Category: Notes from the sticks

A MONTH ago our builder Darren sent me this video with the question ‘What’s this thing?’ He added: ‘Found it in the shed on the floor, thought it was a … Continue readingThe twig that twitched

Last week’s column with its mention of bad-mannered cattle prompted DEREK REYNOLDS to send this pen-portrait of a real countryman. MY LANDLORD Max has been a local man for all his 70 … Continue readingFarmer Max, old-school countryman

DURING a train journey from Preston to London and back last week I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of swans around. In particular a lake north of … Continue readingSwanupmanship

NEWSPAPERS used to be a lot more fun than they are now. Do you remember Joyce McKinney, the former Miss Wyoming accused in 1978 of using mink-lined handcuffs to kidnap and … Continue readingWhen news was fun

This week I am handing over the first section of the column to HARRY HOPKINS. I’VE coined a phrase which sums up my whole approach to growing stuff: ‘foolish gardening’. I … Continue readingTen left-field ways to make your garden grow

FOR a while last week we thought the winter was over. We had three perfect days of lovely warm sunshine. Of course it couldn’t last, and out came the thermal … Continue readingThe green, green grass of home

I am handing the first section of today’s column to my husband Alan. NO matter how closely we monitor the contents of our kitchen fruit bowl, throughout the warmer months … Continue readingA flurry of fruit flies

THERE can’t be many municipal tips which are home to an ostentation/pride/muster of peacocks (choose your collective noun), but ours at the nearby market town of Clitheroe is one. The local … Continue readingPeacock of the midden

WHILE our daughter Elizabeth was visiting last week, we were in the front room on Thursday evening when we noticed a visitor in the field at the back. With great … Continue readingThanks for dropping in, deer

LAST week contributor Derek Reynolds left a comment about a wonderful visitor near his Shropshire garden: ‘For the first time in my life, I heard a nightingale. Yesterday evening my … Continue readingSerenaded by a nightingale