Environment

We are in sheep country and the farmer thinks walkers need shepherding. Or, does he think sheep can read? Oddly enough, the path seemed obvious, to humans, at least. It dropped through woods once [...]

Ah, ivy! A friend and a foe to gardeners I believe. There is some truth in that. If you need to cut ivy then you must wear safety glasses and a dust mask. The dust it releases goes straight to [...]

Horticulture and global warming in Britain are rarely considered together. Horticulture is a dirty word these days, as are all jobs that utilise the land. However, it has a long history in [...]

Gardening is a sensuous hobby because it is all about fertility. Consequently, if we gardeners are not spawning vegetables and fruit then we are growing flowers. Success feeds the senses, not the [...]

Deliveries of food and goods in Friars Cliff was entirely carbon free. They were delivered in relative silence and in clean air. However, that was because the river and sea were the highways and [...]

The garden is a joy on these warm balmy days. It is quiet too, and I look to the skies. However, although many people must see the gulls flying over Friars Cliff, few give them a second thought. [...]

Roe deer reappear in Friars Cliff is hardly world shattering news. This headline reminds me of my life in the sticks in Shropshire. The newspaper hoardings would highlight significant events such [...]

Sparrows might not be able to sing but they sure can twitter. I see quarrels of sparrows, or rather I hear them, all over Friars Cliff, my little coastal retreat. They might be dull, brown jobs [...]

Once again, I am a slave to nature. However, I recall the condition from years before so it is not new to me. It is a state whereby the garden demands constant action from me, most of it hard [...]

Many councils in the UK are declaring a climate emergency including my own in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP). As a result, they have an action plan that has 153 measures to become [...]