A friend once asked me whether I thought trees have agency. Whether they exert a force on our lives? This has left me wondering. Sat beneath a giant beech tree, on the flanks of its incredible trunk, I begin to feel its enormity. I lift my eyes skyward, through the branches and the mosaic of …
It was the second week of February when I first noticed it..... Riding out on my usual bike route, it was a still, February morning; chilly with partial cloud. As I watched the countryside drift by over my handlebars, I suddenly became aware of how the colours were warmer, the light was brighter and …
A strange white light filtered into my sleepy eyes as I woke this morning. The minute I looked out of my window I knew I might not have long before this splendour is gone. Overnight whilst all was still, fog, ice and a light wind had worked together to create their magic artwork. A rime …
September and October came and went in the hustle and bustle of daily routines. Before I knew it, it was November, one of my favourite months in nature’s calendar. This year, I was going to miss two weeks of it as work took me away. Of course I love my adventures but I love …
Right by the roadside under a mound of earth and turf, a small wooden door marks the entrance to the new National Trust for Jersey Wetland interpretation centre that opened in 2014. We have a bus full of Bournemouth University tourism students who have come to the island in order to learn about tourism development and marketing, …
Continue reading Water rail, snipe and harriers at the Jersey Wetland Centre
September is a month of transitions. Although I admire its beauty, it has never been one of my favourite months. Like all transitions, September can be unsettling especially as autumn is the precursor of colder and darker winter nights. This year, however, I am trying to see it all with new eyes. In this time …
It is a bank holiday Saturday and I am at a seabird reserve run by the RSPB at Bempton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It is early morning, cool with an eerie sea mist coming in from the North Sea making the outline of this distinctive coastline appear and disappear. I put on my walking boots …
As a commentator on wildlife tourism in Britain, this was an exciting event I couldn’t miss. It was a combined meeting between Bournemouth University and Dorset Wildlife Trust and was organised by Arjan Gosal: its purpose was to debate the concept of ‘rewilding’; a term mostly associated with environmental campaigner George Monbiot and his book …
It has been a long day at work in front of my computer so I am glad to be wandering across the fields to my favourite pub, the White Horse, in the next village. There is not much to see apart from a mistle thrush singing its evening song and the swifts that glide above the …
Rewilding journeys 