Brocks and Brooks

Twitter is buzzing today with suggestions that the English Government will announce its decision on badger culling tomorrow.  We’ll see – but I’d keep your ears open at around 1230 or so if I were you (unless you are a badger in which case I’d run down a hole, put your paws over your ears…

Butterflies, Sir David, Ingrams, Waitrose and windfalls

I’ve done my bit for Butterfly Conservation this weekend and carried out a Big Butterfly Count in the back garden. This very serious survey was postponed as when the rain fell this morning I nipped in to Waitrose in Rushden to stock up on cheap white wine and found that my local Waitrose store was…

Brooks and badgers

Thinking about next week’s Game Fair at Blenheim, I remember a few years ago sitting next to the Telegraph columnist Charlie Brooks at lunch on the Friday.  Mr Brooks had just recently written a piece slagging off the RSPB so we had a few things to chat about and the conversation roamed over the usual…

Thinking about ponds

I spent Wednesday mostly thinking about ponds.  This wasn’t just a reverie – I am a trustee of the excellent small conservation charity ‘Pond Conservation’. They certainly didn’t choose me because of my great knowledge of ponds, but I said ‘yes’ to Pond Conservation because I admire what they are doing, and at their AGM…

Fair point

I recently received in the post my tickets for the CLA Game Fair.  This year it is at Blenheim at the end of next week.  The last time the Game Fair was at Blenheim the queues into the car park were horrendous so if you come next week, my advice is to set off early –…