What is your lawn like? The picture here is of mine! Spangled with Dandies!
For more - photos, comments, etc - head HERE! (it will be up at 0800 Wednesday morning)
I am so thrilled that life is erupting all around me - from my shed I have heard chiffchaffs and blackcaps, robins and song thrushes, great tits and blue tits - and the crows, jackdaws, pigeons, doves - and many more …
What are you hearing?
My scruffy east Oxford garden has two aims in life - my comfort and a space to share with nature. My comfort comes in the form of my hammock! Sharing space with nature comes with my absolute horror of the Cult of Tidiness!
I have talked about this evil cult before - but I think it is worth reminding you all that it has tendrils creeping into your lives - through tv adverts and garden centres - offering you a chance to ‘tame’ your garden - to make it into another room - to remove all that inconvenient wildlife …
The chief priests of this cult are the manufacturers of mowers, strimmers, and the chemicals you are encouraged to use. Their main aim, though, is even worse … it is to convert your gardens into deserts of plastic grass!
And why am I so anti the cult of tidiness? Well - what do you think hedgehogs would want us to do? Pave over our patch? Or leave at least some of it to go wild! This is one of the campaigns we run at Hedgehog Street - Go WILD for Hedgehogs!
Now I have got that grump off my chest - here is something a little more lovely. The Snake’s Head Fritillaries are back! It is one of those nature calendar moments that keep me ticking on - the arrival of these beautiful flowers in the meadows just east of Oxford is an annual highlight - up there with the bluebells and the return of the swifts.
Photos on Substack - the one with the Queen Common Carder Bee visiting the flower I am particularly pleased with, though the selfie I did with my phone is, irritatingly, probably my favourite!
These meadows are allowed to flood - well, you would be hard pressed stopping that around here - and they are managed with conservation in mind by the Wildlife Trust. And they have actively encouraged the Fritillaries - I remember when I was first here you would go looking for individuals - but now there are carpets … ok, a slight exaggeration - maybe a crochet carpet!
Have you got these amazing plants near you?
Finally …. Every year at around this time there is a flurry of excitement as I pull together a gang of gorgeous people to speak at my Kindling Stage - part of Wood Festival.
I was trying to remember how long I have been hosting this stage - certainly over 10 years now. Actually, just checking back through photos and it was 2013 that I brought it to life! Wow … a friend recently asked whether it was not time to stop doing it, as it does take a lot of time … but … I love it!
The reason I am letting you know is because I have found out that the tickets are nearly all gone and I should have shouted about it earlier - sorry. It takes place in Ipsden - at Braziers Park - and is THE most family friendly festival I have ever been to - if you have a young family and were uncertain how to start experiencing festivals … this is where to come! And, while you are there, visit the Kindling Stage, where I get ideas to burst into flames! This year we have a former teacher asking ‘what the f*** is wrong with education,’ an ethicist, a mathematician, an author, a harvest mouse - well, actually, not a mouse, but the young superstar that is Eva Wishart who has been breeding these endangered mice in her parent’s garage, an ethnobotanist, a fungal researcher, a book publisher … and that is just the Saturday. On Sunday I start us off with the utterly amazing Robin Ince, then Lucy Lapwing (yes, that one, from Springwatch), a look at extinction - and finally a campaigner who has a passion for ancient woodlands.
Oh - and me!! So - 15-17th May … come and join me in a field!