Custodians of the Countryside. After being given a lifetime ban on keeping animals, Skipton farmer Hayden Fortune turned his farm into a massive illegal waste site. Hayden had earlier blamed "a spree of rural crime" for threatening electricity inspectors. The crime spree was true - it was his own.

It's Sunday, it's 8pm so it must be #WildFlowerHour. Please share pix of any wild or naturalised plants you saw in bloom last week across Britain & Ireland, including any #treeflowers for tonight's challenge. Mystery plant? Use #WildFlowerID to summon help from @wildflowerhour.bsky.social botanists.

For #Wildflowerhour's #treeflowers challenge, willow catkins in a row at different stages of maturity growing locally in #Preston, taken yesterday. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social #vitaminN

A fabulous selection of plants in bloom for tonight's #WildFlowerHour, especially all those gorgeous #TreeFlowers! Huge thanks to all of you who shared photos & observations. Have a great week, keep an eye out for the next @wildflowerhour.bsky.social challenge & see you at 8pm next Sunday!

Trees flowering in Northumberland this week for #WildflowerHour There are catkins on the black popla trees, with the red male catkins and the female green catkins on separate trees. Bunches of green flowers on the Norway maples and white blossom on the blackthorns #treeflowers

Blackthorn and lichen. #TreeFlowers #WildflowerHour

#WildflowerHour #treeflowers I missed the announcement, but managed to grab a few from the week’s photos.

For #Wildflowerhour's #treeflowers challenge, I think this is hornbeam growing locally in #Preston, taken today when it was very blowy! @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social #vitaminN

This week's hedgerow offerings for #wildflowerhour: neon Alexanders (introduced by the Romans, & not at all common in NW #Ireland) with its stripy purple bloomers, plus some choirboy primroses. We all got a soaking later! 🌈🌧 #WildAtlanticWay #Sligo @bsbibotany.bsky.social @wildireland.bsky.social

‘There’s no flowers more red, than the flowers of the larch’ John Clare At their best in Southey Wood (VC32) yesterday, the stunning female cone of Hybrid Larch, together with the far more understated pollen cone... #wildflowerhour #treeflowers @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Ash buds and flowers. #TreeFlowers #WildflowerHour

Sea Mouse-ear, Cerastium diffusum, in the turf at Dawlish Warren. Rabbit dropping for scale. #WildflowerHour

#treeflowers #WildflowerHour #Botany Flamboyantly Fabulous Larch Tree Flowers 🩷

I was pleased to find a nice patch of Moschatel, Adoxa moschatellina, at the foot of Croham Hurst in Croydon the other day when I went for a quick walk. #WildflowerHour

Wild Tulip Tulipa sylvestris in south Norfolk. Three flowers and hundreds of leaves this year but being quickly overwhelmed by invasive Winter Heliotrope Petasites pyrenaicus #wildflowerhour

Too windy (Gale Force) & early in season for #treeflowers here. But lovely buds found: Bluebell, Marsh Marigold, Cowslip, Wild Garlic maybe by #Easter for #WildFlowerHour Lilac buds breaking & Flowering Currant peak. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiireland.bsky.social

Pleased not to have found any wildflowers in the cauld blasted Lammermuirs 💨🥶 but the sunny side of East Lothian came up with these stunning Elm (English ?) and Larch flowers @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @lothianloop.bsky.social #treeflowers #wildflowerhour #Pencraig

Sometimes when we are botanising we can forget to look up! Which would be a shame as #treeflowers are both fascinating & beautiful! This week’s challenge is to go looking for wild & naturalised trees that are blooming. Share your finds for #WildflowerHour this Sunday 8-9pm!

Wow!!!! What a wonderful #wildflowerhour, so many interesting facts & tales shared for this weeks #storyplants challenge! There’s been a lot of posts tonight so we’ll keep sharing them throughout the week. Don’t forget to look out for the next challenge!

Plum cherry at Loch Tay & East Lothian Little Mouse-ear, Shepherds Purse along the railway walk Haddington. #ID ? #WhiteFlowers #WildFlowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiscotland.bsky.social

An amazing year for Sweet violets in Ely, this patch of var. dumetorum almost qualifying for the #WhiteFlowers challenge. #WildflowerHour

Grey Field-speedwell, Veronica polita, in the grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital. #WildflowerHour

#SignsOfSpring underneath the “Residents Parking Only” sign. Red Dead-nettle out-sprung by purple flowered Sweet Violet which in turn is out-sprung by white flowered Sweet Violet, Viola odorata var dumetorum. #WildflowerHour

The very first of the Bluebells, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, are starting to flower here and there. This one was in Lesnes Abbey Woods. #SignsOfSpring #WildflowerHour

A mighty dandelion in a Gloucestershire field this week. #signsofspring #wildflowerhour

Lovely Wood Anemone, (aka Windflower), Anemone nemorosa, among the Daffodils at Lesnes Abbey Woods. #WildflowerHour #SignsOfSpring

Huge thanks to everyone who shared their lovely plant pix, lots of #SignsofSpring for tonight's #WildFlowerHour! Have a great week & remember to keep an eye out for the next @wildflowerhour.bsky.social weekly challenge set by @botanybeck.bsky.social!

