July already. The hottest June on record (by a distance) followed one of the driest ever Mays. And, oh how the landscape responds. Cracked earth and stunted crops. Blackened nettles and trees already wearing their early autumn clothes. Insect numbers have improved from the cold spring, but such was the paucity then that the numberContinue reading “Too tired”
Tag Archives: small skipper
Stranger Things
Despite the recent heatwave, the blistering temperatures and sweaty, sleepless nights, it still feels as though we are waiting for summer. Not a settled period of pleasant warmth and sunshine, but more the essence of the season. A sense of stopping and feeling, a pause of worry and an ease of workload. An expectationContinue reading “Stranger Things”
Garden Party
Spring has sunk into high summer. Days of hot sunshine and sneezes, the air thick with pollen and a rapidly expanding grasshopper orchestra. My time has been stretched. A new issue of Fallon’s Angler has been tied up and released, a sample chapter for a potential project picked at and almost certainly over-scrutinised. A newContinue reading “Garden Party”
Butterflies and Thistles
My daily checks of the grass snake colony (8 individuals is my best count so far) now have an added distraction. The landowner has left an area of old paddock to it’s own devices and the grasses and wildflowers have flourished, growing deep and dense enough for a roebuck to mooch within. Prime spotContinue reading “Butterflies and Thistles”
Kevin Parr 