It came to me this morning that most of my life is now spent visiting and working in various conservation projects. Even at home we have dedicated the garden to wildlife, particularly insects, and stopped mowing the lawn except at the most appropriate times of the year. Sometimes it feels like the plants are taking over. Then there's the woodlands that we have been restoring for the past five years, the paddocks, the reserve and, just occasionally, Loisaba Conservancy in Kenya.
Today I have spent most of the day at the reserve but first I visited Jayne Chapman, Senior Nature Recovery Manager for South Downs & Coast for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (that's a long badge!) who is also overseeing the introduction of more grazing ponies for the Trust. We started at the farm where the sheep were resting in the shade and the breeze (the sheep shearer is due any second).
The ram was across the way and very pleased to say hello.
Next we went to see two Exmoor Ponies that have been living in another reserve for just six weeks.
Pictures of my own ponies tomorrow...in the meantime I am not so sure about conserving this little lot. Fifty fallow bucks in my last field of grass.
