Month: April 2025
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Gallimaufry: Badgers, birds and birdsong, royal hands, Coyotes, an Oak Tree, a Colossal Squid, a Slow Worm & aliens
Gallimaufry is a great word. A colleague at an antiquarian bookshop was very fond of it and various other synonyms for miscellany. It’s a French stew. Olla podrida is a Spanish stew (pot pourri is the direct French equivalent), also used by the book cataloguer to my mystification at the time, salmagundi and macédoine are…
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Alderney wildlife
Even during such an emotional trip (see previous post) I did not of course forget about the wildlife. My first stop was the Alderney Wildlife Trust’s (AWT) centre and shop. I had hoped to meet the new warden at the observatory as well but timings unfortunately did not allow. The Trust is very active, organising…
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Alderney
The third largest of the Channel Islands, after Jersey and Guernsey, this very special place was where my brother and I enjoyed five successive summer holidays as children, beginning in 1967 when I was five years old. We always stayed at the Grand Hotel (since demolished), which had a swimming pool with a sunken bar…
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Nature Boy
Seán Ronayne, Nature Boy; a journey of birdsong and belonging, Hachette Books, 2024. Book review. I didn’t want to finish this book, in the sense that I didn’t want it to end. It had me in tears too many times to count and from the beginning I was sure that it was going to be…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part IV
Great Bedwyn to Burbage Wharf Another boneshaking but wonderful ten miles or so, there and back. The new electric bike seems remarkably robust so far, although there were some squeaks of protest for the last couple of miles, so I think some tlc is in order. On this stretch alone, which continues the southward direction…
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Badgers & Development; British Steel & Thames Water; Trump and his tariffs
Apologies for the uneven appearance of sub-headers in this and recent posts, a WordPress issue which they are currently trying to resolve. Development “Bats or great crested newts?” “Neither because I want growth.” This was Rachel Reeves in an interview not so long ago. She may as well have said “money” instead of “growth”. Starmer…
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Collared Dove
An adult pair were regular visitors earlier in the year as usual, but I haven’t seen them for weeks. Then two appeared this morning, but something was different and not just in their slightly fluffy appearance. They were shy and reticent, staying in the tree. I think they are juveniles and like to think the…
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Rattus norvegicus, George Monbiot and a few more garden birds
Rats Rattus norvegicus, variously know as the Norway rat, sewer rat, brown rat, wharf rat, common rat and Hanover rat. I had noticed an unusual although not unpleasant smell in the shed some weeks ago and some minor evidence of rodent damage. If I ignore it for long enough, I thought, it will go away.…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part III
The Bedwyns Which sounds like a family name from a Jane Austen novel. Again starting where I left off, there was a surprise under Little Bedwyn bridge. A pair of Muscovy ducks. I had seen a male before but never a female and wasn’t immediately sure who I was looking at. I slowly pushed my…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal part II
Hungerford to Little Bedwyn I started a little east of Hungerford at Lower Denford, exactly where I had stopped on the previous trip (I do like to be thorough), aiming for Little Bedwyn. I covered around eleven miles, the last two on the way back on foot following a front wheel puncture. Recognising the weight…
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The Kennet & Avon Canal, Part I
This is one of those marvels of engineering which we are lucky enough to have running through our village. I have spent a lot of time on and alongside it over the years, mostly with the children. It has long been an ambition to follow the towpath the entire distance, if only in short sections…
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Aristocracy special
There is something very other about this strange subspecies, the British aristocracy, this relic of feudalism. I have written about them quite a lot, but thought it would be fun to gather it all together and recount anecdotes of my personal encounters with them. The Duke of Westminster, when asked by a journalist what advice…