t know, but this very small little bundle of yellow fluff has attached itself to the group. It’s hard to tell to whom it belongs because the whole flock protects the gosling – though they do have an alarming habit of stepping on it when in a tiz. I hope our little chick survives because it seems very vulnerable!

Andrew’s Flowers

2010-04-12T01:47:00.000-07:00

Hunting Hall is looking very floriferous at the moment; as you drive up the hill and into the yard you can’t fail to notice the excess of blooms adorning every surface... it’s so pretty!
Andrew, our daughter Meg’s boyfriend, grows hanging baskets commercially in Hightown, Merseyside http://www.sunnyfields-baskets.com/ As a new venture Andrew and his sister Anna are offering degradable hessian flower filled pouches, but these are quite fragile to transport, therefore special cardboard boxes had to be designed to fit the pouches. To see how the boxes stood up to being transported long distances, Andrew sent a trial delivery of a pallet of pouches to Hunting Hall. All would have been well if the company delivering the boxes hadn’t gone bankrupt on the day of delivery and therefore the flowers ended up in a shed overnight. Here a kind person decided to water them. Unfortunately cardboard boxes don’t respond well to watering! By the time we eventually received the soggy, squashed delivery it was obvious a bit of rethinking was required – therefore box design ‘mark II’ was created.
This week a pallet of 36 cardboard boxes (‘mark II’) containing 72 pouches of violas were successfully delivered to Hunting Hall – all nicely in shape (except for a slight dent where a strap had been). The pouches inside were just the end of season, slightly leggy violas which we were supposed to compost – but they were just too pretty! In a frenzy of flowers we hung masses of white and yellow blooms from every available post and hook. The result is tremendous.
Such an over indulgence of violas takes rather a lot of watering. Roberta discovered a very green method of filling the watering cans from the small stream near our farm road (though I think Roberta was more concerned about cutting down the amount of walking back to the farm she had to do!).We have to say a huge big ‘thank you’ to Andrew and Anna – we love your flowers :)

Hamish's Holiday Photographs

2010-03-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hamish Bear, who lives in the blue bedroom in Newt Cottage, has been on his holidays to Hong Kong to stay with one of our guests, Suey. As we mentioned in a previous blog, he wrote home regularly during his visit and sent back lots of photographs. Here are some of the highlights of his trip.This is Hamish at Tolo Harbour. Hamish told us,
"The Taipo Waterfront Park overlooking the Tolo Harbour was the place where the British Army disembarked to take over Hong Kong nearly 200 years ago."

He saw a lantern display to celebrate the Chinese Lovers' day.and Suey took him to look at a dragon display at the Heritage Museum Travelling on the tram was great fun!

Hamish made lots of new friends in Hong Kong. Here is Hamish with Clive Bear, enjoying yumcha. Suey explains "Yumcha" is a common kind of social activity in Hong Kong. We meet friends in the morning (10:00 - 12:00) or in the afternoon (2:00 - 4:00) in the Chinese restaurants, to enjoy Dim Sum and chat the morning or afternoon away.There are many, many more pictures in Hamish's photograph album - he's had a wonderfully exciting time and we're very grateful to Suey for looking after him so well. I'm pleased to say Hamish is back home now... but do you know who else was in his travelling box? Clive! Clive was made by Suey's friend and he's come to live at Hunting Hall. We are going to put him in The Fuffins with his own photograph album. Perhaps if you visit the cottage you may like to take Clive back home with you for his own adventure!

Painting it Green!

2010-03-14T03:07:00.001-07:00

It’s time we decorated the Hunting Hall farmhouse! Four children growing up in our home with family pets have left the walls desperately in need of a coat of paint – so this winter Tom and I decided to tackle our staircase and back kitchen. We continued our green ethos and used paints that are manufactured with consideration for the environment, as we have done throughout both cottages. I’m quite experienced wielding a four inch paint brush, having painted all the walls inside the cottages and many in the farmhouse. I hope my following description of the paints I’ve tried may prove useful to anyone wondering which to choose from the growing number of green paints that are available.

