Nature Notes
My thanks to Ban T-shirts for the above . . . (and my other favourite one: “A frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives”). Both of which bring me to the latest TV offering for armchair Earth fans, Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey on BBC2. Ubiquitous and infectiously bubbly TV presenter, Kate [...]
For a squirrel with known transatlantic ancestry, it might be considered a major social faux pas to come out in the morning sun on 4th July wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. To do this whilst jauntily flaunting the kind of high-wire skills that instigate annoyance in others serves only to exacerbate an already [...]
Growing your own fruit and vegetables can be rewarding, spiritually uplifting, exciting, heartbreaking, damnably frustrating and disappointing. On balance, though, the positives far outweigh the negatives and the whole experience is more fun than a theme park. Actually, most things are more fun than a theme park . . . Growing your own teaches you [...]
Those who know us will know that we maintain a chemical-free organic garden and operate what is known in green terminology as eco-friendly pest control, although ‘pest control’ is not a phrase you will find in my personal lexicon. I certainly like to work with ‘pests’ rather than against them, but, more than that, I [...]
Continue reading about Garden League half time score: Slug Barons 1, Aspen House nil
Water, that most precious of Nature’s gifts. Water, the life giver. Water, that bright clear liquid that we take for granted. Turn on the tap and there it is. Watch it fall from the sky as the black clouds burst. See it tumble over pebbles and boulders as it dances and dashes through upland and [...]
Though it is still unseasonably dry (we have had no more than a couple of millimetres of rain here in the last two months), spring and the rebirth of life continues apace. It is difficult to look beyond this gloriously sunny day and imagine what might be the consequence of a dry spell that continues [...]
As we draw near the end of the midwinter festivities, this is perhaps the right time to ponder on how ancient indigenous peoples maintained a symbiotic relationship with their landbase and the environment which supported them. Despite belief systems that have long since been condemned as pagan, it seems that they knew how to live [...]
“The world in solemn stillness lay” I heard a blackbird’s alarm call this morning. Now, you may think that is hardly unusual, particularly out here in the middle of Hoarwithy, but I can tell you that since the temperature plummeted on the day following the last full moon, the sound of birds in our garden [...]
I love the autumn, yet I cannot say that it is my favourite season. That is because I do not have a favourite season – each has its special merits, and they are all seamlessly interconnected. The way I see it, each day begins anew as the sun comes up and drifts into darkness as [...]
The other day (another of those warm late summer days), Sally and I unwittingly became the agents of a mini mass extinction, and I’m afraid to say we are still undergoing intensive counselling for post-traumatic stress. That includes a couple of trips out for coffee and scones, so we do anticipate being in fine fettle [...]