#patrick barkham

[judgingbooksbycovers]

The Wild Isles: An Anthology of the Best British & Irish Nature Writing

Edited by Patrick Barkham.

Design by Ben Prior.

[justforbooks]

Roger Deakin, author of the immortal Waterlog and Wildwood, was a man of unusually many parts. A born writer who nonetheless took decades to write his first book, Roger was also variously - and sometimes simultaneously - maverick ad-man, seller of stripped pine furniture on the Portobello Road, cider-maker, teacher, environmentalist, music promoter, and filmmaker. But above all he was the restorer of ancient Walnut Tree Farm in Suffolk, the heartland which he shared with a host of visitors, both animal and human, and wrote about - as he wrote about all natural life - with rare attention, intimacy, precision and poetry.

Roger Deakin was unique, and so too is this joyful work of creative biography, told primarily in the words of the subject himself, with support from a chorus of friends, family, colleagues, lovers and neighbours.

Delving deep into Roger Deakin's library of words, Patrick Barkham draws from notebooks, diaries, letters, recordings, published work and early drafts, to conjure his voice back to glorious life in these pages. To read this book is to listen in to a dream conversation between a writer and those who knew him intimately.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[moviereviews101web]

Wilding - Release News

Immerse yourself in the soul-enhancing world of Wilding, a lyrical hymn to the self-healing of the British countryside.

Wilding will be available on Blu-ray & DVD from 16th December Based of the bestselling book, The Book of Wilding“Wonderful… an inspiring true story that shows how we can revive nature and restore hope” Patrick Barkham, The Guardian ★★★★ “Visually stunning… a life enhancing experience” The Arts Desk ★★★★ “Nature is healing in this soul-enhancing, hopeful ode to the British countryside” Time…

[entomoblog]

Les Myrtils "s'adaptent" au réchauffement climatique : les individus femelles qui se développent par temps chaud présentent moins de taches sur leurs ailes, ce qui les rend plus difficiles à voir d...

See on Scoop.it - EntomoNews

Study finds female chrysalises that develop at higher temperatures have fewer eyespots, making them harder to see in dry grass

  Meadow brown butterflies ‘adapt’ to global heating by developing fewer spots | Butterflies | The Guardian

  Patrick Barkham

18.01.2024

  -------

NDÉ

Traduction

  Une étude révèle que les chrysalides femelles qui se développent à des températures plus élevées ont moins d'ocelles, ce qui les rend plus difficiles à voir dans l'herbe sèche.

  Les Myrtils femelles qui se développent par temps chaud présentent moins de taches sur leurs ailes, ce qui constitue une adaptation inattendue au réchauffement climatique.

  Cette découverte a été faite par des scientifiques de l'Université d'Exeter qui ont constaté que les femelles dont les chrysalides se sont développées à 11°C avaient en moyenne six taches, tandis que celles qui se sont développées à 15°C n'en avaient que trois.

  Cette découverte pourrait remettre en question les idées reçues des lépidoptéristes sur les raisons pour lesquelles les papillons ont un nombre variable de taches.

  Eyespot variation and field temperature in the Meadow Brown butterfly - Mowbray - 2024 - Ecology and Evolution, 17.01.2024 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.10842

  Il est frappant de constater que les femelles qui se développent à 11°C ont une médiane de six taches et que celles qui se développent à 15°C n'en ont que trois.

  En revanche, le grand ocelle de l'aile antérieure est toujours présent et évolue avec la longueur de l'aile antérieure. De plus, contrairement aux taches plus petites, la taille de la grande tache de l'aile antérieure s'explique mieux par la date du calendrier (jours écoulés depuis le 1er mars) que par la température au moment de la nymphose. Comme cette grande tache de l'aile antérieure est impliquée dans l'effarouchement des prédateurs et/ou la sélection sexuelle, sa présence constante est donc probablement nécessaire à la défense, alors que la disparition des plus petites taches au cours de la saison peut contribuer au camouflage des femelles.

  [Image] Spot scoring system for the Meadow Brown. Spots 1–5 are on the forewing and spots 6–10 are on the hindwing. Note that spots 2 and 3 are usually fused and are here referred to as compound spot 2/3.

