Photo by Andrea Paz on Pexels.com Once there was a woman who could never get green things to grow, no matter how hard she tried. Each spring, she would sow seeds she had gathered in the autumn. Her pockets and bags bulged with little zip-lock plastic bags; the kinds that had once contained screws, sequins, …
I am told that in ten days Shredtropolis will be complete. Not ten consecutive days you understand; Mr Rixon is a busy man and has other responsibilities. His day job for example, and his children. However, ten full days of labour should be all it takes for him to finish building his seventh – yes …
A.E. Housman may have been right when he declared that the cherry was the loveliest tree in springtime, but for sheer autumnal majesty the gingko tree is hard to beat. We are lucky to have a mature gingko in our front garden. Even on cloudy days, it is a glorious sight but on bright November …
My most magical bat encounter came when I walked into the bathroom and saw a bat on a toothbrush. My brain struggled to process what my eyes were seeing; they kept trying to convince me that it was a used teabag that just happened to have feet. #bats
24 property viewings, 17 months of renting, 5 house offers, 4 surveys, 2 long-awaited glasses of champagne* *Yes, I know these are wine glasses; we hadn't unpacked the champagne ones, LOL.
Last autumn, I told you all about our new dream house in Worcester, minus one minor detail: we didn't actually own it. I suppose I didn't mention it because I thought it would only be a matter of time before we did and because I didn't want to bore you. We had arranged to rent …
If I had to pick a favourite harbinger of spring I think it would have to be the flowers of Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna). I spotted my first one in bud on the shady banks of the Laugherne Brook during the New Year Plant Hunt but I had to wait until 8th February to see …
The month of January is named after Janus, the Roman god with two heads, one of which looks into the future and the other, the past. He is the god of beginnings and transitions, but also of doorways, gates, passageways and paths...
At the end of September 2021, Mr Rixon and I, our two girls and our two cats finally moved out of London. Not to Devon, as long-planned and dreamed, but to Worcester in the Midlands instead. Back in June, we were in the process of purchasing a house in a pretty little village in Mid …
There are many books that encourage children to take a deeper interest in the natural world around them. I was delighted to receive a particularly wonderful one through the post recently: 'A Friend to Nature: Activities and Inspiration to Connect with the Wild World' by Laura Knowles and Rebecca Gibbon. A Friend to Nature is …
Little Wild Tales 