Writing and reviews with an environmental, science fiction, and fantasy touch
Urban fox sounds like an impossibility. These days foxes are almost more common in UK cities than they are in the surrounding countryside. I was staying in southwest London for a couple of nights over the weekend and saw one,
Norfolk Hawker is, as it might sound from the name, something found in Norfolk. It’s a dragonfly only found in Norfolk, and found increasingly rarely along certain types of dykes and streams. As with the Swallowtail butterfly, I thought I
Swallowtail butterflies. They are common on mainland Europe, but rare in the UK, and in any case they are much yellower – a subspecies, distinct from its European relatives. The main place you find Swallowtails in the UK is Norfolk,
Baby birds are all over the place! I suspected that my Blackbirds had one out of the nest at the weekend. I haven’t seen much of them since, so they have probably taken it/them somewhere wilder. The Bluetits were squeaking
Swans usually fly in twos or threes, in my experience. So it was a surprise to see six swans sailing overhead when I was playing golf at Fakenham on Monday. You’ve noticed I go wild on lots of golf courses.
Blushers on the golf course? Well, my golf gives me plenty to blush about, but on Sunday I was admiring the first class golf between the top ladies in my club and those of Ryston Park. I may lament the
I was supposed to go to Lakenheath and Weeting Heath with my bird society on Saturday but I wimped out. I should add that I hadn’t done the official sign-up, so they weren’t expecting me. But I’m a member of
Dance in a thunderstorm? Well it’s mad, but it’s wild 🙂 I did it yesterday just for fun! Sorry – no selfie…. I was searching for a photo though, when I found a nice report on twisters being formed in
My wildflower garden is about five years old now. It’s been masquerading as a blue nearly wildflower garden for the past month, since the self-sown forget-me-nots add a haze of colour between the naturalised daffodils and the real wildflowers coming
Wild June is a theme I decided to pick up and run with for some freshness for the blog. The April A to Z Challenge brought some food for thought for me, as discussed in the May Reflections post, and
Spring! It’s finally here, maybe. And the Insecure Writers Support Group hint of the month is (roughly): Do you find it easier writing in spring when everything is growing and things are looking fresher? What I usually do in spring
My reading challenges are already one quarter of the way through. Three months has flown by, but I have read a lot of books: Goodreads tells me it’s now 16 and I’m five ahead of schedule. I’m not sure how
My 2018 Reading Challenge time is into its second week already, and I have nearly read one book. As with previous years, I have updated all my challenges on this main page, and then there are pages for each reading challenge.
Oh yes…. I haven’t yet completed the Reading Challenges for 2017, and already I’m thinking of the strategy for 2018. I’m finding more reading challenges around than ever, thanks in part to My Readers Block, who both runs challenges (the
TackleTBR is over for another year. It’s been an awesome two weeks and I’m delighted that so many people joined in my Challenge last Monday. The winner of my 21st Page Challenge was… Shash (MomIsReading). You should have an email
My 21st page Challenge is for everyone who visits my blog during the Tackle Your TBR Readathon, not just participants. But if we pique your interest, you have until tomorrow (Wednesday 20th) to sign up to the Readathon and join
It’s Anthology Contest time! I may be in the middle of #TackleTBR, but other things go on apace. Checking round the IWSG posts last week, I realised that it was time for the Annual Anthology contest. It’s the fourth one,
TackleTBR 2017 is off and running. If you missed my advance warning in August you can read all about this Readathon there. In May I did the Clean Sweep ARC to get some of those new releases off my shelf.
Sign up now to reduce the length/size of your reading pile. September 11th to 24th sees the fifth TackleTBR Readathon, thanks to Tressa at Wishful Endings. The goal you set is entirely up to you – maybe you don’t even
Halfway through the Reading Challenges for the year already. Time for the second of four that I hope to do this year – since I remembered to do one at the end of March. Click the progress links to see
The Mystery Blogger Award was given to me by J Lenni Dorner around June 6th. I do say on my ‘policies’ that I don’t accept this type of award, but there’s always an exception, especially when I need a blog
Time to wrap-up the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge for another year. It’s been a busy month, and I was surprised to find enough time to read as many as I did, especially as a couple of them gave me reasons
Finding time to read: you remember I started the month with the announcement I was doing the Clean Sweep ARC Challenge again this month? I thought you might like to know how it’s going at the end of week 3.
The Clean Sweep ARC Challenge runs throughout May and it’s one I look forward to each year. I should have posted Monday, but was too wrapped up in my own problems. Now I’ve got an excuse to post on May
Challenges seem a good focus for my C of the A to Z this year. I write a guest post for The Story Reading Ape’s blog, mostly published on the second Sunday of the month. Somehow I got myself into