Visitors to the Kempley Daffodil Weekend, which takes place on 17th and 18th March, have the chance to support a local initiative to remove 'foreign' daffodils from the famous wild daffodil woods of the Golden Triangle between Newent and Dymock.

These hybrid daffodils were potted up last year by Kempley Daffodil Project volunteers working alongside Forestry Commission England staff and now the 600 pots are flowering and are ready to be taken back by many of the expected 4,000 visitors for planting in their own gardens. This will reduce the threat of cross-pollination with the native wild daffodils, which this year will be 'on song' and even more easily accessed through a busy programme of events at the annual Kempley Daffodil Weekend. The weekend's activities will include walks, trips on the 'Daff'n'Ride' bus, teas and Exhibition.

The Project is a uniquely successful example of what can be achieved through co-operation between local people and Government agencies - footpath resurfacing, kissing gate installation, woodland ride clearance and coppicing work, and along the roadsides.

'Lee B' entertained at the Prince of Wales on Saturday. I took the photo below but after photographing the skittles awards, across the street, took an evening off from the camera, hiding at a table out of the way with Paul Randell to enjoy some interesting conversation about music. Most of the audience enjoyed the music but preferring the truly 'live' type of performance, it did not really match our personal taste. The guitars in the background seemed to be just for show as Lee did not use them while we were there. We had a good evening in general though and Tina joined in with the dancing, as usual.

Andy Margrett will be performing at the Prince of Wales this coming Saturday.

Ken Woodes, the roving pie man is hoping to find one outlet in every Herefordshire town that will stock his delicious pies, which are made using a medieval recipe. Ken is already building up a regular clientele at Ross Market on Thursdays and Saturdays and at Ledbury on Tuesdays but is looking to expand.

Ken also takes part in Medieval re-enactments, one of which takes place at the Hop Pocket at Bishops Frome on August 18th and 19th. There, visitors will be treated to displays of medieval combat, falconry, music and dancing whilst browsing the historical traders' stalls or enjoying a hog roast.

Top: Hundreds of thousands of tadpoles are now beginning to hatch in the pond immediately outside my office door. This is just one small patch of of the spawn. Last summer I had to watch every step I took whilst walking to the office in the dark, for fear of treading on a frog. This year there are going to be many more to have to watch for.

Bottom: Sadly, I am pretty sure that the photo below is of one of the River Wye otters. I have been wanting to catch one on land, but not in this way. I am guessing that the recent flooding has been causing the otters some problems as I have not seen them swimming at Wilton since just before Christmas.

Astro: I took this photo of the Pleiades Messier 45 (also known as the Seven Sisters) on Thursday evening last. The cluster actually contains hundreds of stars but only a few are visible without optical equipment.

The Pleiades lie approximately 425 light years distant in the constellation of Taurus the Bull, so the light you see when you look at the cluster began it's journey in about 1580 AD.

In the photo, the brighter stars are over exposed to allow the camera to detect some of the dimmer objects. Technically it was an 8 second exposure using a Nikon D100 at ISO 1600 with 300 mm Sigma lens at f6.3.

A life size bronze statue of a young lady was stolen from the garden of a house near Upton Bishop at a time between 10:00 pm on Sunday, March 11th and 10:00 am the following day. The statue is a limited edition, believed to be one of approximately ten, made by David William-Ellis and has a relatively high value.

Prior to the theft, on the evening of Thursday, 8th March, two men visited the premises in suspicious circumstances, purporting to be looking for some land on which to do some 'rabbiting'. These men are described as being white, in their 50s with pot bellies. They claimed to be from Swansea. They were in a clean, dark coloured 4x4 vehicle and police would like to speak to them.

The owner of the statue is offering a reward to anybody with information which assists the police enquiry.

Any information should be passed to PC Catherine Taylor at Hereford Police Station. Telephone 08457 444888.

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