Warm weather prolongs UK butterfly season

Warm weather prolongs UK butterfly season | Patrick Barkham | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Warm weather means the UK is still seeing spectacular displays of native and migrant species as late as October - but this is not good news for butterflies in the long term

There have been numerous reports of newly arrived red admiral, white admiral (seen here) and clouded yellow butterflies along the UK's south coast. Photograph: Neil Hulme/Butterfly Conservation

If you stroll along the South Downs or Beachy Head today, you might imagine it is August, not October. More than one-third of our 59 butterfly species are still flying at a time of year when you would normally only expect to see the odd hardy small tortoiseshell seeking out a dry cranny for hibernation.

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September - From the Farm

Here we are almost at the end of another busy summer – not quite the “barbecue summer” our forecasters were suggesting earlier in the year.

We have managed one or two most entertaining evenings down at the Minack Theatre and the family got down to the farm at the end of August. We had a delicious meal at Schooners restaurant literally on the beach at St. Agnes and ate in the window watching the waves coming in over the beach.

On the farm front, Arnie the bull will be going back home again shortly. I have posted a picture of him with his girls. The sixteen calves are all flourishing.

Tales of Cornwall's Wild Side

I had heard of Gurney stoves, and always assumed that harvest festivals were an ancient tradition, but until this week, I had no idea that both were invented by eccentric Cornishmen living on a remote stretch of the county's wildest and most dramatic shore.

Here, narrow lanes with high stone walls are dotted with primroses in spring and foxgloves in summer and lead into steep wooded valleys and over rolling maritime grassland. The coast is rugged and treacherous, with spectacular rock formations – barrel-shaped folds of rock, diagonal strata, zigzag chevron patterns, stripy layers of pale sandstone and dark siltstone.

The Cornish side of my family has farmed on this coast for 200 years, and the non-Cornish side has been coming here on holiday since 1900, but I had no idea that harvest festivals were invented in the 19th century at Morwenstow church. Stephen Hawker arrived in 1834, Morwenstow's first vicar for more than a century. He devoted his life to converting local smugglers, wreckers and looters into a congregation of lifesavers, who warned ships away from the rocks, gave drowned sailors Christian burials – and celebrated harvests.

Bude: Tales from Cornwall's wild side - Telegraph

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Seaside For Highrollers in Cornwall

Donkeys and wonky deckchairs might have been eclipsed by celebrity restaurateurs and beach huts with six digit price tags, but the British seaside retains a special place in our affections.

So it's no wonder we still dream of owning a seaside home, and no surprise the coastal property market remains buoyant.

According to the Halifax, coastal house prices haven't fallen at the same rate as property in the rest of the country.

In its annual survey of the affordability of seaside towns in England and Wales, Halifax found that while prices along the seaside have dropped over the past year, house price to earnings ratios in all but three of the towns surveyed are above the national average.

The ten most affordable seaside towns are all in the North, with Whitehaven in Cumbria topping the list.

Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex is the first town in the South to make the list and is the 17th most affordable.

Seaside for high rollers: It's plain sailing on the South Coast | Mail Online

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Cornwall Surf Raises Awareness

Some of Britain's top surfers have signed up to help raise awareness of the National Trust's conservation work along the Devon and Cornwall coast.

The new Surf Ambassadors will ride with the National Trust oak leaf on their boards, as well as championing the work of the National Trust through school visits and surf sessions encouraging people of all ages to get into the water.

Robyn Davies, National Trust surf project co-coordinator, said: "Protecting the environment is important to most surfers and these guys jumped at the chance to say it more publicly.

"Having the support of these five Surf Ambassadors is great news and they‘ll help tell the story of the National Trust’s work on the coast and what it means to them as year-round users of the sea," added the five times British Women’s Champion.

Surfing holiday ideas in the UK as National Trust promotes Devon and Cornwall – travelbite.co.uk

August - From The Farm

I can’t believe that this time last month we were looking for rain. We have certainly found it! Still sunshine is set to return again soon we are told.

Only one heifer left to calve now so we have sixteen bouncing babies galloping around watched by their disapproving mothers. Arnie, the charolais bull, has just arrived for six weeks in residence.

Had a very pleasant day down in Fowey. There were a couple of tall ships moored up in the river.

Falmouth is gearing up for its Sailing Week. I always enjoy their spectacular firework display over the harbour.

Hopefully, the family will be down for the Bank Holiday weekend and we will go on an outing to the Newlyn Fish Festival – the grilled sardines down there are to die for!

Travel on the Rise in the UK

There is a new word on the lips of travel agents around the UK, the word is ‘staycationing’ and refers to the tens of thousands of Brits that are opting for a holiday in the UK this summer instead off to Spain or the like.

This has a good effect on many traditional holiday destinations that were deemed to be ‘past it’ just a few years ago. Places like Cornwall have got their fingers crossed that this trend will grow year on year as people see the beauty that they have in their own country.

It has also had and unusual affect on unemployment across the UK. As a whole unemployment figures in Britain are rising, but out of the top ten places where there was a reduction in people claiming job seekers allowance, eight were seaside destinations. Eastbourne was at the top of the list and it was greatly welcomed by their council leader, David Tutt. “We’re weathering the storm well,” he said, adding that he was glad that tourism had boosted employment for the area.

Six regions in Cornwall also saw a reduction in the number of people that were claiming benefits, boosting the area’s confidence. Many towns and seaside resorts across the UK have spent money improving the quality of their areas and it seems that they are the places that are reaping most of the benefits from staycationing Britons.

Thanks to www.guardian.co.uk for the above quote, for more information on thios story please visit their website.

UK holidays doing well for British travel operators

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