Category: Notes from the sticks

AN occasional sight in my childhood (in the suburbs of Manchester and London) was that of an owl in a tree being mobbed by furious small birds. It is yet … Continue readingOur neighbours, the owls

AS if he didn’t have enough call on his funds, a few weeks ago Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £20million award to refurbish Bury Market. Embarrassingly for Sunak, he was under … Continue readingA most uncommon market

AS anyone who has been to the Ribble Valley in Lancashire will know, we are lucky to live in a beautiful area of rolling hills, fields, woods, pretty villages, streams … Continue readingLitter rout

WE moved to Lancashire from a bigger house about eight years ago, and thanks to the machinations of our unscrupulous buyers it was done in a horrible rush, about which … Continue readingSour Charity

DID you enjoy your extra hour of sleep last night? Or, like me, did you wake at 6 instead of 7 and have an extra hour to wait for the … Continue readingBack to the Dark Ages

THIS week I am writing about something I don’t see often in the sticks, the collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), strictly speaking the Eurasian collared dove.   This is presumably because it … Continue readingThe collared dove coup

READERS sometimes comment that this column is a welcome relief from the insanity of the modern world, so I apologise in advance that today’s article is not light-hearted. I start … Continue readingJohnson’s McGonagall moment

MY column a couple of weeks ago about climbers and the damage they can do reminded readers of some other pestilential plants. One of them is Himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), a relative of the … Continue readingA beautiful beast from the Himalayas

LAST Saturday, le tout Clitheroe turned out for the annual Ribble Valley Scooter Rally (cancelled last year). It used to be called the Mod Weekender but they renamed it in … Continue readingA multitude of Mods

THERE isn’t much that proclaims ‘country cottage’ more clearly than a foliage-covered frontage. Here are a few pictures I took around our village last week. This is common or garden … Continue readingClimbing the walls