29th December 2021, and its been ages since I last had my hands in the soil. Ages too since I wrote anything aside from Christmas cards and correspondence. There hasn’t been a new blog post since July. And yet, here I am, tucked up at my desk with two hot water bottles (one tucked inside …
Heartwood
Regular readers of this blog will know I an passionate about trees; from the gnarly old apple on the communal green outside my cottage flat, to the larches that bear tiny cones in winter, and the purple tinted alders that mark the river's bank. Britain's native trees include 32 different species, but each has its …
The Summer Garden
Well, it seems like summer has returned! July so far has been a little dull, with localised thunderous downpours the only exciting weather; there's been little in the way of hot sunshine in our corner of the county, until this weekend. From an average temperature the past few weeks of just 16*c, today Sussex is …
Dog Days of Summer
The wild chicory is in flower, so it must be July. The end of June blurred into its successor in the gloom of overcast days, and rainstorms. As I drove home from work on the longest day I was surprised to see the dashboard displaying just 13 degrees. Some days have been so dulled with …
My Weedy Eden – Allotment Nature Diaries
The Cutty Garden has always been as much about the wildlife that I share the allotment plot with, as it has been about filling plates or vases. My own patch of nature reserve where I can observe, and maybe even help support, wild things and their intricate lives. Late spring is always a busy time …
The Last Onion
The wind gusts past the front window, seeming to shiver its cold breath through the fabric of the building to chill my toes, and freeze my fingers as they hover hesitantly over the keyboard. Its been a while since I published a fresh blog post, a while since I've written at all. The spring seems …
Lady’s Nightcap and Witches’ Thimbles
If asked to name a flower that captures the fleeting spring spirit of April, it would be the Bluebell I would think of first. Many people would be able to instantly recognise a bluebell, with its distinctive stem of bell-shaped drooping flowers, creating swathes of colour in spring woodlands. The flower has been known however, …
First spring butterflies
At last we can declare that spring is here! Cold winds may still blast through, and we can have balmy sunshine, hail, snow or pouring rain - sometimes all in the same day - but the days are stretching out into beautiful evenings, and the flush of growth in our gardens, waysides, and woods, is …
Sunshine, Swallows and Cathedral Peregrines
Rarely is the sky this blue; a perfect canvas for the circling buzzards that soar up-lit and up-lift. They stack, three to a thermal, in place of the planes whose absence allows the sky this clearing blue breath. Perfect canvas also for the half dozen brimstone butterflies indulged in delicate combat about the goat willow …
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Little Joys of Home
Whittaker's Cottages from Ashtead, Surrey - Weald and Downland Living Museum Home. What a place huh? For something that means such different things to different people, a concept loaded with connotations, the idea of 'The Perfect Home' is equally alluring and pressurising. I will admit to indulging a little too often in that guilty pleasure …
Sussex Field Notes 