This month I’ve enjoyed celebrating the season, particularly getting out and about locally. During the first lockdown we broke out the Ordnance Survey maps to get off the beaten track and we’ve been exploring Cheshire’s trails since. My husband gifted me one of the custom OS maps and I’ve been highlighting what we’ve completed, attempting to make shorter circular walks that cover sections of the longer trails. It looks like… Read More »Walking in Cheshire
To mark the equinox we had a bit of a feast and played some forest-themed games. If you’ve never encountered Waldschattenspiel or Shadows in the Forest, it’s a lovely atmospheric game of gnome hide and seek. You build the forest and then it’s lights out – except for the candle being moved around the board in search of little gnomes. Although it’s supplied with a proper candle, our risk aversion… Read More »Autumn’s arrival
September’s mix of rain and sun have seen me seeking shelter in the forest even more than usual. Over the last couple of weeks, the bracken has turned rusty, crispy edges spreading red towards the stem. The floor is littered with burnt out pairs of pine needles and the cores of cones, expertly stripped by squirrel paws. The squirrels themselves are slow to move off the paths, preoccupied with nuts… Read More »Rust and rustling
I took a different approach on this morning’s dog walk and followed my nose. Starting at Gresty’s Waste, we headed towards Old Pale, encountering a couple of stinkhorn fungi just before we crossed the A56. We smelled them before we saw them, a peppery stench of rotting flesh. The latin name Phallus impudicus means ‘shameless penis’ and a common name is deadman’s cock. This is presumably because it is bone… Read More »The scent of summer
All our walks lately seem to have been whitewashed with hawthorn blossom, knee-high cow parsley and carpets of wild garlic. My friend actually referred to ‘white week’ last year to describe nature’s annual confetti cannon. Is it a thing? Does anyone else record the peak week for white wildflowers? That’s such a tongue twister it made my fingers curl on the keyboard! I’ve been trying to photograph the blooms I… Read More »Wildflower walks
I’m back! After a brief spell working with Cheshire Wildlife Trust and a whole lot of maternity leave I’ve returned to freelancing. For starters, I’ve got a couple of articles up on the Natural History Museum’s website. They’re full of facts and surprises for anyone interested in sharks and beetles, I hope you enjoy them. Great white sharks: Dangerous man-eaters or marine marvels? How do dung beetles’ diets keep the… Read More »Coming up
The winter festival of 2020/2021 is officially coming to a close tonight. We’ve packed away the decorations, though I’m not sure I want to let it go just yet. The increasing grip of lockdown has had little impact here, as we’re keeping to ourselves in advance of some hospital treatment (pandemic permitting). It’s felt a bit like being encased in our own little snow globe, albeit without much snow. For… Read More »Ending festivities, beginning the year
Today I’ve packed away the last of the Halloween decorations, and since it’s Friday the 13th I thought I’d get away with a summary of how I celebrated my favourite holiday this year. I absolutely love Halloween, I always have. My childhood bookcase was littered with books featuring witches, I was a dedicated Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan in my teens and communed with goths in university. These days I’m… Read More »Spooky season
My latest country diary for the Guardian focuses on finding evidence people love the landscape in even the most inauspicious areas. If it doesn’t win you round to visiting Gowy Meadows, here are 10 more facts I found while writing it up: There are otters on the River Gowy, and the banks make it ideal for water voles. Italian Prisoners of War were used to straighten the river in the… Read More »Love for the land
You wait all summer for a virtual festival and two happen on the same weekend! In addition to Birdfair, I enjoyed Virtually Expo from the UK Games Expo team last weekend. They made brilliant use of loads of online platforms to provide demos, lectures, live comedy, tournaments, playtesting, vikings, even prize draws so it felt like a pretty good distanced alternative to the real thing. I always keep an eye… Read More »New nature games