Category: Nature

Planting Trees

English gardens and parkland changed decisively in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as plant hunters brought specimens back from Asia. EH ‘Chinese” Wilson was one of the most famous, bringing around two thousand plants and trees back to Britain and America, while working for James Veitch & Sons in Chelsea and the Arnold… Continue reading Planting Trees

Men in White Coats

Chiswick House and its gardens was a private lunatic asylum from 1892 until 1928. Looking at the entrance at Chiswick I’m reminded of Mr Loveday’s Little Outing by Evelyn Waugh.

On Safari

Let’s start small – no, not microscopically tiny – just a small mammal and we will work up to bigger ones. Five of us were having supper in the garden on Monday evening.

Bee Keeping in Nicaragua

Betzabe keeps bees in San José, Nicaragua. Hitherto she has borrowed money from a community bank and repaid those loans in a timely fashion. Now she has successfully applied to Kiva for a loan of $3,000.

Motion Pictures

Early yesterday morning I was lucky to see one of the peregrine falcon fledglings fly from its nest to the roof at the north east corner of Charing Cross Hospital. Most of the time they either sit still or slowly sidle crabwise along the ledge where they were born.

Fabulous Falcons

For more than ten years peregrine falcons have nested on a ledge, part of the roof of Charing Cross Hospital. The best place to see them is from the west end of Margravine Cemetery or from our attic window.

Chiswick House

Just two miles upstream is an architectural gem: Chiswick House. It got a big thumbs up some three years ago in Upstream. Now it’s back on our radar because it is set in 65 acres of gardens.

The Druids’ Oak

The City of London is often dubbed The Square Mile and that’s more or less right – it is 1.2 square miles. But the writ of the City of London extends to a further 10,000 acres of public green spaces: Hampstead Heath, Epping Forest, etc.