Archie turned three the other day; butterflies are starting to flutter by; the days are warmer and the nights shorter. So we mark another seasonal cycle as the earth turns and the planet circles the sun. With all this carrying on about the changing of the seasons and the passage of time, the unspoken element …
Well, yesterday was the last day of spring, not that you'd know it from the chill and damp days behind us. It's been less the force that through the green fuse drives the flower, and more the muted chesty cough of a secret TB sufferer. Thank you climate change, and thank you La Niña. Three …
I'm sure I've mentioned previously that one of the great hazards to Australian cyclists is the swooping Magpie. The males do this to protect their nest when their eggs have been laid. In other words, in spring. In other other words, now. And if you look at that beak, you can see why being subject …
You will of course be familiar with my distaste for the popular tendency to anthropomorphise animals – not merely because of a grumpy, jaundiced outlook on the world in general and mankind in particular, but because that’s not what wildlife is really about – it’s a human-centric way of looking at the world, and look …
Remember that stuff I wrote about Adam in the Garden of Eden, and how in his pre-Eve bachelorhood he spent his time wandering about giving things names? It was also pre the serpent and banishment into the harsh world, so very much a state of grace. It’s an attractive idea – apart from the nudity, …
There are days when the to-do list seems to ‘spiral out of control’ (to channel the relevant cliché) as task after task, job after job, add themselves willy-nilly to the total, and with every new addition, priorities get jumbled and it’s ever harder to work out just where it would be best to start. Such …
More and more it’s about the birds. Getting up in the morning at the moment is a musical delight, as the local avian population gives voice to their appreciation of warmer weather, and earlier sunrises, and all the things going on that excite them. Flowers are busting out the kinds of salady grub to ensure …
Seems our celebrating the arrival of spring over the weekend was a few days premature – yes, the weather is still full-bore spring, but today is the official first day of the season. So what does it all mean? To be honest, for my first quarter-century or so, I didn’t really have much of an …
Today it feels like spring: the breeze is balmy, the sun shines warm and welcoming, birds cheep and flutter in the bountiful hedges, and the sap rises audibly in tree, plant and weed. Hullo clouds, hullo sky . . . It’s amazing how much of a psychological lift you get when all is blissful and …
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