Category: Notes from the sticks

THERE’S been some quiet excitement among the walking fraternity in the village recently because there are otters in the Ribble. They are thought to live under a pump house on … Continue readingOtter spotters

JUST along the road from us is a dairy farm which I have walked past hundreds of times, and have seen the cows feeding and the delightful calves (some of … Continue readingThe cows that milk themselves

IN one of my earliest Notes from the Sticks, nearly two years ago, I wrote about the Ribble flood of February 9, 2020. It turned out to be a record for the … Continue readingAfter the deluge

A COUPLE of winters ago I was driving through a nearby small town when I saw two or three men with binoculars looking up at a tree. Being nosy, I … Continue readingWaxwing lyrical

AN occasional sight in my childhood (in the suburbs of Manchester and London) was that of an owl in a tree being mobbed by furious small birds. It is yet … Continue readingOur neighbours, the owls

AS if he didn’t have enough call on his funds, a few weeks ago Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £20million award to refurbish Bury Market. Embarrassingly for Sunak, he was under … Continue readingA most uncommon market

AS anyone who has been to the Ribble Valley in Lancashire will know, we are lucky to live in a beautiful area of rolling hills, fields, woods, pretty villages, streams … Continue readingLitter rout

WE moved to Lancashire from a bigger house about eight years ago, and thanks to the machinations of our unscrupulous buyers it was done in a horrible rush, about which … Continue readingSour Charity

DID you enjoy your extra hour of sleep last night? Or, like me, did you wake at 6 instead of 7 and have an extra hour to wait for the … Continue readingBack to the Dark Ages

THIS week I am writing about something I don’t see often in the sticks, the collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), strictly speaking the Eurasian collared dove.   This is presumably because it … Continue readingThe collared dove coup