I first read this a few years ago, but it's been sat, unloved, on the book shelf ever since. As we were going to Brownsea Island (one of the few places to see red squirrels in Britain these days), I packed it in the car.
I didn't actually expect to read it, perhaps just thumb through it if I had the time. But as I began to thumb through it, I started to be pulled into the book and read it properly.
I'm really glad I did. The book is aimed at a general reader that's interested in the red squirrel. There are lots of great photographs and quite simple text - but this works to the book's advantage. Being only 48 pages long, the text is well written and at the right level.
The book provides an Introduction to Red Squirrels, followed by Historical Distribution and Abundance, Biology and Ecology, Conservation, and Red Squirrel Facts.
Without this book I would never have thought of looking for squirrel dreys (a nest for squirrels) and therefore wouldn't have enjoyed spending time photographing them.
The photographs show squirrels throughout the year in wild and domestic environments - like the photo of the squirrel sharing a bowl of food with a pheasant!
If you have any interest in the red squirrel, then this is the book to start with. It certainly provided me with enough information to be going on with and some enthusiasm to look further into red squirrels when I have the time.
Sadly it's been a good long while since I last went camping. But having found these photos of my last camp back in 2011 has brought back some great - and not so great - memories.
We chose a spot away from the pine woodland for a change. If I remember rightly, we camped under Beech and it made a real difference. The light coming through the canopies of leaves really brightened the camp area.
We'd been looking online at some difference shapes for tarp set ups and decided on the one below as it provided protection from the wind behind us and from potential rain above, while still providing enough depth to use the heat radiation from the fire well.
Of the two of us, I'm definitely the more lazy camper! Mark always likes to sleep off the ground, sometimes making a bench structure, although this time opting for a structure just above the ground. I have a bivvy bag and have my self-inflating mattress and sleeping bag protected within that.
Me chilling out in front of the fire as some of our food is cooking.
Mark making his sleeping area comfy with fronds of bracken.
Leading up to our camping weekend, I'd been looking up some techniques for making cordage from roots. This idea came to me after watching Cody in Dual Survival make some in a programme. It turns out that it's quite a simple technique and I was able to show Mark, who made a fantastic bit of rope.
Mark's cordage. The technique provides cordage with strength much greater than that of the individual roots.
Here's Mark chilling by the fire.
Sadly, we had to end camp a bit early as I was being bitten frequently by an unknown insect. The bites were all around my waist, ankles and even in my armpits! Mark was affected, but luckily not so severely. After a sterling bit of research Mark found that it was an invertebrate called Chiggers that had been biting us. In the end I counted over 70 individual bites - it's an experience I will never forget!
Every day during camp we go an check on the car, on one occasion Mark filmed some of the walk back to our camp. It's a really nice bit of footage, so I've uploaded it to YouTube and you can watch it below:
This was the best present that I ever bought for Lucy. I'm not sure she's ever actually looked in it, but I certainly have. I spent Spring 2011 reading it during lunch breaks and managed to get around 150 pages in before other things took over my time.
What do I like about this book? I like that it's a general all-rounder, with a breadth of topics and also what it covers within a topic. Take, for instance, Roses. The book begins with buying roses, moves on to planting roses and routine care, before discussing bush roses, climbing and rambling roses, species and shrub roses, and standard roses. Then to finish the topic of roses, the book discusses rose renovation and rose pests and diseases.
I also like the wonderful illustrations of the techniques described, they really make this book something special. An example being all of the illustrations for pruning all the different types of plants in the book, they're all unique. They show you exactly where to chop and how to train that plant. Mixed in are photographs of plants and flowers, which are also sometimes used to illuminate the topic further, as well as for interest.
The book covers the following general topics, there are sub-topics within them, but you'll have to search them out as I only have so much time to copy this list out!!