Late for #wildflowerhour but here are larch flowers I saw yesterday #signsofspring @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

So many #SignsofSpring and so many gorgeous photos! Thank you all for sharing them and for making #wildflowerhour wonderful! Remember to keep a look out for the next challenge! Hope you all have a great week and happy flower hunting! ☺️

It’s 8pm & it’s Sunday, so it must be time for #wildflowerhour!🎉 Please share your pics of the wild & naturalised blooms you’ve spotted from across Britain & Ireland in the last week especially if they are #SignsofSpring, the focus of this week’s challenge! 😀

The wonderful puff of Yew Tree Pollen #LordAncrumsWood #NewBattleAbbeyCollege #SignsofSpring #WildFlowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiscotland.bsky.social

Primrose, Birdseye speedwell and Dogs mercury thrusting through the soil and pushing the ribbons of tarmac around #Spott #EastLothian #SignsofSpring #WildFlowerHour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social @bsbiscotland.bsky.social

Woohoo! For #wildflowerhour my first Colt’s-foot flower of the year! 💛🎉🥰

Sadly a day late for #CelandineDay but my favourite little Celandine patch is still flowering its heart out for #Wildflowerhour It was looking glorious in today’s sunshine! 💛🌞

Shepherd’s purse, Cut-leaved dead nettle, Lesser celandine, Blackthorn, Annual mercury, Sweet violets, Petty spurge, White dead nettle, Common chickweed, Sweet violet again and Daisy. #TheWinter10 #WildflowerHour

Helleborus viridis Green Hellebore in a mid-Norfolk fragment of ancient Hornbeam-Hazel woodland. Not seen here for 25 years nor anywhere in Norfolk for a decade - relieved it is still here! #Wildflowerhour

Common Whitlowgrass, Erophila verna, adorning my local road verges like a light dusting of snow. #WildflowerHour

Winter is only just letting go here in Edinburgh - Winter Aconite everywhere - here #FiggatePond and still peak Snowdrop season - these G. nivalus Flore Pleno (?) & Spurge laurel at Dalkeith Country Park @wildflowerhour.bsky.social #wildflowerhour

It’s Sunday & it’s 8pm, so woohoo, it’s time for #wildflowerhour! 🎉Can’t wait to see what you’ve found this week! Please share your pics of the wild & naturalised blooms you’ve spotted from across Britain & Ireland in the last week!

Toad migration season has begun 🐸 If you see amphibians on the move, please record them — your sightings help protect breeding sites and migration routes. #addHerper #Herpetology #Scotland #Toads #Biodiversity #Conservation

This week’s Big Issue is out today! 🗞️ 🦅 Claire Foy talks H is For Hawk ⭐️ Meet the 15-year-old girl helping homeless families 🌳 Get ready to birdwatch Read a sneak peek here. 👀 www.bigissue.com/behind-the...

Recorded on a grey cold day like today. This was one of our most extreme records. We got absolutely drenched! Episode 153 - Freezing January rain under Britain's highest pylon (23min) Sharp winter rain. Drops gathered on metal above, falling heavier through the hum www.podbean.com/ew/pb-k4c7y-...

Hen Harrier killing continues on England’s #grouse moors in 2025. A parliamentary debate back in June did not generate a step change. Blog: markavery.info/2026/01/20/r... Photo: Dynamo/Ivan Ellison @rspbinvestigations.bsky.social @northyorkmoors.org.uk @forestofbowlandnl.bsky.social #Defra

This week’s #TheWinter10 - Common Field Speedwell, Groundsel, Yarrow, Hazel (flower & catkin), Stinking Hellebore, Primrose, Common Ragwort, Daisy, Dandelion & Red Deadnettle #WildflowerHour

It's Sunday, it's 8pm so it must be #WildFlowerHour! Please share pix of any wild or naturalised plants you spotted coming into bloom last week across Britain & Ireland. Mystery plant? Use #WildFlowerID to summon help from the friendly @wildflowerhour.bsky.social botanical community!

Some budding Winter Aconites for this week's #WildFlowerHour, in our local Cambridgeshire park. @wildflowerhour.bsky.social @bsbibotany.bsky.social

Two nice urban flowers for #wildflowerhour today: Cut-leaved Dead-nettle, with its 'cut' lobed leaves, and Henbit Dead-nettle, with rounded, unstalked upper leaves. Both in flower for #TheWinter10, if you squint hard enough! Both locally scarce, and new finds for this bit of industrial Falkirk.

Wandering our heartland, I gathered a small constellation of wildflowers — snowdrop, primrose, daisy, aconite, dead-nettle, hazel, alder, cow parsley — each gently present. Arranged in a circle, they became a kind of medicine wheel: not of knowing, but of noticing. #WildflowerHour #NoticingNature

For #wildflowerhour it’s the humble but important to science, Thale Cress, Arabidopsis thaliana. The first plant ever to have its genome sequenced