Category: Notes from the sticks

STONE walls are very common round here, some of them proper traditional dry stone, some with a bit of mortar in the centre and some with mortar throughout, like a … Continue readingWithin these walls

BEFORE Covid, before even the spectre of nuclear war, there were posters in every public building warning about another dire threat to the British way of life. It was less … Continue readingBeetlemania

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