Gardening Basics
Wildlife Gardening
Ornamental Gardening
Growing Vegetables and Herbs
Growing Fruit
Lawns
Water Gardening
Container Gardening
Gardening Under Glass
Plant Propogation
I also like this book because it took a team of about 15 experts in their field to create it. Meaning that you get the best of the current information at the time of print.
But this leads me on to what I don't like about the book. With so many cooks in the kitchen, or more aptly so many gardeners in the greenhouse, the book does lack personality. I know that they have to choose a house style for the book and stick to it chapter after chapter, but it was a bit much for me at times. I have read a heafty chuck of this 480 page book, which is why I go back to it time and time again - because while I may not remember something specific, I remember the information I need is in this book. So for that, it's a go-er for me. I'll just dip in and out over time and get through it - the book's too useful not to.
My review is of the 2008 edition and I've noticed that there is a new edition coming in October 2012, so I've added that to the Amazon widget below too.
Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again: Not in entirety, just the relevant parts
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five:4
Here's a nice easy going book that I loaned from our local library. It's a compilation of Alan's articles in the Gardener's World magazine.
Now with all authors that write about themselves, it takes me a while to decide if I like their writing style and to some degree, if I like them. But with a third of the book gone and the rest on its way to being devoured, I decided that I do like this Titchmarsh lad. I thought I did, after seeing him on Gardener's World and Ground Force for all those years, but now I know for sure.
The book is chaptered off in months, I assume it's to group the articles into the month they were written! It starts in January with Alan talking about gaining wisdom in the garden as we age and ends in December with Alan talking about Christmas during his Parks Department days.
I think you've got to get on with Mr. Titchmarsh if you're to read this book, because really it's a sort of diary. We come across some of the same topics a few times in the book, for instance, those Parks Department days, and the 'sons and daughters of the soil' line, but it's a nice easy read about a topic I enjoy: gardening. There are a couple of fun articles about the meaning of flower names and a brilliant one about his mum and the Duchess of Devonshire, simply entitled 'Mum'.
There are some nice line-drawn ilustrations that head the article titles, these are rotated through the book and don't always correlate with the topic, but are a nice distraction if you need a break inbetween readings!
If you can get it at your library, then I'd suggest giving this a read. It's not going to blow you're mind with life changing revelations, but I don't think the book was compiled for that. It was compiled to give one man's view on the state of affairs that come with gardening. It helps that he's a good writer and adds a dash of humour every now and then. Overall a nice easy read inbetween deeper reading material!
Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again: No
Recommend: Yes for inbetween heavy books
Overall out of Five:3
Why do I take the fun out of everything for myself?
It's something that I've done for years. Is it because we're always told to set goals, to achieve?
As a child I was fairly aimless and didn't really have any focus. Then as soon as I left school I seemed to get focus, but with that focus was the idea that I had to become good at something or become very knowledgeable about whatever I was focussed on. Apparently it takes 3000 hours studying something to become an 'expert'.
So, stupidly, when I become interested in something, I look around for 'best practice' approaches. I look for the governing or professional body for that topic. I look around for courses or other educational material. I look for blogs and other free resources online.
Now, how does this relate to this blog? I've always had an interest in nature, but never more so than this year.
Since January I've been dealing with the most destructive episode of depression that I've had in my life so far. I've been signed off since January. I lost my job, my social life, my hobbies, and interest in most things.
Then some how and utterly innocently I started taking photographs of plants. It was amazing. I'd take macro shots and be amazing that there was this beauty that I hadn't seen, even though I'd been looking. Then I started to try to ID plants. I already had this blog; it was more related to camping, but close enough to my new pursuit that I could adapt it to fit. Sometimes the only way I could force myself out of bed was to think of the new flowers I may have the opportunity to take photos of, in the garden or just down the street.
But then, idiotically, I started searching online for things to help me learn more. This in itself isn't a bad thing, but with the way my mind is, it's just not a good idea. I started with lectures available on YouTube from UCBerkeley about Plant Botany. They really are brilliant videos and I've learnt a lot from them. Then I started reading books on the topic. This took a long time as my level of concentration is terrible. Sometimes I'd read a whole page before I needed to rest. These books were interesting, but hard going. Then I decided to do a course with the OU about why people need plants.
