Cherry blossom and the heel of a boot
It’s cherry blossom season and, as I cycle around the heel of Italy, the trees are full of glorious blossom. Their long …
It’s cherry blossom season and, as I cycle around the heel of Italy, the trees are full of glorious blossom. Their long …
I’m looking through one of my old butterfly books. ‘A Butterfly Book for the Pocket’ by Edmund Sanders. It was published in …
We’ve already said our goodbyes to the ancient city of Matera when a need for Italian coffee and a sit down overcomes …
I haven’t ever needed to bite on a piece of wood, after all, I’ve never given birth. Biting on a piece of …
Matera is a city in southern Italy; an ancient city in the heel of Italy’s boot. It has been continuously inhabited since …
Cycling through Almond trees. Feeling like a nut. Realising they’re not ripe yet.
I can see a tiny yellow bird at the very top of a house resting on the TV aerial in Matera in …
It was late at night, at a depressing motorway service station somewhere off the M25, and in an anonymous branch of WH …
There’s a Lizard on a wall in Italy. It’s an Italian Wall Lizard.
Experiences in our childhood often retain the depth of emotion that was attached to them at the time, despite the distance in …
Wonderful weather. Beautiful blossom. A neat little Linnet at the top of the tree. Flocks of Linnets used to be a common …
There’s a Bloody-Nosed Beetle, Timarcha tenebricosa, marching across the field in front of me. They are flightless beetles which struck me as …
It’s forty years since I first spotted a Pied Wagtail and drew it in my childhood nature notebooks. Here’s the entry from …
All photographers are storytellers. They use their images to tell us stories about themselves and their relationship with the world. Each photographer …
I’ve got a rare weekend day off and I’m in Otmoor taking in a few hours of sunshine, walking and nature. There’s …
As I walk down the canal I see a duck with a vicious saw-toothed beak and a brown head. It must be …
There’s a stunning tree in the back garden of this grand house in Puglia in the south of Italy. The Lady of …
The steady gaze of this half-wild cat faces me. It’s behind a tree in the garden of the stable block of the …
Mandarins are so spectacular it’s hard to believe they’re real, but, as with everything in the natural world, it’s more spectacular than …
There are stone roofs in many parts of the UK. From the honey-coloured stone of the Cotswolds to the grey of the …
Forty years ago today my friend Michael got in touch with me to tell me he had a dead bird for me. ‘It’s a Meadow Pipit’ he said excitedly.
Woodpeckers and headaches. Wouldn’t you get a headache if you banged your head against a tree 12,000 times a day? Luckily for …
Here’s a drawing of a Mute Swan I did forty years ago. And here’s a photograph of a Mute Swan I took …
There’s a Blackcap in the tree. I can hear its alarm call and then I see it; it’s a female. It looks …
I’m in the far south of Italy, in the heel of the boot that makes the Country so much more recognisable than …
If you have a tendency to see animals as humans with distorted features you’re going to have a freakily nightmarish time when …
The sedimentary rock on Westray breaks into hundreds of ledges where the layers of time wear them away.
This Robin is screaming a song of dominance and intimidation, proclaiming its territory and its swaggering intention to repel any strangers daring …
There’s a bloated Common Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus nearby. I can hear it cooing.
Exactly forty years ago today I was only just a teenager when I saw my first Goldfinch. I spent every available minute …