A New Life Countryfile Spring Diaries

Springtime, when the days lengthen and signs of change are everywhere.

There's not a corner of the British Isles that doesn't

warm to the arrival of spring.

It's our most extraordinary season for one big reason.

It's a time of astonishing growth and regeneration.

From pond life to birdlife,

from the scent of fresh blossom, to our smallest mammals

reawakening after months of hibernation.

We'll be bringing you the most remarkable stories of this

wonderful time of year.

Tales of survival, endurance and occasional indulgence.

Join us for this special week of programmes, as we celebrate

the secrets of spring, here on Countryfile Diaries.

The south coast of Britain is where spring first reveals itself.

So, where better to base ourselves than here,

in the New Forest in Hampshire?

At 220 square miles, it's our smallest National Park,

and with its ancient trees, lush heathland and abundant wildlife,

it's the perfect place to show off the secrets of springtime.

And I'll be joined by the Countryfile Diaries team, who have

been scouring the British Isles,

searching for signs that spring has sprung.

Margherita taps in to an up-and-coming spring trend.

-Wow!

-Crikey!

Oh, my goodness.

Jules tracks down the world's smallest

and most unusual police force.

And if you are one of the 60,000 or more people

who move to the country every year, well,

Paul will be picking up the ultimate tips for running a smallholding.

Ease the bottle gently into his mouth.

-Aw. They take to it really well, don't they?

-Yeah.

But first, I think it's true to say

that we all feel that little bit better

when spring comes around,

and our resident weather expert, Keeley Donovan,

has been up at the crack of dawn to find out

whether springtime really does lift our spirits.

I'm here at Martin Down, on the edge of the New Forest.

Now, it might only be 5am, but we're at the top of the hill,

the sun's starting to come through the clouds,

and I'm waiting for a spring pick-me-up.

Natural England have been researching

the link between our mental health and the sound of birdsong.

One in ten of us will be affected by depression

at some point in our lives.

Spring is the perfect time to get out and about,

but can birdsong really have any psychological benefits?

Now, I've never actually been to hear the dawn chorus before,

so it's the perfect way to test its effect on me.

I've agreed to be hooked up to this, which is a stress monitor,

and it's going to test my anxiety levels.

So, let's put it to the test.

And here to help me find the best spot to take it all in

is veteran bird watcher, Paul Toynton.

And we'll be joined by members of a local wellbeing group

who've struggled with mental illness in the past.

From the melodic whistle of the robin,

to the chirp of the blackbird,

can there be any benefit from listening to birdsong?

-SHE MIMICS BIRD CHIRPING

-That's a song thrush, yeah.

-Oh, OK.

Depression and anxiety can be utterly debilitating for those

who suffer from it, so I'm curious to find out whether these guys

feel this morning's experience improved their mood in any way.

Could this work as a natural therapy?

Because it's quite overwhelming in a way,

it takes me away from other things that might be going on in my mind.

You know, it's part of the modern disease where people

just don't switch off, so you just listen for the birdsong

and everything else sort of goes out the window.

The evidence may seem anecdotal,

but the use of birdsong is proving successful in a commercial setting.

Amsterdam airport plays it on loudspeakers, with 95%

of commuters saying it makes them feel more calm and relaxed.

It's even used over here in petrol station toilets,

where customer satisfaction rose by 50%.

That's all very well, but can the effect of birdsong on mood

be measured in a more tangible way by my stress monitor?

-Hi, there, Jess.

-Hi, Keeley.

-Hello.

'Jess Hall from Cardiff University is downloading my results.

'This device has been measuring how stressed or relaxed

'I've been over the last couple of days.'

Let's have a little look at the results.

OK, so yesterday, we put you through some stressful experiences.

And these are kind of typical everyday stresses that everybody

-deals with as well?

-Here...

-Right. I was very stressed.

Do you have any idea what that might be?

That was the boss ringing, wasn't it?

It was your boss ringing, yes, so you can see that you steadily

get more stressed throughout that phone call.

So, how does this compare with how I was feeling this morning

when I was listening to the dawn chorus?

So, this morning, we can see quite a different shape.

Really different shape, yeah.

So you see that it's a really, really low level,

so, by comparison, when you're listening to the birds,

you are five times less stressed

-than you are when you're talking to your boss.

-OK.

So not only does it sound beautiful,

but these results prove that it's made me feel less stressed.

Perhaps we all need a little bit of birdsong in our lives.