It's just all too much. I've ruined my relationship with plants. I truly hope I can get it back. I'm eager to find a way to simplify my mind so that I can take my time with things and not go overboard to needing to feed the appetite for knowledge when I become interested in something. It certainly hasb't helped me get out of this slump. I want to simplify my relationship with plants, back to where it was - just taking photos and identifying plants.
I hope I can get back to that. Because while I appreciate the knowledge I've gained in such a short period of time, it's taken its toll on me. If anyone knows of techniques to help me simplify my mind or relax - to relax would be nice. PLEASE get in touch.
To those of you that read my review of the book that preceeds this one; Life Stories, it will come as no surprise that I had to read this book. It may sound rather lame or cheesy to say it, but reading this book it like spending an afternoon listening to David Attenborough sitting across the living room.
Starting in Venezuela in canopy towers in the middle of the rainforest and ending with murder in Africa, it's very obvious to state that there's a huge variety of anecdotes in this book. The wonderful thing is that some of them are so familiar from the TV series or his autobiography, so it's no a book that requires full concentration, but a book in which you can allow yourself to enjoy without excessive labour. Some stories were totally new to me, such as the eccentric Waterton who effectively created the first nature reserve. And, to be honest, someone I should have know about as he resided in Walton Hall, Wakefield - which seems to have been converted into a hotel now. Sad in a way. But it's these stories that kept the book fresh and engaging. Of course along with the photographs that correspond with each story.
We hear about people that have studied animals in the right way, in the Chapter entitled 'Chimps' and the wrong way (in my opinion), in the entitled chapter 'Elsa'. But most of all we hear the stories from the point of view from a man that most of us delight in calling a National Treasure.
Go to your nearest bookseller or library and get reading!
I wasn't looking for this book. Lucy and myself popped to the library for her to take some books back. I'd been watching some episodes of Bruce Parry's Tribe series and was really interested in finding out a bit more about tribes in Brazil. So I went to the search computer and typed in the inspired term 'Brazil'. Two books came up for the library location that I was at.
Based on the name of the book and the fact that it was the one actually about tribes in Brazil, I chose this one! I don't regret it. It is a fantastic book.
Daniel Everett has spent around 3 decades with a tribe called the Pirahãs (pronounced pee-da-HAN), based in the Brazilian Amazon along the Maici river, North of the Trans-Amazon Highway. This is a book about their lives, culture, and language and as such I felt that it was very powerful. This is a tribe that numbers around 400, so we can say that the language is in danger of becoming extinct, so the fact that Everett has spent around 3 decades with them, specifically studying their language, is fantastic. But he didn't just document their language and let it be. He's used what he's learnt to change the way scholars in the field think about language, because while they have only 3 vowels and 8 consonants for men (7 for women), they use language in a wonderfully efficient way. I won't give away any secrets, because I don't want to take away the excitement of discovering the language usage of this tribe.
The book is seperated into two sections; life and language. Life looks at their day to day life and how Daniel learnt many lessons for living with and as part of the Pirahã tribe. Language looks at the way they use language. But it's not that much in depth that it cannot be understood by lay people. I consider myself a lay person of language study and feel that Everett builds up his argument very well so that all readers can keep up.
It's wonderful reading about this tribe and how they use and love their environment. They have no desire to import any external culture or technology into their culture or way of life and this is brilliant to read. While you may get the initial idea that this tribe is basic and composed of unintelligent members, I can say that I came away with the feeling that I wanted to be part of this tribe, or at least visit them. If you liked the tribe in the film Avatar, than you may understand what I mean when I say that they're similar. They are so adept at their way of life, they appreciate their way of life, they are happy with their way of life. All of this means that they don't wish to change or 'evolve' their way of life to 'keep up with the Jones's or the Kardashians!
