Barbara Knowles, who organises the Hay Making festival in Transylvania has just sent me details of these two events taking place in Brussels looking at the issue of supporting Europe’s hay meadow.
Europe’s hay meadows in decline – what are we losing and what can we do?
A test case for EU agriculture and biodiversity policy
You are cordially invited to this policy seminar in the European Parliament
Time: Thursday 8 November 09:30 to 11:00 AM
Place: European Parliament, Brussels
Summary: Traditionally managed hay meadows full of flowers, insects and other animal life are among the most biodiverse places in Europe and a source of joy, inspiration and beauty to everybody. They are a living part of our shared culture and heritage. They provide many environmental, social and economic benefits. They are protected by EU policy and subsidies. Yet they continue to disappear, through abandonment, intensification or conversion to other uses. This policy seminar will discuss how European institutions can protect these treasures and support the farmers who manage them more effectively.
With a video message from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
RSVP: Please send your name and organisation to Richard Kovács richard.kovacs@europarl.europa.eu by 1 November. If you need a badge for entry to the Parliament, you must send your full name, date of birth and nationality, ID type (eg passport, ID card, driving license), number of that ID, postal address (as in the ID) and bring the ID with you.
Organizers and Sponsors: Pogány-havas Association (RO), European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralismwith support from the European Commission (DG Env), SÓGOR Csaba, MEP, Society of Biology (UK).
Mountain hay meadows: hotspots of biodiversity and traditional culture
Time: Tuesday November 6 (from 13:00 to 15:00)
Venue: Brussels, DG Agri, LOI 130 – 11th floor room A
Title: Mountain hay meadows: hotspots of biodiversity and traditional culture
A one-hour film to be followed by a Q&A session with the speakers and a discussion among participants
Speakers: Gergely RODICS and Laszlo DEMETER of the Pogány-havas Association (RO).
Summary: Traditional hay meadow management in Transylvania created and maintains outstanding biodiversity and landscape, provides healthy food and sustains rural economies and communities. In this seminar we present and discuss our award-winning film which documents a disappearing lifestyle and describes the contradictions and challenges in European policies aimed at protecting these threatened habitats and the small scale farmers who manage them.
Copies of the film are available in English and Hungarian.
Contact: Barbara Knowles barbara.knowles@yahoo.co.uk – places limited
More about the project at www.mountainhaymeadows.euX
While I was at Elvaston Castle at the weekend I got to talking with Mark Constable of the 
Anyway, Mark & I then got talking and he explained how he’d wanted a trade where all the tools could be carried around in a small box. He studied to be a jewellry maker and discovered certain techniques (namely 
Thankfully, I”m a hand tool worker and often use old tool because the skills I employ were most common in the pastand they’re very often better quality than modern tools. This means my tool box consists of an axe, drawknife, spokeshaves, brace and bits, knives and proper saws with teeth you can sharpen. To add to those I’ve sharpened and fettled up a wooden smoothing plane which is a pleasure to use, made a simple measuring stick for the rakes instead of my normal tape measure and built a bucksaw to cut the logs to length.
Driving down into Edale valley on friday lunchtime Christiane and I could see the giant marquee set up and our anticipation started to mount. We spotted a few friends straight away and the spoon talk started. I’d arrived early to meet up with 
The rest of the weekend was a bit of a blur. None of us had expected the demand for spoon courses with the queue stretching the length of the marquee and back so we all added extra sessions to try and get everyone into their chosen session. I was running a workshop called ‘Improve your spoons’, focusing on the design element of wooden spoons as well as demonstrating my carving process. It was a lot to fit into the 1½ hr sessions which inevitably overran and there was hardly time to take a breath but I was feeding off the buzz and enthusiasm which was everywhere.
A look behind the camera during the filming at Brantwood House when I was asked to teach John Craven to scythe for BBC tv’s Countryfile. I would have preferred to give John some instruction in advance but they wanted it ‘live’ for the programme and, with a bit of help, he got a few good strokes. This was all complicated by having to repeat the lesson for different camera angles, trying to remember what I’d said first time while John pretended to take his first cut again.
My one-day beginner’s scythe courses take place near Kendal in the Lake District where you will spend a day learning to how to use the scythe in a safe and efficient way. Courses cost £60 and include the use of my scythe kits which are available to buy on the day.
After teaching so many beginners to scythe this summer, it was great to see some of them back for my Improver’s course at the weekend. Like any skill, learning to scythe well takes time and practise and it helps to have someone check your progress. For this course I organised few different mowing situations to cover different skills.
We started in the orchard with a clean sward which was short but lying over from the weather. The mowing was deceptively tricky but gave me an opportunity to watch people and work with them on their ‘tai-chi’ style encouraging them to stand up straighter or make more use of their legs while mowing. In between mowing, I gave some help with sharpening and moved people on from the kneeling technique I teach to beginners. Being in the orchard also meant we could also do some trimming around the trees, mulching them at the same time without damaging the tree.
After lunch came my favourite part, a steep bank covered with tall weeds including hogweed, rosebay willowherb and raspberry canes. It’s the sort of thing that looks like awful work but with a scythe and good technique is actually fairly easy, efficient and lots of fun. Adjusting their grip on the scythe and explaining how to cut thicker material meant that the group could work through the weeds without hacking and risking damage to the blades.
Sunday started with a few of us spreading out the grass for hay before the peening course. This was the usual raucus affair with seven people hammering away to shape their blades. These days are important for me to teach good technique, give people the confidence to peen and take away the fear of damaging the blades. Ali and Ian had some damage to their blades so I took them through the process of filing out the nicks and using the flat anvil to peen out metal into the gap. Once peened, we sharpened the blades with a succession of whetstones before taking them back out to try on the meadow.
