Have you always dreamt of working in wildlife conservation, but don’t know where to start? Make 2021 the year you stop dreaming.
Have you always dreamt of working in wildlife conservation, but don’t know where to start? Make 2021 the year you stop dreaming.
Credit: Aron Visuals, Unsplash I think I must have inherited a lateness gene. No matter how carefully I plan, I always seem to be running about, running late and running out of time. I am usually the last to do things among my friends. I didn't learn to ride a bike or swim until I …
Continue reading Late bloomer: How a botanical career slowly flourished
My first ever blog post was all about trees. In early 2016 I wrote a list of tree-themed aspirations for the year ahead, including planting a tree, climbing a tree, getting better at identifying trees and learning the names of the trees on my street. It has taken me four years to tick off that …
Continue reading How and why I learnt the names of my street trees during lockdown
Christmas is going to be a little different for most of us this year. The recent Covid-19 lockdowns have given many of us a chance to think about how we can save money, reduce waste and be more intentional with our spending. Now that the festive season is upon us, I thought I'd put together …
Continue reading Eco-friendly ideas to save money this Christmas
It's the little things people do that will make the difference; my little thing is planting treesWangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate 2004 Wangari Maathai, credit: Martin Rowe Kenyan activist, environmentalist, and 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, Wangari Maathai, would have been eighty years old this year. Although she lived many thousands of miles away, her legacy …
Continue reading National Tree Week 2020: Celebrating Wangari Maathai
When they walk along our road, or round the park or through the woods - my children always find a stick to carry with them. Depending on its length, and size and straightness, a stick can be many things... It can be a spoon for stirring a witch's brew or mud pie mixture simmering away …
It's time I let you in on a secret. For the last five years or so, Mr Rixon and I have been followers of a growing movement across the world known as financial independence (FI) or FIRE (financial independence, retire early). Our goal is to save up enough money so that we can quit the …
Credit: Peter Neumann, Unsplash I've always had mixed feelings about Halloween. On the one hand, I love the celebration of autumn and the feeling of liminality that the date conjures up. On the other hand, I could really do without all the plastic rubbish. A report by The Fairyland Trust (a charity that gets children …
Celebrating the diversity and complexity of the hidden world of bugs
Today (21st October 2020) is the 30th anniversary of Apple Day and I thought I'd mark the occasion by telling you about two urban orchards close to where I live in North London - one around one hundred years old, the other just ten. Apple Day was founded by Common Ground in 1990 as an …