One thing we can all rely on is the changing of the seasons.

After the long, dark days of winter,

spring is nature's alarm clock,

bringing everything back to life, and it happens every year

like clockwork and, Keeley, you're our weather expert.

Why does that happen? Why do we get spring?

It's all to do with the solar system,

the Earth's position in relation to the sun.

You can see the Earth is on a tilt

and it's that tilt that creates the seasons,

so in spring, the northern hemisphere,

our part of the world, begins to tilt towards the sun, and that's

what makes longer days, temperatures rise - the miracle of spring.

And how does that affect our spring weather, then?

I mean, here, in the New Forest, in our back gardens, everywhere.

Let me put the world down and welcome you to the British Isles.

-Oh! Did you do this?

-I did indeed.

-Very good.

Now, we are an island, so that has a huge effect on our weather.

One other major factor is this.

-Catch.

-What, this blue ribbon?

-Exactly.

-Uh-huh.

-Now, this ribbon...

-What does this represent, then?

This ribbon is the jet stream, which is like a ribbon of

fast-moving air, strong winds, high up in the atmosphere,

going around 200mph at times. Now, the jet stream is the dividing line

between mild air to the south, cold air to the north,

-and it's a conveyor belt steering our weather.

-Right.

So, what happens if it comes down south?

So if the jet stream is to the south of the UK, that means cold

Arctic and Pole air can flow over us, which means colder weather.

-Here you go.

-This white blossom, then,

-representing a cold air...

-Absolutely.

-..right across our country.

-Perhaps even a little bit of snow and ice.

-Yes.

-Now, if the jet stream moves to the north of the UK...

-Yeah.

..that's going to let all the mild air from the Continent pull up

and push across the UK, which means it's going to be milder.

Some blossom...

Sprinkle a bit of sunshine and very pleasant weather...

-The kind of spring weather we like.

-..around the UK.

-There you go.

And if the jet stream gets stuck in either of those positions,

that's when we get extreme weather - extremely warm, extremely cold -

-and that's what's going to make the headlines.

-Right.

-Tell me, do you remember Easter weekend?

-Oh, awful weekend!

Horrible, stormy weekend.

Storm Katie. And that's because the jet stream was

slung across the UK, steering the weather systems, the storms across

us, but, yeah, spring has been a little bit cooler, March and April.

April was very cold.

It was, yeah, but even last year, we had snow warnings in May

so it's not unusual, it's just a bit colder than we'd like.

The unpredictability of spring weather

doesn't just affect flora and fauna -

it also impacts on livestock.

And nowhere more so than in the New Forest.

At present, more than 9,000 cattle,

donkeys and ponies graze on the land, and Jules has been finding out

just how they're kept safe and well.

Animals are the lifeblood of what makes the entire region tick, and

the park's famous ponies,

well, many of them are now having their foals.

So I've come to take a ride out with Agister Jonathan

to see how the season is unfolding.

Agisters are the wardens of the forest,

much like a rural police force.

It's a post that has its origins in medieval times.

-ARCHIVE:

-The Agisters are the smallest police force in the world,

they've been called.

Still in their 18th-century uniform, they uphold the commoners' rights

and see that the forest laws are observed.

From time to time, owners and Agisters round up the cattle.

Not exactly Wild West cowboys as we know them,

yet doing much the same job.

The Agisters no longer wear formal uniforms,

but they still collect fees from people who

graze their livestock in the forest, known as commoners.

-So, you're the money-collector?

-That's right.

-And that's been going on for centuries.

-Absolutely.

And in return for that payment,

the Agisters are on call 24 hours a day,

seven days a week, to deal with any issues,

problems that the animals may give them, to any emergency situations.

It's a difficult place to manage.

How many acres is it, 90-odd thousand?

Yes, roughly within the perambulation

is around about 90,000 acres.

It's a large place, 5,000-odd ponies,

4,500 cattle, 200-plus donkeys.

In the pannage season, when the pigs go out, 300 or 400 pigs,

and five Agisters there.

I was going to say five Agisters, of which you are one,

-do you each have your own patch?

-Yes, that's right.

That's how the Agisters work. We've got a sort of beat area,

an area we're responsible for, and we will spend as much

time as we can on our horses, in our vehicles, out looking at the stock.

Well, it's wonderful to get a chance to ride out on a beautiful

spring day like this, in amongst the herd.

-They're not bothered at all, are they?

-Not worried at all.

