These days almost any form of nature collecting is frowned upon. Here Nige recalls his own youthful collecting experiences and explains how they gave him a lifelong appreciation of the natural world... A little while back David Attenborough spoke out against the misguided laws that prevent children collecting almost anything in the field. Good ... Read More...
Nature
As Texas burns, Daniel Kalder continues to mull over the implications of living in a natural disaster area... The other night I was working in my backyard when I caught a whiff of smoke on the wind: a barbecue? I wondered. But there were no smoke trails coming from behind my neighbor’s ... Read More...
From the archives, Gaw examines a countryside classic... I've been reading Oliver Rackham's The History of the Countryside, a book full of ideas, observations and interesting facts. It's a great myth-buster and is permeated by a sceptical curiosity that's never shy of actually visiting a patch of land if that's what's ... Read More...
When I was young, droughts were something that happened elsewhere: as a punishment from God in the Bible, or in far off Africa, where unfortunate babies with distended bellies would die in the scorching heat of an evil sun. In Scotland, by contrast, there was never a shortage of rain ... Read More...
Nige finds two extraordinary collectors within the pages of that lepidopterist's Bible, The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors ... Like Gaul, The Aurelian Legacy is divided into three parts - a history of the British butterfly fancy, a biographical dictionary of notable butterfly men and women, and essays on some of ... Read More...
Ian Vince's The Lie of the Land (buy it here) has won all manner of favourable recognition, most recently at the Hay Festival where it was named the National Trust's 2011 Outdoor Book of the Year. Here's a geology taster, followed by the chance to win a free copy. If there’s ... Read More...
W.G. Hoskins' The Making of the English Landscape, first published in 1955, has in many ways been overtaken by later studies, but is still the classic of its subject – and is undoubtedly the best written. Hoskins is animated by a love and deep, intimate knowledge of certain local landscapes - ... Read More...
From the Dabbler archives we present this post from Martin Wainwright, which originally appeared in September 2010. Martin has written numerous invaluable books about the countryside, is the northern editor of The Guardian and is a prolific blogger on the subject of moths... As an increasingly ancient journalist, I’ve lived through many stories of ... Read More...
DAISY, COMMON, or DAY’S EYE (Bellis perennis). These large white gawky-looking flowers are so universal in English pastures and meadows, that description is almost needless. They flower all the year, principally dotting the meadows in early May. . . Domestic cattle rarely touch this plant. Notwithstanding its beauty and its ... Read More...
Britain's butterfly and (especially) bird life is rich and various, but, for all its beauties, those who take an interest in such things have to acknowledge an underlying tendency towards inconspicuous brownness. Large numbers of species - especially of birds - are pretty small and nondescript and come in unsassuming ... Read More...
