Blog

You may have read Simon Toomer's autumn colour blog this week.

As part of Westonbirt's activities for families this October, Caroline Bennett from our Learning and Participation Team has created a trail of autumnal highlights which will run from 29 October - 2 November.

Contrary to popular myth I don’t spend my days wandering happily around the arboretum looking at trees but grab opportunities as they arise between less glamorous jobs like business planning and budget reviews.

It is the group of Euomymus oxyphyllus along Loop Walk that signal to me that autumn is on the way as they tend to start colouring in September.

As part of Westonbirt's activities for families this October, Caroline Bennett from our Learning and Participation Team has created a trail of autumnal highlights which will run from 29 October - 2 November.

As part of Westonbirt's activities for families this October, Caroline Bennett from our Learning and Participation Team has created a trail of autumnal highlights which will run from 29 October - 2 November.

As part of Westonbirt's activities for families this October, Caroline Bennett from our Learning and Participation Team has created a trail of autumnal highlights for families, which will run from 29 October - 2 November.

I have lots of good days working at Westonbirt Arboretum, who wouldn’t? But the day I picked up a cheque for £250,000 (the first instalment of a £500,000 award) definitely tops the list.

For today’s blog I decided to headed up Willesley Drive to see how some of the trees I looked at last week had changed. We’ve had a few cold nights so I was expecting quite a bit more colour and that was certainly the case.

After a glorious weekend of sunshine, I stepped out into Silk Wood on a dull, overcast afternoon to take the leaf colour temperature.

It's a week since my last autumn blog and I took another walk around today to see how the colour is progressing.

Paul Hayden has been making Windsor chairs from green wood for more than twenty years. He regularly runs chair making courses at Westonbirt, using the Silk Wood Barn as a venue for a traditional workshop.

Not wanting to miss out on the first signs of autumn colour, I ventured out of my office for a stroll round Circular Drive today to see what I could see.

As the summer draws to an end, I always start to think about our annual planting programme.

‘Hidden Voices’ is an inspiring project being run by that participation and learning team at Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, engaging community groups in environmental issues.