Dinosaur in the log pile
Crook, County Durham: We watched the rhinoceros beetle take lumbering steps across our kitchen table like some prehistoric monsterDavid Elliston Allen, chronicler of naturalists in Britain, once...
View ArticleWithered charm of the bird’s nest orchid
Weardale, County Durham: With no leaves or chlorophyll the plant’s survival depends upon a complex ménage à troisIt is 15 years since we last discovered a bird’s-nest orchid. It was hidden among dog’s...
View ArticleMartins on madcap chase in the meadow
Kirkhaugh, Northumberland: The birds hurtled past, chattering like excited children, rising in high-speed turns, chasing the cloud shadowsWe stood on the wooden bridge spanning the fast flowing,...
View ArticleThe wasteland - what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?*
Crook, County Durham We count the usual suspects among the rubble – teasels, mugwort, ragwort, poppies, mullein and melilotThe fragrance of newly mown hay drying in the sun in Weardale’s meadows is...
View ArticleA stealthy birth, then to sprout and spore
Hollingside Wood, Durham: New life is erupting from the humus – the toadstool season has begun early this yearPapery seed capsules are the only sign of the bluebells which carpeted this woodland floor...
View ArticleConnecting with the wild and free
Egglestone, Teesdale Looking at wildflowers and seeing an image of ourselves implies an empathy with the natural worldLethargy seemed to have settled over the landscape after the harvest. There was...
View ArticleEmissary arrives in fiery copper costume
River Derwent, Northumberland The small copper butterfly flitted from flower to flower, then settled almost at my elbowDownstream from Blanchland bridge there were signs that the countryside was...
View ArticleMettle of miners crystal clear at the jewel trove
Slitt Mine, Weardale, County Durham Miners descended a shaft almost 600ft deep to bring up the lead ore, labouring in a candlelit labyrinthOur children called this place the jewel mine when we first...
View ArticleExquisite fossil coral unmasked in wet slabs
Bollihope, Durham Splashed with water from the burn the wet rock matrix darkens to reveal the coral’s white filigreeStanding under a leaden sky on this bleak moorland, with a bitter wind blowing over...
View ArticleLate bloomers in the lee
Hawthorn Dene, Durham Clocks askew as a wild rose with ripe hips still bears petals and the elder’s blossom appears as birds strip its berriesThere is something unsettling, finding a wild rose in bloom...
View ArticleMedlar meddling like the mediaevals
Durham City Bountiful croppers, medlar trees, in mediaeval England, produced a valued winter foodThe gales that swept the leaves from the lawns beside the footpath had shaken medlars down from the...
View ArticleTraveller’s joy down memory lane
Blaid’s Wood, Durham On the Downs the plant of ‘goodly shew with feather-like tops’ seemed to festoon every hedgerowFeathery clouds of Clematis vitalba seeds, entangled in the briars and hazels in the...
View ArticleA sarcophagus in the greenhouse
Crook, County Durham Unnoticed the larva continued its magical metamorphosis into a butterfly, as enigmatic as a mummyAfter the passing of the winter solstice the urge to sow seeds in the greenhouse is...
View ArticleEarwigs’ beauty forever in a dark cavity
Weardale, County Durham If only they’d reveal those folded wings, translucent and iridescent, shaped like Chinese fansIt’s not unusual for earwigs to be active on mild days mid winter but they are, by...
View ArticleSpanish drapery from branch and brush
Bishop Auckland, Co Durham It’s as if giant hands twisted the trunk, the tree acquiring the youthful exuberance of a swirling flamenco skirtThis market town, whose fortune waxed and waned with that of...
View ArticleIcy gales shake the trees above spring’s first new growth
Backstone Bank, Weardale On the ground, on fallen trunks and limbs, the first signs of life were forcing their way through the skeletons of last summer’s leavesI felt the sting of ice on my face just...
View ArticleTime-tested rites of ancient plants
Wolsingham, Weardale The sexual success of thalloid liverworts has ensured their survival for millions of yearsPeering down at the emerald lobes of Pellia epiphylla liverwort covering the sides of the...
View ArticleFrost, the great synchroniser
Crook, County Durham Each frozen dawn shortens the fuse that releases the explosion of growth when spring arrivesIt was a dawn that almost made me wish that winter might last a little longer. The sun...
View ArticleCricket field day in a wobbly watery world
Hamsterley Forest, Weardale A life supported by surface tension gives water crickets a sensory outlook that can only be imaginedAll winter the ditches beside the forest track flowed with water draining...
View ArticleChilled newt in the grass
Crook, County Durham On dry land palmate newts are ungainly but in the pond they become water dragons, weaving about with an undulating wriggle of the tailIn the garden in spring the hour after sunset...
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