Sex & drugs & RocknRoll seem like a very long time ago now.

Toads. I love toads. Best toads ever are toads on the way home from the pub. Toads are fucking excellent.

A pond restored in 2015. Stunning structural complexity & very high biodiversity in its 3 planty zones. Right in the middle of an arable field but no drainage in & a good buffer. Farming & conservation working together. This is what we MUST DO! @wildernorfolk.bsky.social @tonyjuniper.bsky.social

Every once in a while I tell people from other countries about how the health insurance system works in the US and they are aghast. Yesterday a guy straight up didn’t believe me when I said people can die because of not being able to afford medicine. He was sure I meant in the distant past.

Got nipped by a big prawn 🤿

At the end of the Nightjar season we are very proud to have completed the first year in collaboration with Natural England facilitating the study of feeding areas away from the breeding site. 20 birds ringed of which 14 were pulli, 6 GPS tags fitted with 5 retrieved, which obtaining some good data.

A gloomy and overcast post work snorkel, but much brighter beneath the waves. Norfolk’s hidden treasures.

Swallowtail caterpillar munching fennel in a friend’s Broads garden. Conservation implications? Fennel rich mixes in arable adjacent to wetlands? (Pic, Rick Southwood).

More and better habitat required. Every farm should have at least one decent sized high quality habitat creation project, alongside options for mixes and margins etc. The need for well ADVISED schemes paying a fair rate has never been greater. www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Barn Owl monitoring on the Sandringham estate, despite parts of East Anglia reporting a bad year, these boxes did well from 21 boxes, we had 15 in use, with 11 with chicks, total of 31 young, with the largest brood being 4. @btobirds.bsky.social @norfolknats.bsky.social @wildernorfolk.bsky.social

@jakefiennes.bsky.social @freshwaterbio.bsky.social @lgspace.bsky.social @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @chrisgpackham.bsky.social @timholtwilson.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk @wildernorfolk.bsky.social @northnorfolkliving.bsky.social

First year ever the fig tree has produced something edible.

I bought a little bear.

My first Norfolk Jersey Tiger.

Less intimidating than I’d assumed.

For clarity, my post below wasn’t meant to be a dig at anyone at the front end of their conservation career. Far from it. If there’s been a failing, then it’s down to those of us that have been around a while longer.

A pal has been away on a course.. ‘The younger professional Ecologists all knew everything there was to know about BNG, credits, trading etc but couldn't ID a beech tree, not one of them out of 17’.

I think radishes might be the most underrated of all my favourite things. This is the most profound thought of my day. So far.

I thought I’d teach myself a few traditional upholstery skills. Now I’m thinking, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to start with a chaise sodding longue. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Took a trip north this week to be schooled in all things moorland. Boy have i been wrong with some assumptions. Get all the right measures in all the right places and productivity of waders can be nothing short of spectacular.

Breckland Landscape Recovery getting it just right. Ambitious, but achievable. Complex enough to hit objectives for nature, but straightforward enough to actually be delivered. Enthusiastic, but realistic leadership. It’s conservation Baby Bear’s porridge. Well done them 👏👏

Nothing really new here… but the Morris adage…’Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" has never been more apt. In other words, stop buying shit you don’t need. futurism.com/scientists-w...

Bought a few of these pieces today. Flipped back and forth from loathe to love several times, before settling on love!! So many influences. Thoughts? Age/influences/origin/style??No googling!! @whysocuriousantiqu.bsky.social @hobbyantiquing.bsky.social @timbowenantiques.bsky.social

I believe I am literally the last person in England yet to see a Swallow. 😠☹️

Given the current nonsense, I’m feeling particularly annoyed by sentences that begin with ‘So’, or end in ‘right’. I’m not for it. No personal offence meant, but I’m all out of love with Americanisms.

Arminghall boot is a total joy. Soily handed Norfolk boys colliding with the vibe of a souk on the Silk Road. It’s fucking excellent.

Pleasing car boot find this morning

I was fortunate today to spend time with colleagues. Reminded me of the great strength in a team approach. At least one or more of them is brilliant at solving the various conundrums we have to unravel. I value them enormously.

Exactly the scenario we hoped wouldn’t happen. www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/north-s...

A very pleasing stack of pots at Audley End Kitchen Garden.

I’ve developed an addiction for old cafe style chairs. These by Thonet cost me a tenner for the pair, and just needed a little tighten up and wax. Probably 100 years old ish. Now require coffee and cake.

Majesty, elegance, sophistication, and just a little decrepit character - all punched in the eye by a single blue bin.

Met a bloke in the pub tonight. Right wing af. We disagreed on nearly everthing. But we shared some snacks, talked about colours of 1970s Fords and old Norwich. Parted on good company. In a tiny way, quite important I thought.

I’m absolutely delighted by this, but keen to get our mechanical interventions done first.

This is absolutely brilliant. Good science and then proper action. Well done all involved. 👏👏 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Looked at some lovely developing brambley scrub today. Succession is doing the heavy lifting, but mechanical management is adding finesse. Grazing animals say hello from time to time too. Hybrid solutions - complex habitat.

Great so see some finesse on a north Norfolk new build for a change. Including the builders trademark flint arrangement.

Simple but pretty effective way of stopping flea treatments from entering sensitive waterbodies.

I am discovering that caning a chair seat is very fiddly and makes me swear a lot.

Keep an eye out for Joe (left) on Countryfile tonight. One of Norfolks most ambitious deliverers for nature - wetlands in particular. Always striving for more, bigger, better. We need more Joes. We need more wetlands. #WorldWetlandsDay

Norwich, Venus, Moon.

Cavenham Heath being properly roughed up. Scraping * ploughing * cultivating. Thanks very much said the Curlew, Stone Curlew and Lapwing (plus a bunch a scarce Breckland flora). Bold disturbance so often the key to conservation success.

If you’re going to take farmland out of production to deliver for wildlife, then do it right. I’d rather see good food being grown than this pseudo conservation. Thousands of ha now delivering bugger all and costing millions. Schemes need advisers.

Not my usual cup of tea, but for 3 quid, couldn’t resist. No idea on age, fancy fretwork, Victorian maybe? Minor spruce up all that’s required.

Armed picnic today, so you get an obligatory sausage photo.

Cold, crisp and bright at Overy Staithe. Some work, some gossip, and some sheer joy of being.

Look, I know I get excited about some weird stuff, but let’s be honest, the string whipping on Trev’s mug is a pretty classy touch.

I’d take this floor out for dinner, fall in love, propose, and make little tiles.

It’s been an excellent Friday…talking structure, heterogeneity, dunes, marshes, ditches…. and strategies for making the most of them. Then I watched a Professor capture the plans by drawing them in the dirt. @pauldolman.bsky.social

Feels quite fun to start again on here. Somehow cleansing.