Vanessa divides her time between Hertfordshire and the Hebrides and loves to write about birds, butterflies and beachcombing. She gave up corporate life during the pandemic, taking the plunge to follow her passion for wildlife. Recently finishing a Masters in Nature and Travel Writing, she has been announced as a Runner-Up in the BBC Countryfile…
BLOG POSTS
A response from NE on SSSIs
You may remember that I wrote to Natural England about SSSIs in my local area (click here). I’ve had a reply. It’s a pretty clear reply and I’ve highlighted in a purply-pink colour two passages that are of particular interest. The first says ‘the data on the designated sites system are up to date’ –…
Sunday book review – Landscape by Rosamunde Codling
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I’m glad I read this book, and I’ve never read one quite like it. It’s an exploration of landscapes – how we portray them and how we feel about them. It ranges widely from the lunar landscape via Antarctica to East Anglia and from urban to rural. The author is a landscape architect (and I…
Sunday book review – Planting with Nature by Kirsty Wilson
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Any book which starts with a quote from Audrey Hepburn is off to a good start with me. She said that to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. No wonder there are now so many areas of artificial turf and gravel. But this book is an antidote to that as a ‘practical and…
Sunday book review – Avocado Anxiety by Louise Gray
Louise Gray’s previous book, The Ethical Carnivore was 5th in my books of the year for 2016 (see review here), and this follow-up, also on food, is a contender for a top-10 listing this year, I reckon. Eating fruit and vegetables doesn’t quite have the moral jeopardy attached to it that surrounds eating an animal…
Guest blog – Through the Looking Glass by Colin Rees
Colin Rees is a life-long natural scientist and has worked as an environment/biodiversity specialist for international organizations in over 80 countries. He is co-author of Birds of a Feather: Seasonal Changes on Both Sides of the Atlantic (reviewed here) and author of A History of Cornish Ornithology: the path to conservation and Nature’s Calendar: a year in the life…
Sunday book review – The Peak by Rod Dunn
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An attractive book of relatively few words but a great many excellent images. The photographs are wonderful and portray the landscapes, wildlife and built environment of our oldest National Park. There are many good portraits of birds here, and I enjoyed them. The butterflies were even better and the plants better still. But the landscapes…
Sunday book review – Shaping the Wild by David Elias
This is David Elias’s first book and it is a cracker. The name might ring a bell with readers of this blog as he wrote a guest blog here almost five years ago (Dead from the neck down). This is a thoughtful, knowledgeable and loving account of upland Wales, its wildlife and its land use….
Sunday book review – Ten Birds that Changed the World by Stephen Moss
I have reviewed several of Stephen Moss’s books here (Tweet of the Day (with Brett Westwood) 2014; Natural Histories (with Brett Westwood) 2015; Wild Kingdom, 2016; The Twelve Birds of Christmas, 2019; The Accidental Countryside, 2020; The Swallow, 2021; Skylarks with Rosie, 2021) and enjoyed them all. They vary in depth and scope but are…
Guest blog – Linnets by Kerrie Gardner
Kerrie is a Devon-based artist and writer who likes to dabble in a variety of crafts. Before becoming self-employed she was an ecologist and prior to that she worked as an environmental educator with the Dorset Wildlife Trust. She contributed to the BTO’s Red Sixty Seven book and has written for Penguin, discussing the loss of biodiversity…