• Pond life.

    Pond life.

    By Graham Wellstead. My garden, like many, contains a pond. Not a great lake, just a small formal pond about 8ft square with raised sides, the theory being we could sit on the edge and watch the fish. All the fish were born in the pond and over the past thirty years have gone up…

  • Wooing the birds

    Wooing the birds

    Written by Beatrice Bray. The French twentieth century composer Olivier Messeain took avian observations to a new level. Not just content with listening to birds, he sought to recreate it in his music: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3gJFSH6W6wXVgybrqqNtFGq/the-composer-who-took-a-cue-from-birdsong I wouldn’t attempt to emulate either his musicianship or his record as an ornithologist, not least because my own expertise is…