I would recommend reading this book because it provides so much on so many levels. Everett writes well, so much so that even though I have been struggling with concentration; I have been able to get through this book within a reasonable time period - I imagine that others, if so including, could easily get through this book in one reading.
Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five:4
Date Photographed: 06/05/2012
Location: Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Doncaster
Resources: http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/hoof-fungus
Notes: This fungus is well known to grow in standing dead Birch trees. It's also used for tinder, with another common name for it being tinder fungus. I wouldn't be staying true to my enjoyment of bushcraft if I didn't embed a video of it being used for such a reason!
The sloth is an animal that I can't imagine Sir David Attenborough as. But that's the answer David (if I can be so familiar to call this great man by his first name) would give. A sloth spends a large amount of its time asleep. Sir David on the other hand has attained a level of output and at a consistent level of quality that would take a lesser mortal like me several lifetimes to achieve.
This book is a collection of stories that David Attenborough told first by the medium of radio. For anyone who has heard a sentence or two of David's unique style, you will know what I mean when I say that he writes as he speaks and this is true of every book of his I've read. This book compliments the radio programme by not only having the transcript of the episodes in the series, but also colour photo plates that further illuminate the topics being described. Now, to be fair, no photos are necessary as Sir David has a power over words and can describe anything in the natural world as if it were in front of you at this very moment in time.
I find it very hard to say anything bad about Attenborough, and luckily I am not required to here. This is a marvellous tome containing David's thoughts, experiences, and opinions on topics such as Monstrous Flowers, Dragons, Birds of Paradise, Faking Fossils, Birds' Nest Soup (inncluding a funny tale of when a bat flew into his face), Adam's Face, and many more. Further more, they are written by a man whos thoughts, experiences, and opinions are worth hearing or reading.
So well received was this book, that a second was published. There's no surprise there. I don't feel that I have a mastery of expression that can do this book justice, other than to strongly suggest that you read it. And, perhaps, there's no surprise there either.
Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five:3
I enjoyed planning this trip with Mark. As we live 200 miles apart, I created a spreadsheet so we could easily discuss what we'd be taking with regards to equipment and also so we could throw ideas around about food.
We'd decided to go to a spot where Mark and Steve had camped previously, as their old structures could be either reused or used for the fire.
We prefer to used standing dead wood, or as with pine, branches that are hanging off live branches.
Mark always likes to create an area off the ground, which is cool, but I prefer to be as close to nature as possible - and normally to my detriment! The structure that Mark is using here was a repatched version of what he'd used the previous time.
Mark chilling!
On the first night, we had baked potatoes, baked beans, topped with a lovely sprinkling of cheese. It's a nice easy meal after trekking to the spot and getting camp ready.
Baking the potatoes in the embers of the fire. The spuds were so soft, it was wonderful.
The second night we made a beef stew and let it simmer for a good long while. It always seems that food tastes so much better out here in the woods and cooked in this way. For me, it's the only time I really get involved with cooking and really appreciate the food.
Still a while before supper's ready :(
As you can see in the background of this photo, I put some of last years bracken under my bivvy bag. In my bivvy bag is a self-inflating mattress and my sleeping bag. I also had my tarp fairly high. I normally have it to the floor, but wanted to have a go with being able to see around me at all times. It was interesting and probably the approach I'd always take if I had a hammock.
It was great to be out in the woods. As always I enjoyed Mark's company. We did a lot of wandering around the woods which was great and managed to see some cool fungi - some of which had grown on the benches that had been made the last time Mark had camped here.
While the fungi is unidentified, I can tell you that from left to right they are, a jelly fungi, a pull ball fungi, and a bracket fungi.
As always, we took away more rubbish than we arrived with. It's important to appreciate the woodland, not just for accepting you for the weekend, but also for being an important habitat for such a diversity of life. We're not spot on with the no trace way yet - but we're getting there!
If I can find the memory card, I'll upload the photos from the 2011 camp soon!
