Bluebell hanky-panky
IT is bluebell time and the roadside verges here in Lancashire are full of flowers. But all is not as it seems. A friend sent me this glorious picture of … Continue readingBluebell hanky-panky
A compendium of musical delights by Alan and Margaret Ashworth
IT is bluebell time and the roadside verges here in Lancashire are full of flowers. But all is not as it seems. A friend sent me this glorious picture of … Continue readingBluebell hanky-panky
THE ‘rewilding’ mania is becoming more worrying and more sinister. Until fairly recently it was easy to laugh at the crazy idea of bringing beavers back to Britain some centuries … Continue readingSheep Hater of the Week
COMMENTERS sometimes reminisce about the late TV presenter Jack Hargreaves, so I thought I would recall few of his programmes. I have to admit that I don’t really remember him, … Continue readingGentle Jack, a TV natural
I’VE always been keen on earthworms. As I wrote in a previous article, I am told that as a child I used to wheel them around in a pram meant for … Continue readingWriggle room
IT’S snowdrop time. I think these are amongst the most beautiful flowers, and the message that spring is on the way is so welcome. There are about 20 varieties throughout … Continue readingSnowdrops put a spring in my step
SOME months ago my husband Alan was walking our labrador pup beside the brook which runs behind our house and then through the centre of our village when he got … Continue readingOur little crayfish haven
THIS week my husband Alan heard a great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) drumming. We used to hear and see them quite often in the south London suburbs – they sometimes … Continue readingThe drummer in the woods
ON a walk through the park the other day I saw dozens of blackbirds – every one of them male. Where all the ladies have gone I have no idea. … Continue readingSing a song of blackbirds
IT HAS been a pretty cold winter so far in Lancashire, with night temperatures regularly down to about minus 8 deg C and staying at freezing point during the day. … Continue readingThe year with no summer
WHEN we lived in God’s own county, Essex, more than 30 years ago, we used to see flocks and flocks of lapwings, but I very rarely see them in Lancashire, … Continue readingOur tumbling lapwings