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| | | From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique.
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 | Thetford Warren Lodge (photograph by Paul Brooker)
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As we move through the winter, wrapping up against the cold and facing the long, dark nights, you might think that the natural world is asleep and that most people prefer to stay indoors. But nature has her own way of dealing with these seasons. We visit Thetford Forest on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk to discover how humans and nature respond to the silent season.
Information about Thetford
Thetford Forest Archaeology
 | Sally Leich running a 6-dog team
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Way before dawn, Richard finds the woods are alive with the sound of huskies, out for their morning training session. Sally Leich was the first person in Britain to start racing Husky dogs here; Ali Koops came over from Holland in 1980 to join her and now they have 31 dogs. Both women love the dogs for their charm, intellect and the individual characters that they have. Being cold weather dogs, winter is a really important season and many people choose not to train their huskies at all in the summer. Richard takes a turn on the quad bike which runs on dog-power and discovers that "mush" isn't a word in their vocabulary
British Siberian Husky Racing Association
Looking at the bare trees in the forest it's hard to believe that there is anything happening there at all. Richard meets Rachel Riley from the Forestry Commission and learns that trees keep growing in the winter. They only shed their leaves to conserve energy. Many seeds need the cold and are triggered into germination by temperature. And curiously, it's the cold which helps the process of waking up for Spring.
Thetford Forest
Further in the forest, Mike Majerus from Cambridge University is busy looking for ladybirds. The area is rife with rare breeds - there's the chestnut coloured one with cream stripes that lives only on Scots Pine. Mike is particularly enthusiastic about one he calls "a bit of a beast" - it's got 16 spots, is only 3mm long and is usually found in groups of several hundred. Ladybirds, being cold-blooded, don't need to hibernate, and there's a surprising amount of life going on in the forest.
Pictures of ladybirds
About ladybirds
Throughout history, the forest has provided one particular source of food in a time of scarcity. Local historian David Osborne explains that rabbits provided not only meat but valuable fur ... but poaching was so rife that warreners lived in highly fortified houses. He takes Richard to Thetford Warren Lodge - built in the 15th century, it's made of flint and looks like the keep of a castle but was once a place of safety and sanctuary for game keepers and their rabbit carcasses.
Thetford Warren Lodge
And what better way to end a day in a winter forest, than with a mug of mulled wine. Ian Finlay runs a local hotel which specialises in providing medieval food for heritage weekends. And the mulled wine he makes comes from a 14th century recipe. It contains wine and familiar spices - but it also contains quite a lot of pepper!
Old mulled wine recipes
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