Green Paints from The Green Shop

This aptly named paint was suggested by the teenagers of the environmental group that helped us design Newt Cottage. It was the first time we had used a ‘green’ paint and we chose a satin finish that would be easy to wipe clean. It has proved very hard wearing and scrubbable but the paint was quite difficult to apply with a brush because it was very prone to go into dribbles. One or two of the teenagers were kind enough to help me decorate but their efforts were a bit drippy. Meg also discovered it washed out of her sock after stepping back into the tin!
Auro Paints

I painted the bedroom walls in Newt Cottage in this and found it had a lovely smell when being applied (this was mid-winter therefore I had all the windows closed but had no problems with the usual paint fumes). I understand the manufacturers of Auro paint have particularly good environmentally-friendly credentials and the bedrooms certainly look very pretty. The painted walls have quite a chalky surface that marks easily and cannot be rubbed too hard. I also found it difficult to get a really smooth finish, especially with the ‘Pro Emulsion’ (though I was using a brush and not a roller which may have been better). Ecos Paints

This company was recommended to me by one of the guests to Newt Cottage who had visited the small factory in Lancashire and was impressed. We used a satin and matt emulsion and an eggshell Ecos in the Fuffins and I’m pleased with the results. The paint was easy to apply and can be rubbed to remove marks. The slight drawback I found was the silk emulsion makes a ‘skin’ over the plaster and if you rub too hard, instead of just removing a small amount of pigment, you can peel away a layer of paint and leave a hole down to bare plaster. Little Greene Paint

I enjoyed choosing period colours for Fuffins, our Georgian cottage, from this paint company. The emulsion was easy to apply and the finished walls look very good. We chose a chalky matt emulsion, therefore it does mark if scraped and can’t be rubbed too hard - but this isn’t a problem in the Fuffins living room.

Fired Earth Emulsion

After tackling two cottages Tom and I decided to let professional decorators take on the task of dangling precariously over our stairwell in the farmhouse (aren’t we wimps!). The men weren’t very happy about moving away from their usual Leyland paint, but the finished staircase looks lovely. It’s another very flat matt paint, therefore it will mark if scraped - but we knew that when we chose it. The decorators applied the paint with a roller and unfortunately seemed to use a lot more than the can recommended. Farrow and Ball Estate Eggshell

Our back kitchen has been transformed from a deep dark red ‘cave’ (well, it’s hidden an awful lot of mud in the past few years) to a light spacious area this February. Dirty overalls and muddy dogs constantly rub against these walls therefore we needed something that was going to be extremely hard wearing up to shoulder height. This water-based eggshell paint was easy to apply and the coverage suggested on the tin was exactly right. It has left a good tough finish that looks as if it will withstand countless necessary washings. Tom also used it on the woodwork and was particularly impressed with how well it brushed on... though I have to be honest and say that I would like it better if he finished the second coat (large hint to husband)! Visiting the cottages has given many guests the chance to see how the different paints have stood up to daily wear and to share suggestions of their own favourite manufacturers. I decided as I was onto my 4th coat of paint in the back kitchen, that I really quite enjoy painting... but, do you know, in all this time I haven’t painted anything green!!!

The Adventures of Hamish Bear

2010-02-19T02:54:00.000-08:00

Have you met Hamish Bear? This mischievous little teddy lives in the blue bedroom of Newt Cottage, but his need for adventure has led him to stow away in several suitcases belonging to young visitors. Naughty Hamish was discovered hiding in the luggage each time and posted back to Hunting Hall, having enjoyed a wonderful short holiday with his new friends. Eventually, Hamish persuaded us to let him travel and he has returned home with several families after their visit to Newt Cottage. Hamish is very proud of all his holiday photographs and he keeps them in an album in the cottage; he’s been as far as Blair Castle and Canterbury, not to mention several days out with our guest.

This New Year,Joyce and Pascal from Germany came to stay in Newt Cottage, with Joyce’s Mum, Suey, from Hong Kong. Here’s Suey’s photo of Hamish and his friend Giraffe, watching our January snow.After the New Year, Hamish went away with Suey on the biggest adventure of his life. First Hamish travelled to Germany and now he is in Hong Kong. He’s been a very good bear, writing home regularly, as well as sending some wonderful photographs. We’ve enjoyed his news so much that we thought you may enjoy sharing his adventures. Here is his first letter:

Dear Karen & Tom,
Say "Hello!" to everyone in Hunting Hall. I miss you and Newt Cottage very much. What is the weather like in Northumberland? Hong Kong is warm. I feel good here with Suey. The journey to Germany was fantastic. We took the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam. The ship was very big and I could see the view through the window of the cabin. I was too excited that I could not sleep all through the night. The next morning, I had a big breakfast before disembarking. It was delicious. The road condition to Frankfurt was good. We arrived at Joyce and Pascal's by six sound and safe.

