Articles

  • 4 weeks ago | ca.news.yahoo.com | Phil Gates

    Sunbeams flicker through the translucent young foliage of the sycamore canopy overhead. A shadow darts among them: a blackcap, pecking aphids from the underside of the leaves. The insects hatched from overwintering eggs in early April, congregating on loosening bud scales, waiting for tender new leaves to unfurl. Now there are legions of them, aligned along leaf veins, hypodermic stylets plugged in, siphoning sweet sap while simultaneously giving birth to more.

  • 4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Phil Gates

    Sunbeams flicker through the translucent young foliage of the sycamore canopy overhead. A shadow darts among them: a blackcap, pecking aphids from the underside of the leaves. The insects hatched from overwintering eggs in early April, congregating on loosening bud scales, waiting for tender new leaves to unfurl. Now there are legions of them, aligned along leaf veins, hypodermic stylets plugged in, siphoning sweet sap while simultaneously giving birth to more.

  • 1 month ago | theguardian.com | Phil Gates

    Through a kissing gate, into an old meadow of gently undulating humps and hollows, like the long swell on a calm green ocean. A hare, startled by the clang of the gate, lollops away into the hedge. In the far corner, abandoned among nettles on a rabbit warren, there’s an old rusting hay tedder. Its wiry whirligig wheels, spinning behind a tractor, finally came to rest here one summer day after turning its last windrow, the air heavy with the coumarin scent of sun-dried, new-mown hay.

  • 1 month ago | msn.com | Phil Gates

    Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.

  • 1 month ago | theguardian.com | Phil Gates

    On our way into town this morning we found coltsfoot blooming on the bank of the River Tyne, and when I noticed a jar of coltsfoot rock in the corner of the Hexham Sweetie Jar’s bow-fronted window, it seemed like an auspicious moment to investigate this herbal confectionery.