Countries are like people – none is perfect and none is absolutely beyond redemption (one hopes). Only in the oldest and simplest of western films (and I like westerns), the most tribal of politics and the most intolerant of minds are people good or bad with no shades of grey in between. You’re not perfect…
Year: 2017
Wild food (3) – Hazel Nuts by Ian Carter
This is one of my favourite wild foods and between early August and October (in a good year), I don’t go for many local walks without risking my teeth and cracking open at least one or two. The Hazel would have been one of the first trees to recolonise Britain following the last ice age…
Sunday book review – Landskipping by Anna Pavord
Reviewed by Ian Carter Landskipping is a very individual and reflective account of the British countryside and how it, and our appreciation of it, has evolved over time. It is loosely divided into three parts, covering the history of landscape painting and landscape tourism, the all-pervasive influence of farming, and the importance of a…
Tim Melling – Great Northern Diver
Tim writes: In Britain we call this bird Great Northern Diver, whereas in America the standard name is Common Loon. In Britain we prefer the name Diver, because Loon has another meaning (fool) and we would not want to lumber a bird as majestic as this with such an insulting name. But Loon was used…