My story will be continued.
Warmest regards
Hamish Bear

Wildlife at my Window

2010-01-22T04:33:00.000-08:00

The dilapidated, but well used, collection of 8 bird feeders hanging just feet from my kitchen window, have been alive with birds this winter. I’ve always enjoyed feeding and watching our garden birds and still have my 1980 O level biology project – comparing the number of birds in the town garden of my home with those in a cottage garden. This country garden was our holiday cottage here at Hunting Hall. It is interesting that there are a lot more birds and greater variety of species in the gardens today than there were in the 1980s at the height of intensive arable production. The introduction of wildlife friendly areas on the farm has been reflected in the increase of our garden bird population. There haven’t been any tree sparrows on the farm from many years, but following Belford Wildlife Watch Group’s project to help sparrows (the creation of nest box sites, feeding station and wild areas to attract insects that young sparrows eat) we now regularly have a family of tree sparrows dangling from the nuts.
Natural England have several key bird species which farmers are asked to show they have on their land as part of entry to the Higher Level Stewardship scheme. Tree sparrows are on this list, as are our native grey partridge. Imagine my surprise on a snowy morning last week when I saw grey partridge around the bottom of our garden feeders. I had to dash off and take this (rather blurry) photograph through the glass. Their presence so close to the house was probably a reflection on the severity of the weather, though since the creation of grassy margins (strips of grass and wildflowers) around the crops in our fields the number of partridge on the farm has dramatically increased. “What are those birds with the funny long tail?” asked one of the girls as a flock of long tailed tits descended on the feeders last month and I recently discovered a brambling gorging himself on Niger seed (seen in the photo above with a goldfinch). The cheerful front of a bullfinch was commented on by Tom (he’s colour blind so he can’t usually see such distinction) and of course there’s always the many goldfinches, chaffinches, greenfinches, house sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits and a pair of willow tits busily flying backwards and forwards to the feeders.

It’s the Big Garden Bird Watch at the end of this month. I’ve carried out several BTO garden bird surveys over the years but I haven’t always remembered to take part in this huge RSPB project. This year I’ve preregistered and I’m going to make my garden birds count!

A White 'green' farm!

2010-01-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

It was frosty on the inside of our bedroom windows this morning – I can’t remember that happening since I was a little girl! We’ve almost a foot of snow outside and huge long icicles are dangling off the gutter of our old, single-glazed, non-centrally heated farmhouse. In contrast, the holiday cottages are toasty warm and our guest tell us they’ve had a wonderful holiday making snowmen and sledging. We have to say a huge big thank you to Pascal, Joyce and Joyce’s Mum (our guests in Newt Cottage) who cooked a tremendous Chinese dinner for us on New Year’s Eve before we all went down to a snowy Bamburgh. Here we walked along the beach together - the illuminated castle lit up the sand and at midnight fireworks blazed above. It was a wonderful way to see in 2010.
The snow on the farm is very beautiful, though every job takes twice as long. Each morning Tom has to use the tractor to clear snow from the farm road, defrost taps and pig drinkers with the farmhouse kettle and shovel snow from pen doors and feed stores. He’s probably rather sick of me telling him how pretty it is!
On Tuesday our daughters, Alice and Roberta, went back to the music school in Edinburgh on the train. Unfortunately we can’t get the girls in the car along with Roberta’s 6 feet tall concert harp, their other instruments and luggage. Tom dropped them off at the station in Berwick and then set off to drive to Edinburgh. He got as far as Haddington before the appalling weather and dreadful driving conditions (with an average speed of 25 mph) forced him to turn around (if he hadn’t been able to get back home I would have had to feed 250 pigs by myself the next morning). The girls' train travelled safely to Edinburgh and they are now at school without school books, instruments or, quite importantly, clothes!

Our 4 month old flat coated retriever, Bella, loves the snow. She bunny-hops through the drifts, buries her nose in holes and blows snow everywhere. She is such fun to watch!

Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas from Hunting Hall!

