Pond Life... Chapter One

We also know how much you all also love nature as so many of the beautiful designs we print on your behalf feature our unique and wonderful flora and fauna.

So when the opportunity arose last year to expand the factory we bought a larger price of land than we needed so we could also develop a nature garden.

This land is going to include lots of bird and insect friendly bushes, plus trees, an area of flower meadow and, of course, a wildlife pond.  The builders were quite surprised when we asked if the digger drivers could come back to dig the pond but they entered in to the work with such gusto that we ended up having to back fill it slightly as it ended up too deep!

The factory is surrounded by fields and there is already a large pond nearby too. Even so, on two occasions, we were surprised to find grass snakes actually in the factory (both safely rescued by our reptile-loving MD Lawrence). 

Another time we had a visit from a bat that involved production grinding to a halt whilst we carefully caught the tiny creature and arranged for a local bat expert rescuer to come to its aid.  And one balmy summer afternoon, when we had the doors in the print room wide open, we had a huge dragon fly (the size of a small bird) rest up in the beams of the print room roof for a while before flying off back to its watery home.

We already have a very well established wildlife pond back at Countryside Art’s original home in the village of Swaby in the beautiful Lincolnshire wolds. 

So we are going to transplant some of the irises, water lilies and other plants to give this new pond a head start.  (The photo at the top of the page is of the Swaby pond). 

Everyone at Countryside Art are really in to nature (it goes with the name) so there are no shortage of volunteers to help in coming up with suggestions and ideas as to what else we can do to aid our beleaguered wildlife, including nest boxes, bird tables and insect hotels.

Lawrence and my Dad, John Chapman (one of the founders of Countryside Art) at the grand old age of 80 years young is in over-all charge of organising and co-ordinating the whole project.  There will more about John later…..

So watch this space and we’ll keep updating the blog with how our nature garden is progressing.

Click this link to also read our Environmental & Ethical policy or our last blog about our environmentally policies such as only using water-based inks.

Best wishes

Kathy Brookes, Sales Director