Category Uncategorized
London Pavement Plants – in flower this week
You don’t have to go far to find colour and interest in our city with new pavement plants coming into flower almost every day. From top left & clockwise, these are Black Medick, Shining Crane’s-bill, Common Field Speedwell and Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Urban botany is just fab and the smaller London plants rival our spectacular street […]
10th August 2021 – a therapeutic find on Bramley Bank, Croydon
Having finally emerged from the dark hole of coronavirus, I dragged myself out to the little patch of acid grassland on Bramley Bank. I didn’t have much energy for serious botanising so was even more delighted to find a patch of tiny Birdsfoot (Ornithopus perpusillus). BSBI atlas records suggest it hasn’t been recorded here in […]
26th July 2021 – Love a crow
Crows nest in the wood opposite our house but this year a pair choose one of the oak trees in our communal garden. From our back bedroom window I can see them building their nest as the leaves aren’t properly out. That nest soon disappears into the green. There’s not much evidence of them, or […]
The world of pavement weeds – article in March/April 2021 Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine
Delighted to see my article on “The world of pavement weeds” (beautifully illustrated by Lynn Bailey) in the March/April issue of Resurgence & Ecologist Magazine and also published on the magazine website
18th October 2020 – the woodland aroma-scape
A pal of mine Jane wrote a great piece recently in which she talks about the smell of ivy flowers making her think about ivy bees. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad that I haven’t yet seen ivy bees in Sydenham Hill Wood. The nature jury’s out on what this fairly new arrival […]
Guest blog for Mark Avery. From wasps to wildflower nectar
My summer of citizen science nature projects and why I think all nature lovers should get involved…
30 days wild – 18. Woodberry Wetlands, Hackney
This is another one of the sites which is not open at the moment, but is one I’ve visited often so know well what it looks like from inside. Although not much more than a big pond with some nice planting in the shadow of blocks of flats, it’s so much more than that. During […]
14th June 2020 – the intricacy of flowering cocksfoot grass
In the woodland clearing this morning, I like to think I notice the hint of rosy hue which wasn’t there last week. It’s warm but fresh here after yesterday’s downpour. Up close to the scramble of plants on the old railway bank, I see that the cocksfoot grass (Dactylis glomerata) is in flower, and through […]
Dr Amy-Jane Beer, biologist and nature writer
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of talking to Amy about her influences, writing habits and advice for emerging nature writers which you can read here
Suburban Wild UK 