Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies
Learning a little about the nature around us helps us to connect and pay more attention to the world we live in. Being interested also makes us more interesting! Every year I promise myself I will learn about fungi. I even bought myself a brilliant book about them,...
This week I returned to a place I call Cherry Wood. It's a copse of cherry trees too small to be marked on my map, that caught my attention while walking along the coast path earlier this year. The cool dark shade of the trees created a distinct contrast to the sun...
Look what I found! These unmistakable caterpillars evoke a vivid childhood memory for me. They are also a stark reminder of shifting baselines. A shifting baseline occurs where one generation perceives the environmental conditions of their time as the normal state...
This four-spotted chaser collided with my loopy dog on Dartmoor yesterday. It bounced off her head and into a puddle where it quickly became waterlogged. I watched it for a while to make sure it went on its way, but it was struggling to break free of the water. I put...
I found this recently emerged five-spot burnet moth while out walking the dog this morning. It was amazing to see the story of its metamorphosis right there on the same blade of grass. The burnet moth is one of over 100 species of moths that are active during the day...
It's easy to forget we are part of nature. Each and every one of us is inextricably linked to the energy of the universe, alongside every insect, tree or mountain. Sometimes we just need to be still, reconnect with that energy and remind ourselves of our place in it...
So many grasses are in flower right now and if you look really really closely you’ll see they are incredibly beautiful. This timothy grass officially blew my mind! The importance of grasses are often overlooked, but they are one of the oldest, most abundant plant...
The month of June has been an absolute joy! I have had the privilege of surveying twelve incredible wildflower meadows for the Devon Wildlife Trust, all of them part of the Avon Valley project. Each meadow is unique, sustaining a huge biodiversity of plants and...
I started this sketch one evening last summer. Enjoying the warm colours of the landscape around me and the heat of the sun on my back, I sat on the beach just breathing it all in. For a while I watched the people; a little boy and his Dad, a woman slowly inching her...
This delicate flower is a vital part of a reintroduction project initiated by the hugely inspirational Sarah Gillespie. Sarah is an artist who is incredibly passionate about moths and has encouraged a group of local enthusiasts to grow these beautiful, fragrant...
What a treat to find this peppered moth having a snooze in my garden. Such a special creature with a totally fascinating story. The peppered moth represents a fantastic example of natural selection and evolution. Before the 1800s the light-coloured form that I found...
Caring for God's Acre is an initiative that encourages churchyards across the UK to be managed with nature in mind. The intention is to create wildlife havens for all to enjoy. Residents of Stoke Fleming Parish were keen to understand the existing biodiversity of...
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