The two goslings shown in the photograph were born on Election Day. Naturally one was named David and the other Nick. They’re being ‘shadowed’ by head goose Victor and a couple of senior matron geese. In general geese are a pretty tight bunch and look after each other. When you see skeins of them flying in a ‘V’ formation overhead what you might not realise is that they take it in turns at the front to set the pace for the others. All the honking is to let the leader know that the guys on his wing are still in touch. They’d make the perfect political party!
June is the month when everything in the forest coalesces to show nature in all her glory. Even the things that seemed a bit slow of the mark after the snow and frosts of winter seem to make an effort and have now caught up. All is present and correct, buds are full to bursting, dragonflies are buzzing around the waters’ edge (did you know that dragonflies can go both forwards and backwards at around 60 mph?), and as we get towards mid-summer’s day nowhere on earth could be busier.
It’s a time when all the ancient elements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water – make their presence felt in abundance; although I’m glad to say the only fires we see are the many barbeques that take place on the verandas of our fabulous Forest Holidays log cabins. Walk around any of our sites in the evening and the smells are tantalisingly good, so too the sounds of chinking glasses and splashing from the hot tubs. Because we’re naturally some way off the beaten track we take extra care to stock our Forest Lodge on-site shops with local produce for the Barbie and also keep the wine fridge full. (Real ale fans will be delighted to hear we also do a good line in whatever the local brewery has to offer!)
June generally sees a mixture of visitors to our various Forest Holidays sites. It’s not yet high season for summer holidays so we get older folk (often along with their four-legged friends), younger mums and dads with children not yet at school, romantic couples and just teams of friends who come to bike or walk the forest trails. They all have one thing in common – they love the great outdoors.
Whilst we don’t normally talk politics, mention of our Election Day geese brings to mind that soon the real Dave and Nick will be presenting their first budget, and by all accounts it will be a tough one. It’s good to know then that down in the forest you can still afford to escape for a few days far away from the outside world – we always have a few short term bargains on our website so if you want to get away at short notice check our www.forestholidays.com
If you’re a football fan you don’t need to worry about missing the world cup – all our cabins have good sized TV’s so you’ll be able to catch all the games then jump into the hot tub with a beer or two to celebrate (or wash your cares away!)
This month's forest trivia:
The oldest tree in the UK and perhaps in Europe is believed to be the Fortingall Yew near Aberfeldy in Scotland, and is thought to be 5,000 years old.
Orchid seeds are so small that one million of would weigh less than 1 gm.
In a life time, the average person eats eight spiders.