That's a real testament to the great nature of our New Forest ponies.

Well, I don't blame them for enjoying this very welcome

spring sunshine, and hopefully some lusher grass soon to come.

Yes, it'll soon come through. The foals will be on the ground and then

everything will be rosy for the summer.

Come on, let's leave them to it. Come on, then, Chip. Good boy.

Now, every year, more than 60,000 of us

escape the urban sprawl to start a new life in the country,

and this spring, Paul Martin and his family are going one step further

and rounding off an ambitious plan to turn 27 acres in the West Country

into a self-sufficient smallholding,

and he's giving us his tips on how to live the country life.

Seven years ago, my wife Charlotte and I fell in love with

a derelict cottage in the heart of Wiltshire...

Come on, then, guys.

..together with my seven-year-old son Dylan

and my four-year-old daughter Meredith.

Hey!

It's been a labour of love.

We've had more than our fair share of leaky roofs and burst pipes.

My only real regret is letting the three-year-old name the dog.

-Come on, Woof. Come on. Woof!

-HE WHISTLES

But we've still got plenty of work to do.

With the house almost finished,

my plan this spring is to fulfil a dream and restore the fields

and woodlands of this Victorian smallholding to their former glory.

I absolutely love spring.

When I was a kid, it was the season I looked forward to the most.

Winters out here can be terribly miserable and quite relentless,

but when you see the first buds and blossoms

and leaves arrive on the trees, it really lifts my spirits.

It's a magical time of the year.

But first, let me show you what I've done so far.

Well, this is our chicken enclosure and a bit of an orchard.

We've got an old apple tree there.

And this is our little veggie patch.

I know it doesn't look like much at the moment.

Once this is planted up, it can feed a family of four for the year,

and Charlotte is in charge of this complete area, because I've got it

wrong on more than one occasion, and I've been told off.

Come on, Woof.

And then there's the lush green fields outside.

At least they were lush and green once upon a time.

Now they're patchy, weedy or just plain muddy

and the problem lies with our lawnmowers.

Horses are incredibly fussy eaters, munching around 2% of their own

body weight in grass every day, but completely avoiding the weeds,

and when spring has sprung, the fields are in a terrible state.

What I need is a high-output ovine vegetation system,

or sheep to you and me.

There are 33 million sheep in Britain farmed for their meat

and wool, but they're also excellent grazers,

munching the weeds as well as the grass,

so for this reason, my first mission is to take on my own flock

and it's the perfect time of year to find some spring lambs.

There are so many different variety of breeds out there,

it's hard to know which one is right for my patch of land,

so I'm going to meet a local sheep breeder, Adrian Andrews,

who breeds a special heritage type of sheep.

Like me, Adrian started out with horses. Then, seven years ago,

he introduced Wiltshire Horn sheep to help with grazing.

He's the perfect mentor to teach us how to care for a flock of sheep.

Thanks for inviting me over because I know you're a busy guy,

-bang in the middle of lambing season.

-Yeah, we are.

-How's it going?

-It's going good. We're coming to the end now.

-Would you like to see our newest arrivals?

-Yeah.

If we do take some of Adrian's sheep, they won't be like these.

They'll be year-olds or yearlings.

-And here they are.

-Yeah.

But if you're a newbie to sheep farming like me,

it's always best to start small.

-These are actually three weeks old.

-Three weeks old.

Just ease the bottle gently into his mouth.

-Oh, they take to it really well, don't they?

-Yeah.

-Exactly.

-"I'm hungry! I'm hungry. Feed me."

-They are so cute, aren't they?

-Yes.

What was it about the Wiltshire Horn

that attracted you in the first place?

-They are a traditional breed.

-There's history involved.

-Yes.

There's a lot of history, and the Wiltshire Horn sheep

are a very, very good smallholder's sheep,

-because they are relatively low maintenance.

-Yeah.

They actually shed their fleeces.

With a normal breed, you have to shear them,

and it just means they are relatively easy to look after.

-Which is quite important if you've got a small flock.

-Yes, it is.

-How many have you got now?

-I have actually got 66 ewes.

-Wow!

-And six rams.

-Gosh.

-I started off with a small number, same as you.

-Do you know what?

You're going to be a good mentor for me, a good role model.

Well, I hope so.

100 years ago, Wiltshire Horns, like so many other rare breeds,

came close to extinction.

Revived in the 1920s by a group of local breeders,

their numbers are now well on the rise.

