Why go to a cosy city gallery to see Andy Goldsworthy's work when you can hike for 1hr up a steep path to a remote spot in the Howgills? Corner Cairn Fold, with its cutaway cone, was built on the site of an old sheep washfold in the wake of the devastating 2001 foot+mouth epidemic.

Yup to a shepherd's hut.

Herdwick sheep sure know how to pose.

The tree you climbed as a child. Gone. The Swifts over your town. Gone. The air you breathe. Polluted. The river. Unsafe. This is the reality of deregulation. Cutting protections would mean disaster for nature & our economy. Our CEO sets out why: rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈

So looking forward to chatting to fellow country diarist and author @derekniemann.bsky.social about nearby nature, local landscape & chronic illness at #Heal #Rewilding in #Somerset next Tuesday. If you're in the #Frome area, do come along and join us! 🦫🐛🦉🦔 www.tickettailor.com/events/healr...

September: Apple-picking. From Claire Leighton's The Farmer's Year.

James Rebanks enjoyably animated with engaged farming audience at FarmEd last night, on how it is an exciting time for soil-based livestock farmers and, whisper it, how he's all about cattle, not sheep these days. Should rename himself herdycowman.

PSA: sloes are not just for Xmas liqueurs - they can make beautiful jelly.

Read this, feel better.

They don't fall far from the tree, do they?

My farm neighbour's wild bird cover crop - brightening a Monday with Van Gogh vibes.

‘Portrait of a Man Reading’ Greetings Card, Paul Kotlarevsky. Available as a single greetings card, or as part of the 'Letters and Literature' Greetings Card Collection. Blank inside, so suitable for birthdays, anniversaries, and all occasions. www.rathergoodart.co.uk/product/port...

Spot the...an occasional series for friends I thought I'd try sharing here. Blurred distant pics of wildlife spotted on morning walks.You might have to zoom in like in pic 2. So, spot the fox.

Tree of the year voting time! Some with literary and film connections, and a couple of real loners, but all are venerable, special individuals. bit.ly/4md2mc3

Lovely lovely books nominated for the @rjaward.bsky.social.

Do take advantage of this and discover a v accomplished family story - if you like Tessa Hadley's books, you will enjoy this.

Caithness colours, ready to be a tartan.

They're thinking about it...what staggers me is that this lot, in Caithness, will have so much further to go than other UK summer visitors.

Among the blooming heather. And lovely lichen - Strath of Kildonan, Caithness.

Paging @themerl.bsky.social

September morning after rain.

If you'd like to know about fluffy owlets turning their toast-speckled heads upside down, you'll enjoy this lovely piece.

On the pleasures of solitude. My Country Life magazine piece out today, feat. single rooms in the bee hotel, the cat that walked alone, and the bizarre job of being a garden hermit. 📷 Andy Rouse/Scotland/Alamy National Trust via WikiCommons

What to do about yet more illegally butchered + dumped animal remains? Not on verge, so no point asking council + in impenetrable brambles anyway, but in time the stinking bones will find their way across fields and into garden. Drives me + dog mad in different ways. Regular occurrence. 😡

Harris Tweed, bound by statute to be produced from 100% wool, has to defend itself from calls by PETA to switch to hemp - by pointing out that shearing is vital for welfare of sheep.

Been years since I came across a horseshoe on a cultivated field, but here it was this morning. Must be nearly a century since horses worked on this land.

Now some people have come near so I'll move - I prefer isolation & can't stand their voices.

Sheep grateful for hay. In August. #drought.

The comments on this are a beautifully curated list for lovers of Larson cartoons.- can visualise nearly every one. Read 'em and smile.

Our latest blog @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social on the need for @DefraGovUK to urgently address the lack of support for ongoing nature friendly farming that means great actions by farmers are being lost or can't be maintained. @NFFNUK.com www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/barnaby...

This literary walking trail written by Jade Cookson with maps by @fellranger.bsky.social looks excellent and is beautifully done. Also great service from Catsycam outdoor shop on Penrith: posted immediately.

Fairies' thimbles and dwarf mouse-ear hawkweed. Midsummer Hill, Malverns. ##wildflowerhour

BBC Farmwatch, tuning into farming all day today, inc live combine cam. Great idea, more please. 👏👏 www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

August: harvesting. From A Farmer's Year, Claire Leighton. 1933

"Quick! We've got nothing to fill our regular page 3 Cotswolds slot!" "Just make up anything, add a few 000s to the numbers and name any old celeb" by #TheTimes correspondent Ad Nauseam.

I have a piece of writing in The Scotsman Magazine today. Go check it out, it's really good. #Scotland #Writing #Books

Lucky me to have received this new wonder by @nicolawriting.bsky.social. Delighting in being reacquainted with the vocab from a horsey teen past: surcingle, martingale, chafney bit. Much more to enjoy, too.

Lovely empty windows: @lauraparker.bsky.social tells the story of a 1928 lifeboat tragedy, as memorialised in the windows of an East Sussex church www.caughtbytheriver.net/2025/07/love...

Betony flourishing in N Yorks. #wildflowerhour

My piece about how lifeboatmen on a futile mission came to be commemorated in glass by Scottish artist Douglas Strachan.

Children at Cropredy Primary School will sing to 6,000 people at the Fairport Convention in Cropredy next month, after the school overhauled the curriculum to have the children learn about local history and folk music, plus geography and art via the waterways round Fairport this year.

Beautiful betony in an old-fashioned hay meadow in Yorkshire, where everything feels unbelievably lush compared to the parched south.

Ladybird book in the Spotlight ‘Public Services: Water Supply’ 1969 [Deep sigh] Artist: John Berry

Florist 'literally cutting down a whole wood' to supply cow parsley for weddings, for which he can charge £100k. Where to start...in today's Sunday Times.

We're very proud of the first 3 books from Writers Review Publishing - and more are on the way! Find out more about us, and about each book & author, at www.writersreviewpublishing.co.uk. @judithallnatt.bsky.social @maryhoffman.bsky.social @lindanewbery.bsky.social @sheenawriter.bsky.social

Let's see what today's rain does to this - field crispy as coir matting.

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England's great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot

Summer's turning...

On the need to 'rediscover a language to discuss the beauty of place'