Jenifer Tucker's blog

Autumn here in Devon is a wonderful time of year, especially with the coming of Apple Day this weekend. For this is the time when local growers celebrate Britain's wonderful native apples. Apple Day was originally a way of celebrating and demonstrating the variety of apples we are in danger of losing - not simply in apples, but richness and diversity of landscape, place, ecology and culture too.

Now, you might be asking what's the connection between Apple Day and the Sanctuary and here's the thing... not only do we have a handful of donkeys called Apple in our care but also back in January of this year, our wildlife expert, James Chubb, led an orchard planting and woodland working party which introduced 16 native apple trees to the Field of Dreams.

This week staff and volunteers at the Sanctuary will be out and about adding hundreds of reed crosses to all the memorial plaques along the walkways in readiness for Memorial Day on Saturday 6th October. Having noticed a break in the rain showers this morning, I also collected a large bag of crosses... but before doing anything else, I took a walk to see Heidi's plaque and tied a bunch of roses mixed with wild flowers from the hedgerows to her memorial.

On Monday of this week we wrote about a donkey called Con who celebrated her 30th anniversary of Sanctuary life. Curiosity got the better of me so I delved into our records to find out who else has been at the Sanctuary that length of time and found Tufty, a 38 year old donkey who has been with us for 29 years, living at Town Barton Farm lying on the edge of Dartmoor National Park.

Today I joined our wildlife expert, James Chubb, on a ramble to catch up with some of the wild residents here at the Sanctuary. I must say it was a real eye-opener to realise just what we have on our doorstep and it was a chance to ask James questions as we went round checking mammal traps and reptile refuges, to find out what lives in the woodlands and fields around Slade House Farm.

On a cold February morning I opened a door and stepped into another world... that of the elderly donkey living at Axnoller Farm. It's not every day that something catches you unaware, but this was one of those moments as I took in the sight of around 50 donkeys standing side by side along the feeders eating their breakfast almost in silence. Each and every donkey wearing their winter rugs to offer them further warmth.

In this barn is a very special donkey that I fell in love with many years ago during one of my holidays to the Sanctuary. Her name is Panda and this is my journey with her to the present day.

It’s Wednesday morning, there’s a chill in the air and frost is still covering the ground. I leave the warmth of my office with camera in hand and venture down to Hurfords where public footpaths and bridleways pass through the Sanctuary’s fields and woodland.