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Changing of the guard

Dominique Cragg (left) and Julie Grainger (right)

We say goodbye to Julie and hello to Yasmina...

There I am, on the right (as you look at us) in the photo at the top of the page. I'm with Dominique Cragg, my colleague responsible for managing Monkwood and whose vision for Green Farm is becoming a reality. It's been 15 months since we started work on the Green Farm/Monkwood project.

When they say ‘time flies when you are having fun’, they're not wrong. It seems like an incredibly short amount of time since I first met the Trust team and we went walking around Monkwood in the mud!! I have to say that mud has been a common theme in my experiences with this project and I have learnt to always have welly boots in my car. I was so excited and enthusiastic and I’m going to be honest with you…I am still excited and enthusiastic about such an amazing project and all the fabulous people I have met along the way.

You may have an inkling that I am about to tell you that my time at Monkwood has come to an end (sort of) as I've moved to a different project within the Trust and the incredibly talented Yasmina Ashcroft is going to take over for the remainder of the project. Her knowledge of wildlife is just remarkable and her experience with communities is to be praised as she has come hot from a role as community lead on the Nextdoor Nature project in Redditch and Bromsgrove. So, good news for us all!

Smiling woman standing by a hurdle in a woodland by Peter Wood, Greenwood Days

Julie Grainger and hurdle by Peter Wood, Greenwood Days

I have been welcomed so warmly into so many organisations whose company, good humour and support I will sorely miss. It has been amazing to make hazel hurdles from coppiced hazel with Wildgoose Rural training, to plant trees with Lower Broadheath, Martley, Hallow and Grimley & Holt primary schools, to build a hibernaculum, a beetle bucket, go pond dipping, explore Martley Millenium Green, walk around Monkwood with the school ‘experts’, to make bird boxes, bird feeders, minibeast homes, complete wildlife surveys on school grounds, identify butterflies, look for dormice footprints, look for dormice, measure the age of a tree and spend one lovely Sunday morning getting very muddy with the scouts planting hedging trees. Oh, and I mustn’t forget the lovely tea and cake at tea and chat mornings and talks to societies, parish councils and gardening groups - some of which drink Pimm’s at their meetings, who knew?! Some of the final events at Monkwood for me were the Discover Monkwood Bioblitz and a celebration day for donors and local stakeholders. Both were lovely days with a real appreciation from people as to how much the Trust has achieved.

Yet there is much left to do to make Green Farm a fabulous destination for so much wildlife and Dominique is definitely the person to make this happen. With Yasmina as co-pilot, they will have an amazing year with more tree planting on a bigger scale, supporting local communities to provide homes for wildlife and writing up historical stories and information about Monkwood - so much more mud to be walked through! I am so grateful to have started working for the Trust with this project as it has been rewarding and fulfilling year-round and I am very lucky to be staying within the organisation; I can keep up to date with progress but just need to not do to Yasmina what Esme Young and Patrick Grant do on The Great British Sewing Bee when they look over people’s shoulders whilst they are working on an outfit!

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Woman raking grass in a field by a hedge on a hot sunny day by Jess Nott

Well, as we say goodbye to Julie on this blog, we wait with bated breath for her return to the digital realm through our wilder community blogs and our new and supremely shiny Wilder Worcestershire – Neighbourhoods Nurturing Nature project. Hopefully, the italicised text has provided a subtle indication that a change in author has taken place. It is me, the new Green Farm project officer...but you can call me Yaz.

By this point, I’m hoping you’ve forgotten the huge ‘bigging-up’ that Julie has kindly given me in the second paragraph. Whilst it is very nice to hear your own skills and experience talked about with such enthusiasm, I fear she may have ‘over-egged the pudding’! I know that Julie will be very much missed by the people and groups that she has supported through the Green Farm project so far and she has left me with some very big boots to fill. I am slowly getting to grips with the huge amount of work that Dom and Julie have done so far and I’m looking forward to putting my own stamp on the remaining year of the project, planting lots and lots of trees and wrapping up what has been one of the largest land-purchase projects that Worcestershire Wildlife Trust has ever undertaken. Watch this space! 

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