[gemmiejewel]

Hey, Have you entered this competition to win a 6 book bundle worth over £100? If you refer friends you get more chances to win :) https://wn.nr/v2ZVW5b

[deepdalecamping]

IIlustrated talk from Patrick Barkham about Roger Deakin, author of Waterlog Cley Marshes Visitor Centre, Coast Rd, Cley next the Sea NR36

[harvest-moonie]

cheese part 8

Layton, Thomas Arthur (1973). The Cheese Handbook: Over 250 Varieties Described, with Recipes. Courier Dover Publications. p. 130. ISBN9780486229553. Archived from the original on February 17, 2023. Retrieved February 1, 2023. the caseus helveticus mentioned by Columella was probably a Sbrinz"The History Of Cheese: From An Ancient Nomad's Horseback To Today's Luxury Cheese Cart". The Nibble. Lifestyle Direct, Inc. Archived from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved October 8, 2009. "British Cheese homepage". British Cheese Board. 2007. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2007. Quoted in Newsweek, October 1, 1962, according to The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (Columbia University Press, 1993 ISBN0-231-07194-9, p. 345). Numbers besides 246 are often cited in very similar quotes; whether these are misquotes or whether de Gaulle repeated the same quote with different numbers is unclear. Smith, John H. (1995). Cheesemaking in Scotland – A History. The Scottish Dairy Association. ISBN978-0-9525323-0-9.. Full text (Archived link), Chapter with cheese timetable (Archived link). Cecil Adams (1999). "Straight Dope: How did the moon=green cheese myth start?".Archived May 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 15, 2005. Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (April 1, 2006). "Hubble Resolves Expiration Date For Green Cheese Moon". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA. Retrieved October 8, 2009. "A Brief History of America's Appetite for Macaroni and Cheese". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on December 17, 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2022. Thom, Charles (1918). The Book of Cheese. New York: The Macmillan company. "History of Cheese". traditionalfrenchfood.com. Archived from the original on January 12, 2012. Retrieved October 21, 2011. McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking (Revised ed.). Scribner. p. 54. ISBN0-684-80001-2. In the United States, the market for process cheese [...] is now larger than the market for 'natural' cheese, which itself is almost exclusively factory-made. Barkham, Patrick (January 10, 2012). "Why is cheese the most shoplifted food item in the world?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2022. "World production of cheese (from whole cow milk) in 2014; Browse Data/Livestock Processed/World Regions/Production Quantity from pick lists". United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT). 2017. Archived from the original on November 12, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2017. Workman, Daniel (April 12, 2016). "Cheese Exports by Country in 2015". World's Top Exports. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2016. "Carbon footprint of meat, egg, cheese and plant-based protein sources" (PDF). p. 24. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 18, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2022. "Cheese Consumption – Kilograms per Capita". Canadian Dairy Information Centre. March 13, 2014. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016. Retrieved June 2, 2016.

[daydreamer-29]

I think ending human life will be just enough.

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Wild Green Wonders: A Life in Nature

By Patrick Barkham.

Design by Holly Ovenden.

[thetreehunter]

Bunnies on a wall @ Kenwood Road Sheffield

How the heck did we get to this situation in the 21st Century? The brave and determined folks of Sheffield are having to resort to sitting on walls to save our shared arboreal heritage. The recent court injunction against anyone entering or standing within the barriers was/is, a bad law, made worse by a bad decision. 

Sometimes laws need to be changed to reflect the society we live in. This is one such case. And with John McDonnell at the Labour Party saying only yesterday...

"The scandal of the Private Finance Initiative has resulted in huge long-term costs for taxpayers while providing enormous profits for some companies," he said."Never again will this waste of taxpayer money be used to subsidise the profits of shareholders, often based in offshore tax havens.

The time has come for the ego’s & reputations to be faced up to and a re-negotiation of the PFI contract made. 6,000 felled trees, - mainly healthy trees - says this is so.

Photo Alison Teal ©

But still we have large canopy, mature street trees are being felled at an ever increasing rate lately to meet targets for Amey PLC & Sheffield City Council in their ludicrous Streets Ahead project (tree component part) .

 It is pure Corporate greed, incompetence, £'s, Ego's & reputations that's how we are in this mess. Sheffield City Council must be the most laughed at & mocked local authority in the UK & Europe. Words I cannot put here are my true feelings. But so much worse for the folks seeing this day in, day out on their beloved streets in all areas of Sheffield. A once green city of Europe.

Just in case you did not believe your eyes...

Photo Alison Teal ©

[notwiselybuttoowell]

This is the only Of The Year contest that matters. Humans? Short lived and given to folly. Trees? Respectable and unlikely to be changed by the honor.

