ONE JOB

WEEP OCEANS

EARTH HOUR

Photo credit and thanks to Pixabay

THE LAST EARTHWORM

Inspired by reports in the UK press showing the massive decline in earthworms is due to over-cultivation, toxic pesticides, herbicides, nitrates, phosphates and insecticides, plus anti-wildlife government policy is contributing to songbird decline. Yet still ignorance insists on scapegoating other birds like magpies and sparrowhawks for natural predation as if they're the culprits!

LIVING THE DREAM

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok from Pexels

Turned on the morning news

And overnight

Children

Have only gone and

Let all the animals out of their traps and cages

Inspired gangs to throw their knives into the fire

Sown woodlands to heal frack crack and landfill

No-one can pick a side now for standing as one.

Threatened ones dance in diversity out of danger

Cures and care are now funded by giving a damn

Trolls set up helplines for those they have bullied and beaten

Peace reigns with volume and vilify put on mute

Foodbanks just folk tunes hummed by long remembrance

Plastic just melting as healthy as foam on the seas

Then we

Woke up.

To ourselves.

Didn’t we?

WE BE CREATION'S CRYING

Bonded
To this body of birds
Wheeling in freeform flock

Rooted
Radical in earthball
Tendrils tucked
Through trackless undergrowth

Voice of the heartstop hare
From her barren form,
Whisper and whicker,
Melt and bloat

Ductile seductive
Plastic at the seabird's throat,
Barnacles losing purchase
On the toxic rock

We be creation's crying
Syrinx singing
Solidarity
With rhythmic sobs
Please cope

Struggling to shine afresh
The sun slinks up,
Wandering west
To wash the waste
Pale gold
Wanhope.

HERE BE NO DRAGONS

Here be no dragons

Though stiffened necks nod

Over greenbelt and wildwood

No breathing integrity 

Of flame and tongue

Here be duplicity

Wolfing up landscape

Flogged to the fattest

Fracking our green

Blindfold off the cliff

St George with his breastplate gone

Bare to the drill

BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE FOR THE BEES

Cheap and cheery Bee Bath on my patio

I'm always on the look-out for simple ways to be a better friend to wildlife.

This year, a couple of very simple, inexpensive additions to my garden are going down a storm with wild visitors!

One is this Bee Bath I made in five minutes out of:

-an old plant pot as a base, weighted with stones to discourage it from toppling over when landed on by over-enthusiastic birds! 

-a surplus plant saucer 

 

-some pebbles I had lying around.

The water in this bath needs to be kept fairly shallow, with the pebbles protruding above the surface, so the bees can drink without drowning. Nearby, in the hot days of summer, I also intend to put a bee-sized serving of sugary water in a very small container, to revive tired workers we sometimes see struggling after a busy day making honey and pollinating the precious planet.

In past years, it's been a privilege to see a sluggish, dying bee instantly rejuvenated and flying off like a new buzzer when I've offered it a bit of sugar water. This year I'd like to make that offer a bit more permanent and accessible to all.

In my neck of the woods in South Yorkshire,  I'm fortunate to meet a variety of bees from the 250 species still found in the UK: some of my regulars are

the Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

the White-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lucorum)

White-tailed Bumblebee

Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)

Red-tailed Bumblebee

and many more!

I hope by making our gardens a happy health spa for these amazing insect friends, so hard-working, beautiful and sadly now under threat from pesticides and other changes worldwide, we'll be welcome hosts to our guests. Maybe by these simple gestures, we can see their numbers growing again, and the crops they pollinate so faithfully may not fail in the future we all share. 

Have a Happy Bee-Cherishing Spring and Summer!

Tour de Yorkshire passes through Flamborough - setting for my next novel "Cloudhover Solstice"

Flamborough, North Landing

Today's the day the ‪#‎TourDeYorkshire‬ starts in Sewerby, passing through Flamborough, Bempton and Buckton before crossing into North Yorkshire. Crowds are lining the beautiful route which will finish in Scarborough at around 4pm today (May 1st). 

Readers who are getting excited about the sequel to "Goatsucker Harvest" - the cliffs and countryside around Flamborough are the gorgeous setting for my next book "Cloudhover Solstice"! So keep your eyes peeled for more mysterious and mesmerising glimpses of Yorkshire!

Earth Hour 2011

Might not have been well enough to wander round the countryside sporting lanterns and light sabres, but had a quiet night in with Mum and a candle. Aquarium light off, laptop unplugged.

We love you, little Earth. You're the only one we've got.

However, a quick sneaky look through the blinds shows not everybody had got the Earth Hour message. Local pub strewn with fairy lights as per usual and lights blazing in windows across the street.
Keep spreading the word.

 

Link to official Earth Hour website