2009-12-24T02:02:00.000-08:00

This year we’ve been able to choose our Christmas tree from the Scots Pine in Meg’s Wood. This is the first year the trees have been big enough and we’re going to plant one or two more in the spring as replacements. Making sure we get the right tree is always a matter of great importance which ceremoniously involves all the family (except Meg this year – because she’s still at work). There were a lot of snowballs involved in our expedition!

Have a very merry Christmas from all the Burn family at Hunting Hall!

Tom’s Early Christmas Present

2009-12-17T09:39:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Tom had a disastrous trip with our tractor and trailer to Lowick silos to collect barley for our pig's food. After some deafening crunches and clangs our poor old Deutz tractor laid down and died. Tom had to suffer an ignominious return home; steering his tractor and trailer as they were towed behind a JCB (thank you to our rescuers – it was much appreciated!).

Resuscitation of the Deutz proved impossible, therefore Tom has a new (1995!) John Deere tractor. This one has 4 wheel drive, a cab heater that works, lots of lights (also in working order), 24 gears, a pick-up hitch that goes in and out as well as up and down and windscreen wipers front and back. Tom thinks Christmas has come early!!!!

I’m not sure if a new tractor ties in with our eco theme but without it we wouldn’t be able to clean out our rare breed pigs or do many of our farmland conservation measures... and of course, it is GREEN!

The Counting Stile

2009-12-09T02:57:00.000-08:00

‘Use it or lose it!’ is the message concerning our farm walk. Unfortunately, some of the support that we receive from Natural England for our footpaths and work to help wildlife on the farm, comes to an end next year. If we wish to enter a new scheme we have been told that our application may be considered providing we can show that all the walks around the farm are being used. The entry process for the current government wildlife conservation scheme has left us rather frustrated: if we were on the other side of the A1, doing nothing to help wildlife, we would be invited to join...... but because we’re not in the costal AONB, it doesn’t matter how enthusiastic we are, or how many wildlife friendly measures we have in place, we’re struggling to find a way onto the scheme.

Our new tally stile is Tom’s ingenious method for noting the number of walkers that use our footpaths. Under the metal step of the stile he’s placed a tally counter (the type used by sheep shearers) so that every time there’s weight on the spring step it pushes the small plunger of the counter and records another walker.

Joining the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme is extremely important to us because we desperately want to be able to keep, and improve, all the special areas we have for wildlife at Hunting Hall. Please continue to use the all our farm trails and find out more about how we look after our countryside - your support will be invaluable! Any feedback about our conservation work and public access would be exceedingly gratefully received!

So, if you’re walking our footpath and come across a certain stile with a metal plate – please don’t miss out the last step! Oh, and you’d better not pogo up and down on it.... we’d struggle to get Natural England to believe a party of 132 walkers passed across the farm one afternoon!

The BEST video and home energy meter

2009-11-30T04:47:00.000-08:00

We recently took part in the making of a video for BEST: Belford Energy Saving Together. This community video is to suggest ways we can reduce the amount of energy we use – and the Hunting Hall cottages were used as an example of best practice. It’s always great to be able to "show off" all that we’ve achieved (even if I had to sit in front of a camera to do it – agh!). The inspiration behind the teenagers’ project to create Newt Cottage was to share their ideas for a greener lifestyle and I’m proud that we are still continuing the ethos of their work.

BEST has lent us a home energy meter. This small wireless electricity monitor shows how much electricity is being used in a home at any time and how much it is costing. We already have a home energy meter in each of the cottages (one of which was very kindly given to us by the Thornton family after they’d stayed on holiday) but we’ve never used one in our own home. I have to say it is an absolutely brilliant little gadget; it’s extremely simple to install and set up and is very easy to read. I found I liked it best telling me how much money I was spending per hour and I entertained myself for some time discovering how much the many electrical appliances we have around the house cost to run. The computer costs about a penny an hour, a kitchen strip light 1.5p, the tumble drier costs 32p using 2.37 KW an hour (we knew that would be a lot) but one of the most energy/penny guzzling surprises was my ironing press: 17p and 1.3 KW hour. Now when I am battling with stubbornly creased organic cotton king sized sheets and managing to burn myself yet again, I also know that I’m using quite a lot of energy – doh!!!! I’ve started to regularly check the meter to see if we’ve left something switched on that’s sneakily using up unnecessary electricity and I terrorise the family for not switching lights off!

