Natural WONDERS

I have written millions of words about my garden over the past 30 odd years but the subject matter has nearly always been plants and gardens, and how to grow, control and nurture them for maximum beauty or productivity. However, from a very early age I loved the countryside as much as any garden and was fascinated by the life that I saw all around me, whether that was trees, wild flowers, birds, insects or mammals.

My sky is never empty. At dawn there may be just a lone crow beating a steady path north or at dusk, the curiously undulating, huge wings of a heron heading to roost in a willow above the ditch. Ducks in pairs race headlong and straight, and thin skeins of geese breast the morning air. Until about ten years ago, spring