Hovered by back door hearing only potential distant rumbling from the Red Arrows on their way north, but this cuddly character kept me company anyway. Skies still thundery grey over Wickersley. Fair exchange is no robbery! 😄 #greysquirrel [photos taken on mobile from back of my bridge camera.]

After decades of obsessively researching my ancestry from paper records, with my extended family tree groaning with 14k+ individuals, I'm finally seeing if my DNA holds any surprises and delights. Wrote this to pass the time as I wait for the spit kit to arrive... #genealogy #familyhistory #poetry

Garden glimpses: Spiraea japonica 'Shirobana' (Joseph's Coat); Persicaria bistorta 'Superba'; Hosta in flower #gardening #flowers #shrubs #summer #plants

Cuter than cute baby Blackbird who hung around waiting for me to open the side gate so it could rejoin its parents in the back garden. #gardenfriends #turdusmerula

Hebe salicifolia aka Shrubby Veronica. I'm blessed with three hebe shrubs of different varieties and colours: deep purple under the fatsia japonica, pink under the lilac tree and white in the middle of the northern border between cotoneasters and other shrubs. Glorious blooming summer!

It's summer solstice! Perfect time for a voyage out of the ordinary, full of love, romance, intrigue, mystery, adventure, courage and laughter on a historical quest to save seabirds from a terrible fate in Victorian Flamborough. 'Cloudhover Solstice' is waiting to sail you away! amzn.eu/d/fsHjS7O

This secretive little artist leaves his looping silver nocturnal masterpieces on my conservatory floor through the summer. Today, the heatwave caused him to leave himself exposed on a cooler surface, so I could photo him and escort him to a more suitable location on the compost heap. #yellowslug

My bird bath being surrounded by my over-enthusiastic Hosta 'Sum and Substance" - really living up to its name this year. 🌱🌿⛲

Didn't think I could love nature any more than I do, but midway between cataract ops, after a lifetime of myopia, today down Wickersley Gorse, South Yorkshire, UK, without specs for the first time in 50+ years, 20/20 vision now in my right, overwhelmed by colour and clarity, my joy is complete! 😃

Foxglove and bracken, Wickersley Gorse, South Yorkshire, UK

Cool trees, trickling beck, singing birds, cornfields, bracken and all the secluded beauty of Wickersley Gorse, South Yorkshire, UK on this sweltering summer afternoon.

Author's latest pencil sketch of Bram, co-hero of my novels 'Goatsucker Harvest', 'Cloudhover Solstice' and the next one, my work in progress. ❤ (And that, dear followers, is why I'm a writer, not a sketch artist, but I enjoy both, which is really all that matters 😂)

A splash of summer colour: Honeysuckle (Lonicera caprifolium); Rosa Mundi (?); Chives (Allium schoenoprasum); Persicaria bistorta. 🌿🌺🌹🌷🌼🌻🏵🌿 #plants #flowers #gardens

A beloved visitor right by the back door - Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) ❤ (Taken on my android phone from back of my Kodak Pixpro AZ405) #birds #thrushes #gardenfriends

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Glimmers from my garden today: Aquilegia (Grannies' Bonnets/Columbine); Cerastium tormentosum (Snow-in-Summer); Osteospermum (Cape Daisy)

Lilac blossoms #trees #gardens

Sun and cumulus, South Yorkshire today #cloudspotting

My lilac tree is blossoming! 😍

In Wickersley Wood, South Yorkshire this sunny May afternoon #woodland

Hawthorn doing a preemptive strike with its May blossom this penultimate day of April; wild garlic (ramsons); dandelion; horse chestnut 'candle' - Wickersley Gorse, South Yorkshire #spring #Yorkshire #woodland #plants #trees

Flag on tower of St Albans Parish Church for St George's Day, Wickersley, South Yorkshire.

Bluebell season, St. George's Day (rescheduled this year from the 23rd to save it falling in Easter week), Wickersley Gorse, South Yorkshire. (Also - spot the Wood Pigeon.😉)

Solo pilgrimage down Wickersley Gorse on St George's Day. Loads of birds and squirrels. No dragons visible. 😉

Wickersley Wood, late April

Wickersley Wood 26.4.25

Dandelion clock

Alexa, could you be any more annoying? Alexa: Hold my beer... 😂

Every cloud... 😃☁️ #clouds #cumulus #cumulonimbus ##cloudspotting

Finally indulged in a bit of joyous Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus) seed planting in the troughs. Well, it's almost May and though can't guarantee future frostlessness, life's short, so sowing in hope! 😃 ❤🌱🌿

All afternoon bathing in the beauty of the surrounding countryside. Bluebells blessing the slopes of Wickersley Gorse in profusion. Fab flora and fauna everywhere. Such bliss and all for free! 😍💙💙💙🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳🌳💙💙💙

Beautiful blossomy blue morning in #SouthYorkshire

What to look for in Spring, Wickersley style: Wood Anemone, Lesser Celandine, Norway Maple tree in blossom, Magnolia. 🌸🌳

Walk around Wickersley, South Yorkshire 3rd April 2025 (5)

Walk around Wickersley, South Yorkshire 3rd April 2025 (4)

Walk around Wickersley, South Yorkshire 3rd April 2025 (3)

Walk around Wickersley, South Yorkshire 3rd April 2025 (2)

Walk around Wickersley, South Yorkshire 3rd April 2025 (1)

Listerdale Woods, South Yorkshire

Walking through Listerdale Woods in Wickersley for a catchup with an old schoolfriend, we were reassured by this notice on one of the trees, being the peaceable souls that we are. 😂 #SouthYorkshire

Latest postbox topper outside Wickersley Post Office for Eastertide

Old gate and stone wall, Wickersley, South Yorkshire

Forsythia, Wickersley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Wickersley Wood, Rotherham, South Yorkshire

In Wickersley Wood, South Yorkshire

Pussy Willow on the nature table. Well, in my next-door-but-two's garden, at least! 😂 Those lovely primary school sensory memories! #salixcaprea #spring #goatwillow #trees #pussywillow

Second Mother's Day alone without my lifelong best friend's wisdom, compassion and laughter. How thankful and blessed I am to have had this precious soul in my life for so long. 💗 Thinking of all who find this day bittersweet or difficult for whatever reason. 😘

This birdsong 🎼🎼 is Bert the Blackbird & all the other Bert’s singing to each other at bedtime I am sure the songs regale each other of their escapades, their hopes & fears, & what they have ordered from their human for breakfast tomorrow

Nuthatch doing its little nut in Wickersley Wood this morning. A variation from its usual persistent rather accusatory 'Twoit?...twoit?...twiot?' 😂 #birds #woodland #sittaeuropaea #Wickersley #SouthYorkshire