Winter walk 1 – Blatchington - Renaturing Seaford

Walks to find winter flowers for a bumble bee queen by Melene – Walk 1 – Blatchington

Have you seen a winter bumblebee queen yet? They are ‘blink and you miss it’ moments; twice on Clematis outside our dining room window and also going skywards from the top of a tall yellow Mahonia in The Downs garden. The watchword is ‘keep moving’ for us as well as for them. It’s not the time of year for dawdling and daydreaming. So if you need a reason to wrap up warm in a double layer of everything on a gloomy or a blowy day …do you know where you may see the next wild bee in a sunny patch?

It helps if we already know where to go and look the next time we have a mild day. Even if we have winter flowers in our garden, the changes in wind direction and shifting shadows mean a neighbour’s border could be a warmer place when half a degree makes all the difference and so we miss seeing them.

How many ways can we describe going for a walk? Here is the first of a few short walks round the block, to pop outside for some fresh air to clear our head , to blow the cobwebs away and run off some energy on a bear hunt, and stretch our legs on our daily constitutional.

The bonus of a winter walk are the long views to the horizon behind the sinewy branches.

Each walk goes to 2 or more green spaces along leafy roads. So if you are looking for some ideas for your front gate or front door or outside the dining table window, January and the first 2 weeks of February is the time to look. These are reliable midwinter flowers which were open at New Year where a bumblebee queen may feed on good nectar during a lull in the weather.

This walk takes us around the trees of Blatchington churchyard, the old manor of Blatchington Court and the parish boundary trees of “the cliff” by Blatchington pond.

Winter Flowers

Winter flowers for wild bees that have already opened include:

Winter Honeysuckle/ Lonicera fragrantissima
Winter heliotrope
Elephant’s Ears /Bergenia
Green Hellebore
Mahonia
Gorse
Hazel catkins (pollen)
Winter-flowering Cherry/ Prunus Subhirtella Autumnalis

This is a walk to sniff scents, watch for Snowdrops coming up and listen for different birds arriving with the Spring.

We can marvel at how flint walls can be made to stand up …or not, on another walk.

Route

The Blatchington Court footpath begins at the tall gatepost pillars by the churchyard lych gate on the hill. Cross Wilkingson Way onto the footpath through the plantation of the old manor of Blatchington Court. It later became a school which has been replaced and now Seaford Primary’s outdoor activities benefit from the windbreak. The scented Winter Heliotrope in 4 places on theis slope was planted in the grounds but is too invasives in gardens.

At the bottom of the manor land there was once a lily pond at the end of Blatchington Road below the bank of trees in Glebe Drive. The trees along the “cliff” below Stafford Road are on the parish bounday.

After the main pond turn into Vale Rd and immediately go up to Sherwood Rd. St The churchyard planting of trees and shrubs was begun by the vicar and his wife 150 years ago and retains a patch of downland flowery turf.