I’ve found the home energy meter to be such a good way to save energy (and money) that I’ve bought an Owl Micro to lend to our holiday guests so they can see it in action in their own homes. If you stay with us we’d be really pleased if you’d like to borrow this small wireless monitor to take home with you. Please ask us if you’re interested - I think every home should have one!

Green Goat Transport Power?

2009-11-11T02:11:00.000-08:00

Meg, our eldest daughter, had a long weekend so she returned to Hunting Hall and decided to make the most of a fine November morning by taking her neutered billy, Bracken, out in his little cart.

It was a long time since Meg had exercised Bracken so we weren’t sure how he would behave...... but I’m pleased to say he was very untroubled by the whole affair – he knew who was in charge! After a bit of long-reigning he was harnessed up.

At first they completed some circuits of The Fuffins Garden. Their procedure was a little erratic......
Grazing was really all that was on Bracken’s mind,

but they are really the best of friends!

It’s all right if you don’t want to go anywhere.....

..........or your destination involves food!

But I’m sorry Meg, I think it’s going to take a little more work before it catches on and becomes the new great green goat transport!

North East Tourism Awards – A First!

2009-10-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

During the summer we entered the Sustainable Tourism category of the North East Tourism Awards. This was the first tourism award we’d entered and it was quite demanding. The entry took a long time to put together; we knew we were doing everything in the greenest possible way, but how to say it in the shortest number of words? Once through the first round, we were visited by a very friendly judge for an afternoon. To show off all that we had achieved was tremendously rewarding and One North East even made a short video of each entry. After that we didn’t hear anything, though we’d had a letter explaining that winners would be notified by mid September. Imagine our surprise at the Awards Ceremony on the 15th of October to discover that we had won the gold award! We were absolutely delighted!

We must say a HUGE big thank you to all our guests who were so supportive during the judging, supplying kind quotes, useful photographs and other supporting material..... and for just being such helpful, good friends. Of course we must also thank the young people of the NEWTs, without whom Newt Cottage would never exist – it was their enthusiasm and determination to create a ‘green house’ that we have developed and built upon in our business. Last, but not least, our family – you’ve all worked so hard for the business and it’s very much appreciated.

Yippee!

Meg Burn BSc (Hons)

2009-10-13T04:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the 10th of October Meg graduated from The Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, with a BSc (Hons) in Rural Land Management. Meg has carried out many conservation projects at Hunting Hall; she became National Young Environment Champion 2001 for her project ‘Bats, Badgers and Otters on my Footpath’ and encouraged young people to work with her to create Meg’s Wood and Pond. As a member of the Northumberland Eco Wild Team Meg took part in the green research and design of Newt Cottage and was the only English representative at a United Nations Environment Programme youth conference in Bangalore where she gave a PowerPoint about sustainable lifestyles and Newt Cottage.

Meg is now a Graduate Surveyor with Fisher German LLP, helping to manage two rural estates near Rainford. We hope she’ll be able to put some of her green training to good use!

Meg shares a birthday, the 12th of August, with latest addition to our family; Bella, a Flat Coated Retriever. This photograph shows her at 7½ weeks, moments after she had arrived at Hunting Hall. We’ve had her a week now and she’s grown by 1½ inches and is a black ball of mischief. It’s like having a toddler in the house – everything goes in the mouth, regardless of how edible it is! Work keeps grinding to a halt while we play with Bella and her cuddly blue elephant on the lawn!

The End of Summer

2009-09-17T04:08:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a tremendously busy summer at Hunting Hall. The family all returned home during their holidays and summer leave and our house developed the usual happy, chaotic atmosphere that accompanies young people. Guests at The Fuffins and Newt Cottage have enjoyed some lovely late summer weather to explore beaches and countryside and I wish to say 'thank you' to those who helped me write the first of my new local walks (braving shoulder high undergrowth and helping me revise the directions!!!).

This year we’ve been delighted to be chosen as finalists in two of the North East Tourism Awards: Self Catering and Sustainable Tourism. This has meant a lot of work; preparing for two judging visits and the making of a very short video clip, but the whole family worked together, ensuring the farm was a smart as possible and everything was in tip-top order. We must thank Meg, Tommy, Alice and Roberta for their huge efforts and all our guests for their tremendous support. The Awards have been a wonderful pat-on-the-back for all at Hunting Hall and we’re terrifically proud of everyone’s hard work!

