In my last blog I mentioned that Mrs. C and I were planning to walk ’40k in a day’. Our aim was to visit a variety of local sites of importance for wildlife while raising funds for the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country – see here for more details. Well, on Wednesday … More Walking for Wildlife – a very soggy 42km
Despite being the tallest hill in Shropshire, Brown Clee (540m/1770ft) receives a fraction of the visitors of its showier neighbours further west. Visit the Long Mynd or Stiperstones on any weekend and you’ll be sharing the well-trodden paths with plenty of other people, all out enjoying the fresh air. Perhaps it’s the lack of obvious … More Brown Clee
Few of us can have failed to notice recent headlines proclaiming the ongoing loss of the UK’s flora and fauna. The State of Nature report 2019 paints a bleak picture: 15% of our species face extinction. Since 1970, 41% of species studied have declined and 133 species have already been lost from the UK. The … More Walking for Wildlife!
Soft rush (Juncus effusus) will be familiar to many hill-goers. This unassuming, clump-forming plant is frequently overlooked and often actively avoided, growing as it does in wet places. However this wasn’t always the case: The word ‘rush’ stems from the much earlier ‘rezg’, meaning to plait, braid or weave and hints at the plant’s usefulness … More “Burning the candle at both ends”
Julian Cartwright 