The gorges du Rébenty near Joucou is a wild section of river that loses altitude with remarkable rapidity through the limestone. The gorge is surrounded by forests and meadows. The forest edges are rich in butterfly and lady orchids; the meadows are littered with burnt-tip orchids amongst an array of calcareous grassland flowers. Overhead there are…
Around Sournia on the edge of the Pyrénées-Orientales
1st June 2023 From the impressive Château de Puilaurens that commands the Boulzane valley, the minor road runs south and then east over the Col d’Aussières leaving the Aude and running down into the Pyrénées-Orientales. At Rabouillet, a large family of all ages is moving their cattle up the hill to the mountain pastures; it’s noisy…
Ariège Landscapes
The wild and vast mountain landscapes are always impressive; normally benign and welcoming but at times dark and threatening. This year the weather has been a mix of the two – beautiful mornings with crystal clear skies and dewy meadows, quickly overtaken by innocent, white puffy clouds that then gather into great grey masses that…
Aston Valley’s Apollo
This is a wild valley only tempered by the hydroelectric dam at the top together with its feeder pipes, substation, lower dam and pylons. The fast-flowing stream runs down the steep valley through dense forest for some 10 miles to Château Verdun. At the furthest most point before the tarmac runs out there is a…
Summer in the Ariège
20th May 2023 The weather is wet and cold and summer is late. There is hardly a butterfly on the wing and the bumblebees and other hymenoptera are moribund on thistles and asphodels. Early spider orchids are still out and there are no signs of spring gentian although trumpets are in flower. Surely temperatures will…
Kent – 13th May 2023
Saturday was a grand tour of some of Kent’s finest places. The day was bright and breezy and confirmed that May, the month of many weathers, is the best month of the year for wildlife (and possibly gardens). Sissinghurst We checked the plant species in the cottage garden where the colours are always burning hot…
A Curlew in a Cage…
…does not put all Heaven in a Rage, in fact quite the opposite; it is 10 minutes to settle the captured bird after it has been colour-ringed and a GPS tag put on; a small but important part of the ongoing conservation work for this rapidly declining breeding species . It is late April and…
Bursting Cornflowers
Cornflowers are just bursting. A pretty plant renowned for its a long association with cereal agriculture, apparently hated by farmers because its tough stems blunted their scythes. The pollen record suggests it was an introduction most probably from steppe habitats to Northern European countries from the ‘High Middle Ages’, perhaps enabled through the increased movements…
Forde Abbey
Forde Abbey is lost in a wooded valley on the borders of Dorset, Somerset and Devon. The Cistercian Abbey dates back to the 11th Century. Today, it is less of a place of worship and more of a grand country house and well-tended garden with a patchwork of artificial lakes. Beyond the gardens there is…
Postcard from Lyme Regis
From the famous Cobb, the view is of a steep pebble beach, a thin line of colourful beach huts and an esplanade backed by solid Georgian and early Victorian houses. Lyme Regis is a picture postcard town with what appears to be more holiday homes than residents and consequently a popular escape, especially for families…
KAUST
The University established in 2009 is located on the coast just over 100km north of Jeddah. The Grand Mosque is an elegant balance of traditional arabic architecture and modern design. The golf course has a large water reservoir with surrounding Casuarina pines tucked away in a far corner. The trees hold large numbers of cormorants,…
Soudah Waterfall and Escarpment
The walk at Soudah Waterfall, a well known birding hotspot, is not more than a kilometre or so but it is an eventful one. The track passes through a narrow wadi where the water flow is consistent as it is fed by a spring. The stream sides are thick with emergent rushes and in places…