It is very pleasant to sit on a bench by the Centenary Gardens early in the morning and watch the rabbits. I find them appealing animals and despite the fact that they are nibbling the herbaceous plants and worse, the trees, I feel that they have a place in the cycle of things. This is probably due to my early love ...
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Photo © Holly Finn The photo of the pansy in the paving was sent to me by a friend – and she gave the picture the title ‘Persistence’. It is greatly cheering to see that Nature finds chinks and niches to colonise, and then flourishes. Everywhere you look at this time of the year there are wild flowers ...
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What has happened to my sticklebacks? I have been looking in the brook at the end of my garden for a month now and no sign of them. I’ve lived here since 2007 and every year I have watched the little fish darting back and forth. I creep up quietly, as the moment they sense my presence they hide in the banks. This ...
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Primula veris Primroses appear first– and then the closely related cowslip. Four English counties claim the cowslip as its flower: Essex, Northamptonshire, Worcestershire and Surrey. Any time soon, flat rosettes of leaves will be visible at Beryl Harvey Fields and then, towards the end of April, the stalk and an ...
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It might seem a cause for celebration that Spring is said to have come a month early this year. But this might not be necessarily a good thing for wildlife. A late frost can kill the new growth but worse, the premature blooming of flowers can cause what it termed an “ecological mismatch”. Plants, insects and birds ...
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Lichen Photos by Andy Bamford Mysterious lichen, felled trees and rats; two success stories and a farewell to an old tree. The deciduous trees are still leafless and on your walks you might pause and study a mysterious organism called lichen – pronounced ‘liken’. It is found in crusty patches or tufty growths, ...
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A sunny January morning can be the best time of all for seeing trees. Once the leaves have fallen, the individual shape of each tree is visible – and the different kinds of bark add to the attraction. Bark protects the trees’ essential living systems from temperature extremes, storms, attacks from diseases, ...
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Nativity scenes apart, there are apparently twelve symbols which trigger thoughts of Christmas; amongst them are robins, poinsettias, bells, snowflakes, a jolly old man in a red and white outfit, and two which I find particularly evocative: the fir tree and the reindeer. Fortunately, I didn’t have to travel far to ...
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In Greek myths it never pays to be boastful before the gods. The young Arachne was a wonderful weaver and as Ovid writes in his Metamorphoses she had the temerity to challenge the goddess Athena to a tapestry weaving contest. Bizarrely Athena was the goddess of war, handicrafts and reason – which seem like an ...
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One of the two huge ants nests at Hurtwood After writing about ants last month, a friend sent me the following by Ogden Nash which sums up this little creature perfectly: The ant has made himself illustriousThrough constant industry industriousSo what?Would you be calm and placidIf you were full of formic acid! ...
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