Category: Notes from the sticks

WALKING beside the Ribble last week I found myself amidst a swarm of fast-flying sand martins. I had never seen so many at once so I had a go at … Continue readingSurrounded by sand martins

THIS week saw I ants scurrying about outside the front of the house for the first time this year. I find it quite hard to love ants, but like everything … Continue readingFor every human, a million ants

IT’S BEEN very cold here for several weeks, and dry as well. Apparently this is caused by an area of high pressure stubbornly lodged over Northern Europe. (This type of … Continue readingBeware of the cat

ON the other side of our stream is a steep bank which is covered with ivy. Occasionally I see a quick movement amongst the leaves and I immediately think it … Continue readingThe industrious Mr Wren

FOR a change, I am going to write about something I have never seen in the seven years or so we have lived in Lancashire. Before this we were in … Continue readingNo more brushes with foxes

I AM the proud possessor of a book called Historic Steam Boiler Explosions by Alan McEwen. It is a fascinating account of the death and destruction wreaked for decades of early industrialisation by … Continue readingHorror at Greendale Mill

THIS is my favourite time of year, when the buds are starting to burst and everything is still to come. I have just realised that it was exactly a year … Continue readingCome for a walk with me

WALKING along the road to the next village, I came upon an unusual and not very pleasant sight: a dozen or so mole carcases hanging on a barbed wire fence. … Continue readingThe great mole hunt

THERE is something not quite right about reservoirs which wildlife seems to recognise.  Perhaps it is the changing water level which presumably makes it impossible for vegetation to take hold … Continue readingThe drowned village

WHEN I woke shortly before 7am on Tuesday, the light on my bedroom wall was such a vivid red that I wondered for a second if the building over the … Continue readingSunrise over Pendle