I've been so taken by these lovely creatures,

I've decided I'm going to do my small part.

So, Paul, you think you're prepared, ready to take some sheep?

-Did we decide on a number in the end?

-Four?

-Four.

That sounds fine to start, with four. Yeah?

This is a very special moment, actually,

because this is where it starts for me.

Adrian's a stickler for detail.

He's given me a list of things to do in preparation for the sheep.

I've been granted a parish holding certificate to keep

track of the livestock, in case of disease, and I've been

hard at work converting part of my land for our new animals.

Finally, the anxious wait is over.

Today's the big day. Our mini flock of Wiltshire Horn arrive.

-Hi, Adrian.

-Hi, Paul. How are you?

-Hello. I'm all right, thank you.

-It's great to see you as well.

-And who are these two, then?

-This is Meredith and that's Dylan.

-Hello, Meredith.

And have you named yours yet, Meredith? Have you?

-Baah-bie.

-Baah-bie. That's a good 'un.

-Shall we have a little look at these sheep, then?

-Yeah.

Have a peep through the side of the trailer, look.

Can you see them in there?

Gosh, they look a lot bigger than what I remember!

Can you see their horns? Look at their horns, Meredith.

I know.

Initially, the sheep will need to be contained within

sections of electric fence so that their grazing can be rotated.

That's pretty good, Adrian.

With the Wiltshire Horns' new home plotted out,

it's time to release them onto the pasture.

There they go.

-PAUL CHUCKLES

-Look at this, Dyl.

-That wasn't too bad, was it?

-No.

I've been feeling rather nervous for the last few weeks,

thinking about this non-stop, 24/7.

And now they're here, I feel totally relaxed.

They look very, very settled.

They're grazing away, mowing the lawn.

That's brilliant, isn't it?

Now, one thing that we must do...

I'd like to shake your hand.

-Oh, you've given me a fiver.

-I have given you a fiver.

-This gets better!

With livestock, it's a little bit of a tradition that the person

who has bought the livestock, you give them

a little bit of luck money, so hopefully those sheep now

will bring you plenty of luck and everything will go right with them.

Well, Adrian, that's the end to a perfect day.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to capture

the essence of spring,

as I discovered when I visited the National Fruit Collection in Kent.

Here they've got on this one site the largest display of fruit trees

and plants anywhere in the world, which means that in springtime,

this place is blossom heaven.

Known as the Queen of Apples for her encyclopaedic knowledge,

Dr Joan Morgan is Britain's leading fruit historian.

Joan has already chronicled in precise detail Britain's great

range of apples and produced THE definitive reference book.

Now she's almost completed a definitive work on pears.

So far, it's taken more than 15 years.

Why has it taken so long to compile this book on pears?

Well, there's so many hurdles in the way, you know.

With pears, not every variety fruits well every year.

Sometimes you might just miss the moment

when you should have collected the fruit.

-So, a long-time labour of love, then?

-Yes, yes, yes.

I noticed that in your apple book you chose to have

botanical illustrations rather than photographs.

-Why is that?

-Well, first of all, they're very beautiful.

I mean, this produces a really lovely plate.

And it's also possible to show different stages

in the apple's development.

You have it here as it is on the tree when it's picked

and then as it is when it's perfectly ripe.

I know you're going to do the same thing with the pear book

cos I'm about to go and meet the illustrator.

Yes, and perhaps you'd be kind enough to take with you

-a sprig of blossom so that she can paint.

-What have we got here?

This is Onward. If I cut this just there, a little sprig.

-Thank you.

-There we are.

-I'll take this carefully

-and give it to Elizabeth.

-Thank you very much.

'This sprig will join many other specimens that have already

'been received by Elizabeth Dowle, a leading botanical illustrator.'

-So, this is your studio?

-Yes.

Obviously, a degree of urgency when the raw material first arrives.

Yes, it does put you under a bit of pressure, but as soon as

Joan gives me the material, I make careful colour notes

of all parts of the plants, and measurements,

and any other characteristics that need to be noted.

'The painstaking work of painting the process,

'as blossom matures into fruit,

'means a single plate can take more than two years to complete.'

-Is this a finished plate here?

-This is a finished plate, yes.

This would show the fruit as you pick it.

And that's the eating stage, when it's ripe.

You've been painting pears now for 15 years or more.

-Do you get sick of them?

-Not at all.

Like a lot of people, I just thought

all pears were yellow when I started,

but the diversity and colour and shape is quite amazing.

