“Determined that this diary should start off with a bit of flourish, I sallied forth on this fine winter’s day to see what I could find in bloom. The answer was, quite a lot.” Richard Adams, A Nature Diary from Winter An anthology for the changing seasons“ It’s easy to assume that all the blooms […]
My botanical desk – Winter nature diary Read More »
“Nature never did betray…The heart that loved her…For she can so inform the mind that is within us.” From The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden And so begins The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady – open on my botanical desk on a November day with its drawing of dock seed.
My botanical desk – Autumn nature diary Read More »
I feel guilty when I run out of bird food in the winter. The little garden birds pop back and forth to my feeders checking if they have been refilled. I can see them fluttering in and out of the bare branches in the hedgerow waiting. My husband joked that when we moved into our
The secret lives of our winter garden birds Read More »
I bought this book to give as a gift but had to keep it. There are 50 illustrations by the painter Hannah Dale of baby birds and animals in Flying the Nest: The early days of Britain’s best-loved animals. Each entry also includes some fascinating summaries of the animal’s breeding habits, offspring, and even insights
Flying the Nest – The Early Days of Britain’s best loved animals Read More »
I’ve recently been making gifts for friends rather than buying. My presents have included homemade chocolate truffles and bottles of sloe gin, wild plum gin and blackberry vodka. But I’ve also been collecting herbs, flowers and plants from my garden due to the book Gifts from the Garden by Debora Robertson. The author is a food
On my bookshelf: Gifts from the Garden Read More »
When my children were 5 we first started bird watching. There was an empty bird feeder in the tree outside our back deck and out of a whim I bought some bird feed one day to fill it up. Soon I had two very excited twins pointing at the red, blue and multi-coloured birds landing
How to make bird watching fun for kids Read More »
