I did this the other day with my four-year-old son, and we saw a couple of the squirrels scampering about up there, seeming to defy gravity with their crazy leaps, never falling although the skinny branches they chose to dangle from bent and swayed dramatically. They criss-crossed back and forth between two trees, having a shouted conversation as they flew past each other in the air. We stood still and craned our necks as far as we possibly could, and listened in. This is the gist of what they were on about.

‘Cyril! Look out below – there are some people watching us!’

‘Never mind, Beryl – they’re too far down below to hear us. And they probably don’t understand Squirrel-ish anyway.’

(Ah, but the wind was blowing at just the right angle to carry their words down to us – and we do understand a fair bit of Squirrel-ish. It’s not unlike Weasel-ish if you want to know the truth, though it sounds quite a lot furrier.)

‘Where have you hidden the last of those acorns?’

‘Well if I knew that I wouldn’t be leaping about between these two trees trying to find them, would I? I know it was somewhere near here. Now keep looking please, I don’t want Errol and Daryl scoffing them all.’

And the two squirrels kept jumping around between the two trees in search of their hidden store – too well hidden! We kept looking up and listening in although our necks were pretty stiff by now.

‘Oh Beryl, I nearly forgot!’ said one little furry voice from above. ‘I did dig a bit at the bottom of the tree like you suggested.’

‘Well then?!’ shrieked Beryl. ‘Did you find any nuts down there?’

‘Not nuts’, replied Cyril coyly. ‘But I did find – this…’ and he produced a lumpy brown thing from a hole in the tree trunk and threw it to his companion in passing. ‘Do you think it’s edible?’

‘Hmm, no, I don’t think so’ – and she gave it a little chew to make sure – ‘No, definitely not. Yuk! It tastes like it’s been buried for a hundred years!’

‘Ok then, chuck it away,’ said Cyril. ‘Better keep searching for the acorns.’

And with that, he scampered away, making a daring leap to a further-off tree top which swayed wildly as he landed.

There was a thud as Beryl dropped the lumpy brown thing onto the ground at the foot of the tree, where it landed right next to my boot! My son picked it up immediately before I had a chance to wonder if small boys should handle things that squirrels have chewed recently.

And what was that object? Well, here are some photographs of it – what do you think it is?

Beryl thought it tasted like it had been buried for a hundred years, and in fact it really might have been. The land where Rowntree Park now stands was a dump in Victorian times, and many small objects have been dug up in the park that were indeed buried in that dump a hundred years ago or even more than that!

If you’d like to see the object that Cyril and Beryl dug up and threw down at my feet – and also get ready for Spring and welcome the new season to the park officially – then come along to the next meeting of the Very Young Friends of Rowntree Park on 6^th March ! We meet at 12:30pm on the first Tuesday of every month at the pavilion [to the left if you come into the park through the big gates on Terry Avenue, just behind the tennis courts]. We have themed woodland trails and a picnic with songs, stories and arty activities. For under fives and their parents/carers. Bring your lunch! More info from Lara on 07941 448594.

Tracks in the snow

The council has announced its budget proposals for next year. For the Parks and Open Spaces team, they are proposing to cut one Ranger post (the team already has one vacant Ranger post) and three gardening posts, as part of a review of gardening and attendant cover. This will be discussed at the Council meeting on the 23rd February, see here for further information about the suggested Council budget, which includes spending some funds on restoring the Rowntree park cafe. The Friends welcome your opinions on this; written comments to the council have to be in by the 13th February.

In this particular Shipton there were a few people and a lot of sheep. The people looked after the sheep, fed them, took them to places where there was fresh grass to eat, and rescued them when they got stuck in bogs or tumbled over cliffs. In return, the sheep surrendered their fleecy coats to their shepherds once a year, and the shepherds were able to spin the fleece into lovely soft wool which they knitted into warm clothes that they could wear, sell, and swap for other things with people from other towns and villages. The system worked pretty well for many years. What happened was this; in the Spring the shepherds would herd the sheep into pens and shear off their coats, and the sheep would feel wonderfully light and free and scamper off to eat grass and gossip. Their coats would then begin to grow back, which did feel a bit scratchy and uncomfortable, but by the time winter rolled around they would be fully woolly once again and ready to face the cold. And the following Spring they would get sheared again, and so on.

One year, however, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as before. Just after the big Spring shearing, a sheep called Baaarbara was frolicking in the woods near Shipton enjoying the sunshine when she met an angry goat who was bashing her head on a tree for no particular reason. The goat laughed at Baaarbara and said, ‘you’ve had a close shave! Where’s all your wool gone?’

‘I’ve just been sheared’, said Baaarbaba cheerfully. ‘My wool is on its way to market in York so that people can make lovely jumpers out of it.’

‘Lovely jumpers!’ scoffed the goat. ‘What they’re making out of your wool, my dear, is lots of lovely money! Why are you helping the shepherds to get rich? I’ll bet they don’t share the profits with the likes of you!’