Which goes for the blossom as well, to some extent.

But, um...no, it's been quite an education.

And also I get to eat them at the end, which is nice.

The passing seasons in a humble pear orchard,

so vividly depicted by Elizabeth,

have now been captured forever in these beautiful pages.

Every year, blossom reminds us that winter is over,

spring is here and summer is just around the corner.

Blossom time brings colour back into our natural world

and it's just a fleeting moment in the great scale of things.

All too quickly, it's gone.

In the forager's calendar,

few things are more seasonal than silver birch sap.

So Margherita is discovering how to tap the tree

for a springtime pick-me-up.

This tree, the silver birch,

provides one of the first harvests of the season,

much to the delight of foragers on the hunt for the syrup

they call white gold.

Deep within the West Sussex woodland,

master distiller Sarah Thompson is hard at work.

She's collecting sap from silver birch trees

to turn botanicals into spirits.

-Sarah, good to see you.

-Hello, how are you doing?

-I'm good.

You seem busy, you've got jars all over this woodland.

How do you know when the tree is ready to go, as it were?

A bit of trial and error. Early indications will be

daffodils coming through, snowdrops coming through,

and then we tap a few trees and see what's happening.

We have no control.

And what window do you have to get the sap from the trees?

Anything up to six weeks. So, from the start... But it can move.

So it's all to do with when spring is kicking in,

so this year it's been a little late.

So we've harvested...probably only started a fortnight ago,

but we have harvested as early as February.

How much sap will each tree give you?

-We like to try and get about five litres from a tree.

-Five litres?!

Yes, five litres. So a nice little demijohn full.

-Will that not finish off the tree?

-No.

When it starts to bud, we know we don't touch that tree any more.

How many trees will you tap by hand?

We've done 50 so far, and we'd like to be doing another 100.

-So you drill in, then what are we waiting for?

-You can see now.

Oh, my goodness! It's literally... That's your liquid gold?

It is my liquid gold, yes.

So, when it's at this stage, we want to put a pipe in.

Then we put a bit of clay around the pipe

to help stop the pipe from moving and also loss of sap as well.

Does it repair itself or do you have to help it out?

We have to fill the hole back in.

By leaving the hole open, you run the risk of infection

in the tree and then that will also be an indicator of what tree

we've used and we'll know next year not to go back to that tree as well.

It might seem strange,

but trees have long been harvested for their sap.

Native Americans were amongst the first to extract

the sugary syrup from maple trees.

And in Scotland, the sap is fermented to make a birch wine.

In fact, Queen Victoria wrote

it was Prince Albert's favourite tipple when visiting Balmoral.

But we're making something even more potent with today's harvest.

Sarah turns her sap into alcohol,

but it can be drunk directly from the tree.

And it's gaining popularity as THE new health drink,

bottled and sold as a spring detoxing elixir,

known for its cleansing properties.

This is this sap which we spent the morning harvesting?

-That's right, yes.

-And I can just drink it

straight from the tree, as it were?

You can. I've filtered it a little bit to remove any bugs.

-So...

-OK. But this is pretty raw.

-Cheers.

-I can just, down the hatch?

-Yes, just drink it.

It's literally just fresh water that's been filtered through

-the tree, so you can't get better than that, really.

-It's gorgeous!

And then what happens to it?

The next stage is, we're just reducing some down

at the moment into a syrup.

So, a litre of the raw sap becomes how much of this?

We're looking at maybe 100ml, 200ml.

-Wow!

-From one litre.

-That's a lot of work.

Yeah, we want a really concentrated flavour.

-Have a try of this one.

-Cheers again.

-Cheers again.

-That's sweeter.

-A bit sweeter.

-And is this how you sell it?

No, this is only the beginning stages of what we're doing.

-We only sell it as alcohol.

-OK!

Sarah's distillery is one of only a handful

to use silver birch botanicals to infuse with gins, vodkas,

and today, a rather robust vermouth.

Crikey! Oh, my goodness!

Whoo!

That is...

What kind of proof is that?

It's a good 50%. So just a little, tiny shot.

It's early in the day, but, for you...

Oh, my goodness!

-Schnapps, really.

-Wow!

A bit of water and that will bring that back to life again.

-Oh, my God, that's a little bit good.

-It's spicy.

Wow! How much can we make today to take home?

And that's all we've got time for today,

but we will be back again tomorrow.

So please make a date in your diary to join us.

Until then, bye-bye.