From the editor

You know, despite what we might hear, read and see in other media, the countryside is not all doom and gloom. Yes, there are plenty of problems for rural communities — but hasn’t that been the case for centuries? And haven’t country folk just rolled their sleeves up and got on with tackling the job?
A simplistic view, I know, but as spring approaches I always feel a new sense of optimism, just like Nature as it bursts into a new year of growth.

I hope you find this month’s magazine just as uplifting. To bring a touch of colour at the end of a dull, dreary winter we’ve put together a collection of bright, cheerful flowering plants. There’s news of success for wildlife havens throughout the UK, plus plenty of smiling faces on people working hard to maintain our wonderful countryside.

I hope there’s a smile on your face, too, by the time you’ve finished reading.

In the March issue of The Countryman...

From Blossom to Harvest in the Vale
Siân Ellis tastes plums, asparagus and much more

Somerset's best kept secret
Deidre Hines reveals all

A new reserve for Avalon
Graham Jennings visits Shapwick Moor in Somerset

The secrets of the birds
The onset of spring enlivens June Badeni

The buttery sunlight of spring
Kenneth Steven captures the daffodil in verse

The splendours of Snowdon
Editor Paul Jackson remembers a favourite school trip

Sustainable Restoration
Helen Harrison on a new life for a Somerset watermill

March going out like a lamb
A G Lyttle likes to wander on Chobham Common

Birdman of the Norfolk Fens
John Phillpott meets the man who left the city behind

Saving our Seeds
Helen Harrison learns about the Millennium Seed Bank Project

The wonders of the Weald
Jack Watkins investigates the work of the Sussex Wildlife Trust

Roadside Nature Reserves
Wildlife havens can be found everywhere, says Laurie Forsyth

Ely's Grass-Roots
John Worrall on the creation of the Wildspace of the Fens

All aboard the Country Bus
Ian McGowan remembers some rural journeys

An infatuation with Orchids
Howard M Beck's lifelong passion for the unpredictable allure of these plants

Wildlife Pairings
Seasonal nature musings from John Derek Smith