Farming
Blandford Press book a tracker’s bible
AJ Selby enjoys following animal tracks in the snow. Picture: Alain Audet
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Country Diary with AJ Selby
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” Anne Bradstreet I have to confess that I enjoy a winter snowfall and revel in its purity and cleanliness. When I was growing up it was almost unheard of to have a winter without snow and I remember the years of excessive snowfall and cold. My first was the prolonged freeze of 1962/63 (I am sure older readers will recall 1947 too) as a lad who was only too happy to go sledging with his father. I was working on the farm for the next two bad ones in 1978/79 and the bitterly cold 1981/82. In December 1981, when the freeze started, we saw the record low temperatures for
that month in the UK with a record-beating -25.2 degrees C (-13.4 degrees F) in Shropshire. January topped that with -26.1 C (-15 F) also in Shropshire, a record English low for any month in any year, with Braemar in Scotland taking the record for the UK of -27.2 C (-17 F). I enjoy a cold day but those nights were extreme in my little cottage with just an open fire and no central heating. I love the first flakes of winter when the temperature stabilises, the wind drops and whiteness envelops the land. Pristine snow has a magical quality that brings everyone out to enjoy it. Walking into the woods the snow is thinner there but still covers the woodland carpet. It’s a great place to follow animal tracks, something I used to do a lot with my copy of Mammals of Britain: Their Tracks, Trails and Signs, first published by the Blandford Press in 1967. It helped differentiate between the footprints of a fox or badger, roe or fallow deer and, from the stride length, if an animal was walking or running for its life! The trees too, are seen in a different light with thick layers of snow on bare branches and conifers bent over with the weight of their burden. There is an overriding stillness and quiet after fresh snow, with everything deadened by the blanket of whiteness all around. The occasional robin will venture out and shiver atop a branch and trill his weak winter ditty. Birds need a lot of feed to survive so don’t forget to put some out along with some fresh water too. A.J. Selby