Well, it may not surprise you to learn that, being a sheep, Baaarbara was quite easily led. She soon became convinced that the goat was right and set off to find her flock and urge them not to grow any more wool for the shepherds to shear off!

‘Sisters’, bleated Baaarbara, ‘We’re having the wool pulled over our eyes! This removal of our coats is ‘shear’ madness! Those shepherds are knit-wits! We won’t let them fleece us any more! I’m not going to regrow my fleece this year, and there will be none for them to steal away and sell – that’ll teach them!!’

And, like sheep – they all followed her lead. That year they did not regrow their fleeces. The shepherds couldn’t understand why their flocks stayed bald all through the year. They tried massaging the sheep [which the sheep really enjoyed], reading to them [they particularly liked the story of Little Bo Peep], and giving them extra lovely things to eat [yum!], but nothing made any difference – the sheep stayed bald. The shepherds scratched their heads in bewilderment and the sheep bleated smugly, thinking they had somehow beaten the system.

But then the winter arrived, and with it harsh, biting winds that whipped across the grasslands and chilled those naked sheep to the bone. In vain they tried to grow some wool to keep themselves warm, but it was too late – the growing season was over.

‘Baaarbara!’ they clamoured. ‘You silly sheep! You’ve made us stay coatless and now we’re cold!’ Needless to say, Baaarbara did feel a little bit sheepish.

Just then, a young shepherdess named Fleecity came to check on her sheep – one of whom was Baaarbara – and overheard their conversation.

‘Ladies’, she said, ‘I have an idea which might solve our problem.’ And she went off to the town’s wool store and brought out all of the fleeces that had been stored there from previous shearings, waiting to be spun into wool for jumpers. She tied a fleece securely onto each sheep. They were warm again, and skipped delightedly around the fields bleating with delight. When Fleecity left to go home they all followed her, bleating out their thanks – which is why flocks of sheep today will still follow a person who comes amongst them.

The old ram, Mutton Jeff, who despite being hard of hearing was relatively wise [for a sheep] declared that from that day on, sheep would always grow another fleecy coat after being sheared – and they still do till this day, despite anything that’s said to them by silly goats!

If you’d like to celebrate all things woolly with the Very Young Friends of Rowntree Park, meet us at the pavilion on Tuesday 7th February at 12:30! Bring your lunch! For under fives and their parents/carers.

Boys and trees

Lara McClure (Very Young Friends of Rowntree Park) will be sharing a children’s story on this site, every month. The story will have the same theme as this month’s Very Young Friends meeting, so this month it’ll be ‘Wool’ – a bit of a yarn, perhaps? Look out for the first story, in the next few weeks …

Poppy, by Lily Whittaker

Two of the council’s rangers have some excellent news; Rachel Simpson married recently (keeping her Simpson email address at the council) and Clair Merrifield has gone off on maternity leave. Congratulations to Rachel and all the best to Clair!

The Rangers’ conservation sessions at the Park are on Monday 23rd January and Monday 19th March, 1pm to 3pm in each case. Contact Rachel or Jenny, for more information.

Squirrel in the park

Welcome to our new website; we hope you like it. We hope to keep it up to date with all the news on the Park and its Friends, and look forward to your comments and contributions.

Bottles

A lot of the debris were glass bottles and jars, many of which were at least complete enough to see what they had been used for. Below is a list of the makes discovered so far:

Fletchers, Tiger Sauce, Selby

Elliman’s Royal Embrocation, Slough

Robert A Wright, York

Veno’s Lightning Cough Cure

English, Pickering

Horlick’s Malted Milk, Racine (and Slough)

Paterson’s Essence of Camp Coffee and Chicory, Glasgow

Mandall and Co (Newcastle on Tyne), Licoricine, Acts Like Magic for Coughs, Colds etc

Goodall Backhouse and Co, Yorkshire Relish

Stephenson Bros, Bradford

California Fig Syrup Co, San Francisco, California, Califig

Shieldhall Essence of Coffee and Chicory, SCWS

Heinz Tomato Ketchup

Owbridge’s Lung Tonic, Hull

Elliman's, Sheildhall, Fletcher's, Owbridge's and English

Richard the digger driver quickly created a big hole, whilst using the bucket to gently pull out some of the better-preserved jars and bottles from the debris.

Richard, his digger and the big hole in the ground

Checking for more bottles

The following day, a group of Aviva workers came on a team-building day out, and helped us shape the pond, line it with carpet and underlay, and then the pond liner itself. It was tiring work, especially for people who are normally indoors all day, but the group were very cheerful and hardworking throughout.

Taking a brief break

 The end result was that we had gone from field to pond in less than 48 hours.

Field

pond

The end result we hope will delight both wildlife and humans …

Squirrel, by David Locke

At the AGM in October 2011, it was agreed to put the subscriptions up to £5 a year, per household. This was mainly because the costs of producing and circulating paper copies of newsletters had increased.