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
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
Reliving the Grand Haringey Fungus Foray - my initiation into the weird and wonderful world of fungi
We are lucky to have a lovely little open space at the end of our road. The bigger parks can get too busy for my liking but Brunswick Park is nearly always quiet. During the lockdown we have been there lots and lots. Even while the playground has been closed, we have made our own …
When you start pushing a pram around London you end up discovering lots of hidden green patches and pockets you never knew were there before. At least, that's what I have done. In the old pre-motherhood days I would stride the quickest route I knew from A to B, from our house to the tube, …
Continue reading Discovering new green spaces and planting trees on them
I meant what I said. About trying to grow a tree. Right now, on the condiments rack of my fridge, there are six neatly labelled clear plastic bags, each containing a handful of different tree seeds. Meanwhile, in my north-facing back garden, in an assortment of cracked, tagged and colour-coded pots, lies another batch of …
I said that I would begin my arboreal adventure by getting to know the trees in my neck of the woods. So it seems about time that I told you the story of the Seven Sisters – the trees my area of London is named after – and the story of how I came to …
I love the way that London’s green and wild corners are revealing themselves to me little by little. One day, as I was jogging around Finsbury Park, I noticed a steady stream of walkers and cyclists seeping in and out of a narrow passageway above a railway bridge. Curious, I crossed over the bridge …
Last Saturday, I dressed in layers, rode the 144 bus to Muswell Hill in my adopted borough of Haringey and followed local woodsman Iain Loasby on a journey through the history of ancient Coldfall Wood. My arboreal adventure had begun… London may not be the first place you’d expect to find ancient woods or indeed …
Little Wild Tales 