[ingek73]

Pine martens to be used as ‘bouncers’ to keep grey squirrels out of Highlands

Exclusive: Dens being installed on east coast and A9 after predator’s return was found to reduce numbers of greys

Patrick Barkham

Fri 18 Feb 2022 08.00 (CET)

Pine martens are to be deployed as wildlife bouncers along the east coast of Scotland and the A9 corridor to halt the northward march of grey squirrels.

More than 35 artificial pine marten dens are being installed by Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) at strategic locations on the grey squirrels’ path of northward migration in an attempt to save the Highland red squirrel populations.

Red squirrels have been driven out of most of the British countryside since the introduction of greys in Victorian times, mainly because greys carry the squirrelpox disease, which leaves them unharmed but is fatal to the reds.

But recent research has found that the return of the predatory pine marten has reduced grey squirrel populations. Because the native red squirrels and martens evolved alongside each other over thousands of years, the reds appear less affected by martens.

In northern England and Scotland, there is a big community effort to control grey squirrels and help the reds survive but last year saw a dramatic expansion in the grey squirrels’ northward range, with animals moving north from Dunkeld to Pitlochry for the first time and spotted west in Aberfeldy and north of the River North Esk in the east.

There is a grey squirrel population around Aberdeen, which has been restricted by culling in recent years, but the fear is that northward-scampering greys from Scotland’s central belt will meet the Aberdeen population and rapidly expand, endangering reds across north-east Scotland.

“There seems to have been some movement of greys last year linked to a bumper beech mast year and possibly because trappers weren’t out because of Covid,” said Gareth Ventress, an environment forester at FLS. “We need to stop the grey squirrels in their tracks.”

The dens are roofed wooden boxes fixed to trees five metres off the ground and filled with wood shavings, providing a secure and cosy nest in which martens can breed safely in spring and shelter in winter, reducing mortality rates for juveniles.

If martens nest on the ground, their kits are vulnerable to predation from foxes, and while they can rear young in old buzzard nests, these are often exposed.

It is hoped that the dens will increase the population density of pine martens and ensure they are living in areas where they can predate the greys.

Pine martens have already returned to the region north of Perth, but dens will encourage them to frequent woods close to the A9 and the railway line north to Inverness, which provides a corridor of scrub and trees along which the greys can expand.

“In many ways the A9 corridor is defendable because it’s such a narrow corridor of land, but if you travel along it you notice there is tree cover most of the way up,” said Ventress.

Dens will also be installed farther east, around the A90 in Angus, after greys last year crossed the River North Esk into Aberdeenshire.

Research from Ireland, Wales and Scotland shows that pine martens create “a landscape of fear” and drive away grey squirrels, with the science supported by real-world examples of resurgent pine martens alongside prospering red squirrels, which have returned to parts of Aberdeenshire where they haven’t been seen for many years.

But recent studies have shown that pine martens won’t colonise urban areas, which remain a stronghold for grey squirrels. If the countryside is constantly topped up with new greys from their urban stronghold, the species is likely to rapidly adapt to survive alongside the marten.

Another recent study in Ireland found that while martens increase red squirrel populations in native, broadleaf woodlands, the effect is reversed in non-native conifer plantations, where the marten reduces red squirrels. This could be due to the lack of alternative prey and the lack of hiding places for red squirrels in highly simplified landscapes.

According to Ventress, the threat to reds from pine martens in conifer plantations may only apply in Ireland, where there are no field voles, the marten’s main prey in Scotland. Irish plantations also tend to be solely sitka spruce, unlike in Scotland where many plantations include native Scots pine and other trees.

Ventress added: “Pine martens are not the answer to the grey squirrel threat by any stretch, but they are part of the answer. The key to this pine marten-grey squirrel relationship seems to be pine marten density. With the boxes we can potentially localise some of the pine marten population.”

Ensuring grey squirrels don’t move farther north will also help foresters restore and establish native woodland in the Highlands. Grey squirrels strip bark from young trees, causing disease, damaging timber and sometimes killing trees.

“Keeping the grey squirrel populations back will help us diversify, and nature and woodland restoration has a better chance,” said Ventress.

[deepdalecamping]

Patrick Barkham’s guide to North Norfolk The Norfolk-based natural history writer and President of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust talks butterflies, belemnites and off the beaten track...