Now the young members of our family have returned to work and school and Tom and I are missing the muddle/enjoying the peace! The harvest is over and Tom is spending each afternoon in the tractor, moving straw bales from the middle of our fields so that the new crops can be sown.

On Tuesday I went out with the camera to photograph Tom’s bales in the Pond Field and walked over to the pond. It was a glorious midday and the trees, which Tom and I planted so long ago in the winter of 1992, were shimmering in the September-gold light. A strange buzzing noise was all over the surface of the water and I was dive-bombed by a huge flying object. Once I’d calmed down from the attack and investigated the offenders, I discovered lots and lots of dragon flies wrapped together in mating flight. I managed (quite by chance) to get this photograph which helped me identify them as Darters – I’ve never seen them here before!

The photograph below was taken by Alex Horton early one morning during his holiday. Cheerful sunflowers of the wildlife seed mix line either side of a grassy track leading to the farm. In the shadows of the track you may be able to see a deer grazing. Farmland conservation measures really do work!

A late-August day

2009-08-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

There was a nice surprise waiting for me when I went to water the tomatoes in the greenhouse this morning. Roberta’s peahen, which had been missing for several weeks, was in the garden with 3 very small chicks!

The special seed mix sown in our fields to attract wildlife, has been particularly lovely this year. Cheerful sunflowers nod above a blue sea of phacelia and borage. We’ve grown several wildlife-friendly seed plots on the farm in the past, with varying amounts of success. I found this particular seed mix on a neighbouring farm a few years ago and liked it so much we discovered what it was and sowed a similar plot at Hunting Hall. In today’s sunshine the flowers were a haze of colour and fluttering butterflies.

I’d like to put together some nice walks that our guests can enjoy from the farm, therefore Roberta and I have been exploring our local footpaths today. We had a terrific walk – but I have to be honest and say that farmers could do a lot more to make footpaths accessible. Well done to Kentstone (our closest neighbour) for providing lovely clear tracks, but elsewhere we found ourselves waist deep in impassable undergrowth. We did quite a bit of backtracking but had a lot of fun as intrepid explorers!

The NEWTs together again!

2009-08-16T02:28:00.000-07:00

On a sunny, showery Sunday the 9th of August, 8 members of the Northumberland Eco Wild Team gathered at Hunting Hall. This was the team of young people who were inspired to design and create Newt Cottage. Since the cottage’s ‘Grand Opening’ in 2006, the NEWTs have led exciting, busy lives including: teaching in China and Kenya, studying for a degree, graduating and joining the forces.

Our reunion was a cheerful, noisy affair with everyone exchanging news and adventures, but we also found time to tackle the problem of seating (or the lack of it) around the farm trail. Here we are building a bench in the Pond Field Wood (we’re still not sure we’ve got the bolts, springs and washers on the right way round).

Next the amazing rustic log benches Tom had created with a chainsaw had to be placed and levelled. The huge pieces of wood had come from the old ash tree at the bottom of the cottage gardens, the top of which snapped off in a recent gale. The tree has about 270 rings – though they are very indistinct in places. We think they may have been planted when the Fuffins cottage was built. We seem to have many photographs of one NEWT working whilst the rest ‘supervise’!

After supper and cake (lots and lots of cake) we finished with an impromptu ceilidh on the lawn to the music of Alice’s Northumbrian Pipes. Thank you NEWTs – it was a super day and lovely to see you all again!

Further Adventures of the Breakfast Chicks

2009-07-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

The breakfast bantam chicks have really grown up since our last post about them in June. Now at the ‘gangly teenager’ stage these chicks, which started life as Ann and Mike’s Newt Cottage holiday breakfast eggs, were hatched in our incubator and are fast becoming very friendly, inquisitive characters, happy to feed off the Burn family’s hands. We had a lot of fun taking these photos as you can see!

Ann and Mike swapped their breakfast eggs for duckling eggs to hatch out under their broody hen. The 3 ducks that hatched are doing very well. They have recently started to practise their swimming on Ann and Mike’s pond, closely watched by a worried mother hen and very amused geese!

