Autumn has drawn to a close, and yet as I write this some of the trees are still wearing their leaves. On the one hand I have been grateful of the unexpected warmth, but on the other it felt quite bewildering to be hot and bothered whilst working in my November garden. In Shakespeare’s words …
By the time I near the end of my blustery walk on the Dorset coast, it is an hour or two into the winter darkness. The skies are semi-veiled with cloud and the air is heavy with damp and cold. Despite a sudden desire to be home in the warm, I find a suitable place …
Wild winds accompany me this morning along the ride. The air is clear and crisp and the horizons are sharp in the bright autumn sunshine. The height of autumn is now upon us and each passing day sees the trees shed another layer of clothing. As my feet kick up the carpet of leaves, I …
The sun’s arc is sinking lower, and the days are shortening but nature is still delivering its surprises. It is now mid-autumn and seasonal gales have cast the remaining leaves to the ground. Whilst out walking alongside a small woodland, I notice some fine crimson leaves and the familiar pink haze of a spindle tree …
Now the autumn breeze is blowing the leaves like confetti and the Vale is airbrushed with amber and crimson hues, the trees take centre stage, and rightly so. I cannot decide which ones I love the most this time of year. Is it the wispy delicateness of the swaying birches or the bold carnelian canopies …
September has quietly drifted away in a misty Indian summer haze and a rainy October has crept in behind. Now as the nights grow colder, the seasonal colours are slowly taking hold and the greenness is tinged with saffron and cinnamon tints; autumn is stirring. A few weeks ago, whilst walking in Duncliffe Woods, I …
Skylarks, crickets, and a stonechat's chatter, grass seeds click and harebells dance. Wild horses gallop and frolic in the field just beyond, small moments amid the land, stone, wind and time. I am in an unusual valley in West Dorset where at the end of the last ice age, the freezing and thawing of the …
Continue reading Land, stone and time in the valley of sarsens
The first time I saw Comet Neowise, it had just appeared low on the north western horizon after sunset; a space traveller speeding past planet Earth. Made of ice, water, rock and dust, and three miles wide, it was travelling at 40 miles per second, 70 million miles high. When it last sped by Earth …
Continue reading Glow worms, comets, constellations and time
I have always had a fondness for butterflies. My earliest memories are chasing them around the fields at the back of our house; hands cupped ready to capture their beauty in my tiny hands. These small wonders of life, brimming with colour and movement, lit up the grasslands and meadows in our Hertfordshire village and …
Each morning as I walk towards my garden shed, I am greeted by the energetic buzzing of my tree bees which, for the second year running, have chosen one of my bird boxes as a venue for their colony. I first became aware of them when I heard what sounded like an engine coming from …
Rewilding journeys 