This book was such an an educational adventure, that I can't wait to read it again. It's one of the few books that I've lent that I really feel that I need to have my own copy - and not just 'for the bookcase' either (although the bookcase it privvy to some good, though too infrequently read, classics), but so I can re-read it and also use it as a reference book.
This review is based on the second edition of the book, but third edition was published in May 2010 and is currently ranked number 10 for books about botany and plant sciences on the Amazon.co.uk database. You can have a sneek peek with the 'look inside'.
The author, Brian Capon, didn't just write this book. He's provided some wonderfully clear illustrations that really help to bring the story of the science behind plants to brilliant clarity. The book covers the following topics:
Cells and Seeds
Roots and Shoots
Inside Stems
Inside Roots and Leaves
Adaptations for Protection
Adaptations to Fulfil Basic Needs
Control of Growth and Development
Uptake and Use of Water, Minerals, and Light
From Flowers to Fruits
Strategies of Inheritance
Along with the clear and concise description of the topics above, highlighted by illustrations, the author also makes great use of photographs, including images taken from microscopes. Quite often there will be the text about a topic, followed by an illustration, followed by a photograph the real thing, which really helps the concepts sink in, as the detail slowly builds up.
I can't praise this book enough. I think I've read this book at the ideal time - as a beginner. It have assisted me to learn a lot very quickly - but I know that I'll need to revisit the book as my understanding deepens, so I can have a refresher and get the most of the knowledge packed into this book. I can see why the book is called botany for gardeners, but I don't feel that gardeners are the only ones that can benefit from a text such as this. I think this book is easily good enough for anyone studying plant science or botany to read and to receive much more than they expected.
One of the many pieces of information I received from this book and that will always stick with me, is the knowledge that flowering plants are the sporophyte generation, when I thought spores stopped with mosses and ferns. For me, this book is worth reading, just for that. Yet that's only a couple of paragraphs in this rather insightful tome.
Brian ends with this call to action about the book "Now let it be a guide as you embark on
many more journeys of discovery." As this book was one of the instigators of this adventure (along with the Private Life of Plants), I shall be happy to let it be my guide.
My advice, if you should ever need it, is to let it be your guide too...
Own or Loan: Own
Read Again: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five:4
I thought it was high time you were all introduced to my drawing style - I'll leave the adjective for you, my lovely readers, to address. So what better to showcase my drawing than a post about finding the North Star?
The North Star, which is current Polaris, is quite well aligned with the Earth's axis and allows us to get an approximation of North in the night sky. The drawing to the left shows that the stars around Polaris will appear to orbit in an anti-clockwise direction from our Earthly perspective. Before Polaris was our North Star is was called Cynosura, it is the brightest star of Ursa Major and the brightest in its area of the night sky.
The Plough is often used to find Polaris and it is shaped like a pan. When looking for constellations youneed to consider that due to the Earth's rotation, the constellation may not be in the orientation shown in the drawing. This is something that was clearly illustrated to me as I drove Up North one night, I was able to watch the rotation for around 4 hours as I was driving in a mostly Northerly direction. The two stars at the pan's edge align quite well with Polaris. 5 times the distance between these two stars will lead you to Polaris.
Another constellation that I find useful for finding, or confirming that I'm looking at Polaris is Cassiopeia. It's useful to have a couple of ways of finding Polaris, due to potential cloud cover. Unfortunately with Cassiopeia there isn't an alignment with more than one star. I tend to use the one that is closest to Polaris. Polaris is around half way between The Plough and Cassiopeia.
It's important to note that you can use whatever stars you want to find Polaris. I've used these constellations because they are the ones most used and you'll be able to find additional information about using these constellations online or in books. In reality you can make up your own constellations and methods for reading the night sky. The constellations that we refer to are historical and sometimes the stars have no actual relationship to each other at all - apart from the one we make with our imagination when we see these patterns.
In around 2500AD we will have a new North Star, called Iota Cephei. If I'm around at that time, I'll ensure I update this post. Until then, I hope this helps!