By Meg Burn

Saving Water in Northumberland

2009-07-23T07:36:00.001-07:00

When the teenagers of the Northumberland Eco Wild Team carried out their research and then created Newt Cottage they consulted an environmental architect about rainwater harvesting. We had hoped to use rainwater to flush the toilet – but as this was upstairs we were told the energy needed to pump the water back up to the toilet from a collection tank would outweigh the environmental benefits of the water we saved. The cottage garden outdoor tap is fed from a natural spring on the farm, therefore buying a water butt made of plastic to collect rainwater for garden watering was the less green option. Recently though, we’ve put a lot more pots of plants at the back of the cottage and watering from the tap in the garden is a tedious task. This is why Tom has installed my smart new water butt, which will certainly make the job of watering a lot easier.

The water butt was put in place last Thursday....... and on Friday it rained...... and rained....... and rained...... By Saturday the little Low stream running through the Dene had become a small lake across the bottom of the field which intrigued the Tomkins family who were on holiday in The Fuffins. Here’s their photograph taken last Saturday before they left.

Our new water butt is redundant, brim-full and surrounded by a collection of soggy, waterlogged plant pots. Oh well, at least we’re prepared for the gloriously rainless, hot August we all hope for!

Music on the Farm

2009-07-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

Whenever Alice and Roberta are home from school our house is filled with music. Lately Meg has taken up the fiddle and joined her sisters in some rather riotous folk sessions!

Northumberland has a wonderfully strong folk music tradition. It even has its own instrument – the Northumbrian Smallpipes, which Alice plays. This Sunday she’s performing with the Northumbrian youth folk band Folkestra at The Sage Gateshead. Alice and her friend Emily Hoile were finalists in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musician of the Year Award and on the 10th of July they’re joining the two other northern finalists’ acts for their own concert in The Queen’s Hall, Hexham.

Roberta’s has always preferred playing classical music on her big pedal harp, but just recently she’s rediscovered the fun of playing her clarsach (small folk harp). She’s having a new clarsach made by a small company near Fort-William, called Starfish Harps, and Roberta has asked me to decorate it with a painted design. This is a new venture for me and the harp making company, therefore I’ve spent part of last week using oil paints on small samples of harp maple wood which Starfish kindly sent me. I’m pretty nervous about tackling the real thing!

I’ve got to mention that Roberta’s just heard she’s passed her Grade 8 pedal harp with distinction (she’s 14). Well done Bertie!!!

Owl in a tight spot!

2009-06-23T09:26:00.001-07:00

In early evening the pale blunt shape of our barn owls can be seen hunting up and down field margins and along the burn. If you stand quietly it’s possible to watch an owl returning to the old hollow tree, with a tasty morsel dangling from its beak. Owls have nested on the farm for several years now and the site is registered with the BTO Barn Owl Monitoring Programme.

This weekend a BTO representative, Chuck, came to inspect the nest. It was a lovely sunny morning and, as we quietly approached the old tree, a barn owl swooped out of the hole in the top. Ladders were carefully rested against the tree and Chuck climbed up to peer down inside the hollow trunk. The hole was unexpectedly deep and in the depths Chuck was surprised to see another owl. All would have been well if the owl hadn’t panicked at the sight of a human looming in its entrance passage. In alarm it tried to escape through a lower gap in the trunk......which was just too small for an adult owl. The poor owl’s head and wing were stuck fast in the hole. A worrying few moments followed as the ladders were repositioned and Chuck carefully eased the well-and-truly-wedged owl back into the tree. Thankfully, he was successful and the freed owl swept out of the top of the tree and away.

And what had our owl left behind? Well..... we don’t know! Down inside the trunk Jackdaws have left a pile of sticks, perfect for an owl landing platform, but obscuring from sight whatever was tucked behind. It’s an ideal owl nest site – providing they don’t try to use the back door!

Perhaps it wasn’t the most successful nest site inspection but I’m pleased to say our owls returned to their tree not long after we’d gone. By evening our Newt Cottage guests reported that the owls were once again hunting the fields and bringing home dinner!

The Breakfast Chicks

2009-06-16T02:14:00.000-07:00

This smart young chick came from one of our guest's breakfast eggs!

