The Nature Garden: gardening, wildlife and nature notes

Spring has sprung!

The Weekending Show Season 5 Episode 1

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In this episode… 

We’re full of positive vibes for the return of spring and the joy of being back in the garden… 

Tom Pattinson is contemplating the lawn, first cuts, salads and vegetables

Tom Cadwallender’s welcoming back puffins and has news of how a blacksmith has helped kittiwakes to nest…

And Steve Lowe’s venturing out on Long Nanny with some young adventurers…

Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P…

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Music link: Gaia by Carl Cape Band on Amazon Music - Amazon.co.uk

Intro: Carl:
Hello and welcome to the Weekending Show with me, Carl Stiansen, and the Weekending Team.  Come along with us as we take a bonny wee wander along nature paths, shorelines, river banks, through woods and wetlands, parks and gardens... and it’s a chance to hear some great music and Northumbrian stories…

On today's show… 

We’re full of positive vibes for the return of spring and the joy of being back in the garden… 

Tom Pattinson is contemplating the lawn, first cuts, salads and vegetables

Tom Cadwallender’s welcoming back puffins and has news of how a blacksmith has helped kittiwakes to nest…

Steve Lowe’s venturing out on Long Nanny with some young adventurers…

And, we’ll be taking tea for two…  a lovely trip down the memory lane of music and a chance to put your feet up. 

Plus some top tips for the garden from Tom P… All coming up on Nature Garden Podcast….  All coming up on The Weekending Show…

Theme tune: Princess of the Ocean by the Carl Cape Band featuring Steve Deegan, Carl Cape and Jamie Robb (fiddle).

00:2:14: Spring is here in the garden
Carl: Oh it’s so good to be back… back here on the podcast, back on the radio in the studio in person, and back in the garden and countryside. Isn’t it just flipping fantastic?! So, let’s begin our podcast adventures this season with Tom Pattinson in his garden near the sea in sunny Northumberland… well maybe not so sunny but at least it’s reasonably toasty in the greenhouse…

Tom Pattinson: audio feature

00:07:42 Springtime groove & puffins
Carl: Sound the flute! Now it's mute!... Birds delight, Day and night,…Nightingale, In the dale,….Lark in sky, - Merrily,… Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year. Wonderful words of innocence by William Blake to welcome in spring and Tom Cadwallender from the British Trust for Ornithology is most definitely in the springtime groove with the real signs of spring, and here’s something coming up that I never knew about puffins!

Tom Cadwallender: audio feature

00:15:23 Bees & trees at Cresswell Pele Tower
Carl: Now we’ve been hearing over time how the Cresswell Pele Tower project has been progressing, here’s Steve Lowe with an update and an exciting project to encourage pollinators. 

Steve Lowe: audio feature

Back anno: And you can help ‘Bees and trees’ at the Cresswell Pele Tower and find more info here at: https://cresswellpeletower.org.uk/

00:17:03 Sowing this spring
Carl: Tom Pattinson is planning salad crops and successive sowing… and… he’s also planning to grow a favourite of summertime and tennis fans… lush red strawberries in time for Wimbledon…

Tom Pattinson: audio feature

00:22:22 The blacksmith and the kittiwake
Have you ever wondered how a certain bird that festoons our famous Tyne Bridge spanning the river Tyne at Newcastle-Gateshead got its name?… Well, here’s Tom Cadwallender with a clue and an amazing story of how a blacksmith has helped this most elegant of birds…

Tom Cadwallender: audio feature

00:28:05 Young adventurers
Steve Lowe from the Northumberland Rivers Trust is looking at ways to get involved literally at grassroots level and how we can all do something good for our communities and the environment… this week he’s with some young adventurers at Long Nanny, Northumberland.

Steve Lowe, Northumberland Rivers Trust: audio feature

00:31:37 Jobs for the week with Tom P 
And so to the sound of wor blackbird and Katherine Tickell and band playing the Morpeth Rant… oh, by the way, please do check out the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering online Saturday 23rd April for great Northumbrian music and poetry at Northumbriana.org.uk http://www.northumbriana.org.uk/gathering

Here’s Tom with some things to be getting on with in the garden…

Tom Pattinson: audio feature

00:36:49 Outro:
You’ve been listening to gardener, Tom Pattinson; birder, Tom Cadwallender from the British Trust for Ornithology; and Steve Lowe from The Northumberland Rivers Trust and Cresswell Pele Tower. I’m Carl Stiansen and, don’t forget, you can listen back to all the previous reports we’ve done on the Nature Garden Podcast… that’s the Nature Garden Podcast… enjoy your gardening and time outdoors with nature, Happy Easter and bye for now.

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