Even though I do suffer with hayfever, I've never really looked into that the problem may be. It seems that there are five main types of pollen that can affect us:
Tree pollen from March to around August
Grasses from April to August
Crops around April to June
Weeds from April to around September
Fungal spores, which can be airborne all year round
There are a couple of handy pollen calendars, that can not only help you diagnose what pollen affects you, but can also then be used to help you prepare for when you may need to medicate. the first is available from Zirtek, it's a well laid out calendar and is probably my prefered one, although the Met Office calendar is a nice basic calendar and it's nice to have them both for comparison.
Data on pollen are provided in the UK by the University of Worcester and more recently the Met Office. I recently came across the pollen forecast map that is available online and produced by the Met Office, this map has a great user interface and hovering over the severity key at each general location provides details of what pollen may be floating around. You can also set your home location to ensure that you can see the severity rating closest to you. There are also different options you can choose ranging from UV to surface pressure. It's well worth a visit.
If you want a quick and easy general forecast, see the University of Worcester forecast that simply has spots ranging from green to purple for severity over the pollen types of Tree, Grasses, Weeds and fungal spores.
Watch this clip to see what the Met Office is doing to ensure that they provide the best pollen forecast they can:
Unfortunately I couldn't get a widget to add to the blog for pollen ratings for the UK. I'll copy the links from this post over to the links page for easy access.
I hope that by using these tools that we can have a happy hayfever free (or at least hayfever minimised) summer!
This is a book that gardeners of any and every age and gardening style should read. We all tend to go over the top when we have oodles of energy, but for many reasons whether it be age or illness energy levels may decrease.
Importantly the author is a perfectionist, which may ring a bell with some of us, and over time this unfortunately got the better of her and the garden she's been expanding and tending for the past 40 years. But more importantly, she didn't give up. It would have been easy to move and get a smaller, more managable garden, but Sydney took the difficult decision to stay. She had help from many people over the years and they all played a big part in reorganising the garden.
Sydney has a thing for perenials, where I'm more of a shrub person. But both require energy to maintain. Sydney gives some rules about what a plant must be for it to remain in the garden, such as a reliable flowerer. Lists are also another important factor. Also friends and helpers can be a necessity at times.
I have to say that this book was a very easy, and very worthwhile, read. It's spurred me on to think about gardening, not necessarily with regards to getting older, but gardening with low energy. It's something that I'll be writing about in future posts.
Until then, buy this book! Or loan it from your library (which is where I got my copy). What it takes in time, it will give back more in common sense - some that we consider already, some that we needed reminding of and some that we'd yet to learn.
Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again: No
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five:3
This is a very broad practical guide by Chris Starr, a Chartered Forester, with over 25 years of experience.
I initially struggled to get into this book because each chapter is split into very short sub-titled sections. It's more of a reference book and includes everything you need to know about owning and managing a woodland at a brief level. As such the book offers web addresses for places where you can get more detailed advice when a subject gets too deep for the scope of the book.
I eventually got into the book and have realised how time consuming owning a woodland would be for the uninitiated. But don't let that put you off, because after the first few years of creating a woodland plan based on your site survey and applying for relevant grants, you're left to the enjoyable bit - the practical activities of managing the woodland to the objectives that you've decided on.
There are some case studies of real woodlands in the book, but I feel that it could have benefitted from a case study at the end of each chapter to allow us to see the concepts we've read about in action. Also the book could have really done with colour plates as a lot of detail and interest was lost in the greyscale images. Saying that though, the author really knows his stuff.
The book covers topics such as: Getting to know the broadleaves, conifers and the woodlands as a whole; getting to know your woodland and creating a vision for the woodland; biodiversity; regenerating and creating woodland; generating income from the woodland; buying and owning a woodland; and much more.
On balance, this is a good book written by a very knowledgable author. If you're thinking about buying a woodland - read this book first.
Own or Loan: Loan
Read Again: No
Recommend: Yes
Overall out of Five:3
