Country diary: Budle Bay, Northumberland: Swallows hurtle into the outhouse...
Budle Bay, Northumberland: They make the transition from midday sunshine into deep shadow with but a fraction of a second to come to rest or be dashed against the wallOur rented holiday cottage came...
View ArticleCountry diary: Trimdon, County Durham: Smelling our surroundings is one of...
Trimdon, County Durham: I could barely detect the orchid's scent but then I remembered that it only releases its full fragrance as evening approaches, to attract mothsThe limestone embankments along...
View ArticleCountry diary: Crook, County Durham: The mosquito larvae's baleful...
Crook, County Durham: The gentlest of taps on the glass sent them into a frenzy of convulsions, down to the bottom of the jarEvery summer they appear and then suddenly vanish into the abyss of the...
View ArticleCountry diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: You can watch passing clouds reflected...
Wolsingham, Weardale: After perfect flowering weather and few pathogens, the trees bear an unusually heavy crop of black fruits, as shiny as polished jetThe sun rose without the faintest breeze to...
View ArticleWinlaton Mill, Blaydon-on-Tyne: Harvestmen flee before steel blades
Winlaton Mill, Blaydon-on-Tyne: Each spidery creature clung to its refuge, waving its second pair of legs as if trying to comprehend the devastationWe arrived laden with tools, ready to clear the...
View ArticleCountry diary: Cotherstone, Teesdale: The snake millipede rested at the top...
Cotherstone, Teesdale: After the hysteria of spring and the exuberance of summer, it was as if the hedgerow and its tenants had ground to an exhausted haltWe ate our sandwiches in a bay of trampled...
View ArticleCountry diary: Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria: Twelve verses by a local poet capture...
Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria: They have been carved into local limestone and sandstone blocks and positioned beside the old track bed and foot-worn 'hollow ways' between the fieldsPodgill viaduct provided...
View ArticleCountry diary: Egglestone, Teesdale: Invasion of the killer ladybirds
Egglestone, Teesdale: Harlequins, which thrive on our native species, have spread from the south-east to the Scottish borderIt was only the third time that I'd seen ladybirds in significant numbers...
View ArticleCountry diary: Blanchland, Northumberland: Relics of lead miners' battles...
Blanchland, Northumberland: Steam had been defeated by the struggle to haul coal into this remote valleyThe sound of water gurgling in drainage ditches accompanied us along the last section of our...
View ArticleCountry diary: Whitburn, Sunderland: Easier pickings for starlings outside...
Whitburn, Sunderland: This splinter group, brimming with brazen confidence, had shed the collective neuroses of the flockA flock of 100 starlings circled the grassy field on the low cliffs at the...
View ArticleCountry diary: Romaldkirk, Teesdale: Beeching's gift
Romaldkirk, Teesdale: The two and a half miles of trackbed to Cotherstone forms part of the Tees Valley railway path, with the lure of a convivial pub at either endThe last passenger train left the...
View ArticleCountry diary: Seaham, Durham: With every tide the sea erases a little more...
Seaham, Durham: Almost a century after the bottleworks closed, the sea still returns the waste glass that was routinely dumped into seaWhen Dawdon pit closed and the sea dumping of colliery waste...
View ArticleCountry diary: Wolsingham, Weardale: Woodland regeneration wonders
Wolsingham, Weardale: When I lifted bark loosened by invading hyphae of oyster mushroom, beetles, woodlice and a host of minute springtails scurried awayThe wind had abated at last. Only the cawing of...
View ArticleCountry diary: Crook, County Durham: Some of the orb-shell cockles were as...
Crook, County Durham: When they came to rest their shells parted a little more and two short pink siphons extendedI didn't expect to find much, but curiosity beckoned. The water was bone-chillingly...
View ArticleLichens thrive in conifer plantation
Hamsterley Forest, Weardale: Fragile pendant beards festooned the trees giving them a venerable airWeak winter sunlight broke through as we climbed out of the grey lake of mist that filled the valley...
View ArticlePoring over spores on the brambles
Wolsingham, Co Durham: Rust fungi turn older leaves a lurid yellow stained with abstract crimson patternsOn a grey, foggy, afternoon, diseased bramble leaves present some of the brightest splashes of...
View ArticleFlash of iridescent feathers reveals beauty of cormorants
Wylam, River Tyne: Indigo chest feathers, burnished brass shimmering across the wingsWith their ungainly gait cormorants are perhaps unlikely to top the list of Britain’s favourite birds. And yet when...
View ArticleIn the bleak midwinter
Wolsingham, Weardale: In the lifeless landscape, a flock of long-tailed tits can lift the spirits with their anticsThis was a day to raise the coat collar, hunch the shoulders and keep on the move,...
View ArticlePeering down onto a tiny planet of algae, liverwort and ferns
Hexham, Tyne Valley: Leathery fronds sprouted from fissures, lichens with pink-fruiting bodies lay in the agal tapestryPassengers looking down from the windows of the Carlisle to Newcastle train as it...
View ArticleBibble bugs’ platoon scuttled
Crook, County Durham: The elegant curved symmetry of the woodlouse’s armour plates, swept down like skirts, would have delighted an art nouveau jewellerThe first image that sprang to mind as I picked...
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