A few weeks ago Ann and Mike stayed in Newt Cottage, bringing with them a dozen eggs from their own bantam hens for their holiday breakfast. Ann really liked our little white ducks that we have on the farm (they’re called Call Ducks) and she offered to swap her breakfast eggs for some fertile duck eggs. It was a great idea! We put the bantam eggs into our incubator and 10 of the 12 hatched. They’re really pretty chicks – all different colours.

Mike and Ann tell me that when they got home they put the duck eggs under a broody hen and, although they had problems getting the hen to sit properly, eventually 3 small yellow ducklings hatched.

A Holiday Recycling Project

2009-06-13T13:42:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous entry, we enjoy weaving and spinning. There’s a rug wall hanging in The Fuffins made by my Mum from the wool of Hunting Hall sheep. This inspired the Gale family, who were staying in The Fuffins over half term, to want to create their own wall hanging.

It had to be a quick, fun holiday project, so they worked with a peg loom which even 5 year old Georgina could use. Long strips were cut from old leggings and wound around the pegs to create this super wall hanging which Georgina and Thomas are holding in the photograph. The old craft of making rugs from cast off clothing is a very green recycling project!

The weaving on the right was made from the fleece of a Portland ewe that once lived in the Dene. I spun the wool and then dyed it using plants and food colouring (the red). It’s woven on a four shaft floor loom.

If anyone coming to Hunting Hall for a holiday would like to try some simple spinning or peg loom weaving – please let me know and I’d love to help you!

Sheep Clipping

2009-06-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

On this sunny, breezy day our sheep are being 'clipped', as they say in Northumberland.

Tom, looking hot and bothered, has run around the Dene after our 65 ewes and their lambs. Eventually, with some good luck (and well trained sheep), he managed to get them into the ‘courting’, or shed, ready for their annual haircut. Whin, the Collie, has obediently run alongside Tom, her beloved master. She’s frightened of sheep but with Tom’s protection she knows they won’t harm her..... as long as she keeps Tom between herself and the flock. This isn’t a very satisfactory way to work with a sheepdog which is why Tom’s sheep handling involves a lot of running!

Graeme, the clipper (or shearer) has come from a local farm. Tom and his Dad used to do all the clipping themselves but now Tom takes the easy option of ‘catching’ and ‘rolling’. Catching involves shooing the sheep along a passage to a small area where they can be easily caught by the clipper. Each sheep is manhandled onto wooden flooring, sat on its bottom and then sheared around its tummy first. One year a sheep escaped when Tom had only clipped one half of it. There was a perfect division down its back – one side of the sheep full fluff, the other side, bare. What and embarrassment for Tom! It took days to re-catch the sheep and finish the job.

The fleeces are then thrown flat, clean side down, onto the shed floor, ‘rolled’ from the tail end and packed into the huge wool sacks. Hands become slippy with lanolin and backs ache.

The almost indecently bare sheep are evicted from the clipping area and they run up and down the farmyard bleating for their lambs. Tom’s remembered to put hurdles around The Fuffins’ flower pots – last year he forgot and I discovered my last new aubrietia plant disappearing into an elderly ewe’s mouth. Grrrr.......

This year I hope I’ll have time to spin some of our fleece. Roberta, our 14 year old daughter, has two of her own pet Teeswater sheep (this is a photograph of one of her lambs) and she really wants to make something out of their wool. She’s done a little bit of spinning and I know she’ll enjoy trying some dying with plant materials. It would be fun if she could weave herself a scarf from her sheep’s wool on the small table loom!

Welcome to the Hunting Hall blog!

2009-06-10T09:18:00.001-07:00

The Burn Family at Hunting Hall

Life on our farm is always a cheerful, busy mix of farming, family and holiday guests. Throughout everything we try to be green – we live in such a beautiful landscape, it inspires us to want look after our environment.

Since Newt Cottage opened in the summer of 2006 we have made many new friends and always welcome new guests to the farm with pleasure. We hope this blog will help those who know us discover what we’re up to and introduce new readers to the green work we do at Hunting Hall.

Thank you to everyone whose green ideas helped us create our new environmentally-friendly cottage, The Fuffins. Sharing eco-friendly ideas has been the theme behind our green cottages and we hope this blog will be a good way to share new green ‘brainwaves’.
We hope all who visit Hunting Hall or walk the NEWTs’ Farm Trail have a wonderful time – please add a comment if you’d like to tell us of the experience.