This year I estimate (so far) I have had over a 1000 Snowdrop bulbs dug up from my bit of woodland, these I guess end up 5 or 6 to a pot and sold at 50p a time at car boot sales, it will be the Bluebells next and then as it warms a bit more the Marsh Marigolds, Irises, Rushes for around the newly dug garden ponds. Oh and a few buckets full of pond weed and Frogs Spawn/Tadpoles and maybe some of them fish fry. …..the year before last I was able to stay occupied keeping an eye on what was going on at this time of the year by sitting there and for instance making walking sticks and staffs, unfortunately last years coppiced Hazel about 70 suitable lengths all got pinched one night and they didn’t bother to cut it they just snapped it off from the crown which meant there really wasn’t anything suitable this year to harvest either. I have got there at six in the morning on more than one occasion to find ‘campers’ cooking duck eggs or worse (these are not wild ducks these are Indian Runners and other fancy ducks)….I have lost count of the number of times the Quail/Chickens have been released from pens. It’s impossible to leave tools on site or my own camping stuff because it’s simply vanishes. I am an Angler but I don’t fish on the ponds they are not big enough really and most of the fish are more like the ones in your back garden pond that come up and take pellets when they see you walk past, of course this doesn’t stop anything up 50 people a year that I have to kick off for fishing. ( I worked quite a number of years on the docks and at sea but I still learn quite a few new swear words every year when they are told regardless of how politely I do so that they cannot fish and are on private property) A fortnight ago on hearing one of the Muscovy Ducks giving an alarm I went out to find a couple (man and woman) about 35 years of age laughing and joking and cheering there dog on as it was swimming around in one of the ponds after one of the Geese, in truth the dog would normally have had no chance of even getting close to the Goose but the couple throwing the sticks and stones to try and steer it back towards the dog was kind of making it a bit unfair though as they said “it was just a bit of fun and the dog wouldn’t have hurt it”…..what I have was not given to me, I did not inherit it, I worked hard for it, I cannot afford to pay several thousand pounds a year to cover the cost of replanting the trees that are pulled down, cut down, broken or damaged, I don’t see why I should have to supply what at times seems like half the town with their Christmas Holly, or their mothers day Daffodils and Sticky Buds. Why should I stock up what at times seems like every newly dug Goldfish pond in Lincolnshire. Why do I have to supply all the new build houses with Snowdrops, Bluebells etc for the newly made borders……it hardly seems fair that I have to buy wood for a stove because dead wood in my own bit of woodland is stolen. The reason the Brambles are so plentiful in the autumn (for those that come and help themselves) is because the bushes are maintained throughout the summer as were the 18 Gooseberry bushes, at least up to last year when someone decided it would be easier to pick them if the bushes where in their own garden rather than in mine and dug them up and YES it is my Garden, it is not miles away from the house it is effectively MY BACK GARDEN. I don’t rely on my bit of land to live on but most of my neighbours do, I get more than a bit p------d off with what happens to my bit of land I certainly know how the surrounding farmers feel and what it costs them a year…….So for those that think they have every right to just camp where and when they feel like it and that it shouldn’t cause any problems because they are happy to move on (IF THE LANDOWNER CATCHES THEM) just sit and think again and be honest with yourself, you may only take a small amount of wood, you might only take a couple of lengths of Hazel, a few Ramsons or Jack by the Hedge to plant in your own garden, you might only take a few sprigs of Holly or a small basket of berries, the odd Egg but multiply that by however many others come onto that same bit of PRIVATE PROPERTY and do the same and it soon mounts up, add that to the others that come on actually intent on doing damage and causing problems and it really mounts up. Be truthful, how would you feel/react if you got up for work and looked out of your kitchen window to see a campfire (no matter how small) on your back grass your two 4 year old apple trees snapped (because they were not quite as strong as they looked for that new hammock the total stranger was trying out) and to see someone helping themselves to breakfast out of your raised beds or hanging baskets, would you be satisfied with them just moving on? With real no harm done, not just once but 2, 3, 4 times a week…..OK rant over, sorry.
D.B.
