I think I am going to start calling this ‘Mr Icky and the chari-taint’ Like it’s some ludicrous kids book, rather than a whole swathe of environmental charities being deeply dystopian. Better for my bloody pressure anyway.

Drew a woodcock for a commission. Why yes, yes I am taking bird drawing commissions at the moment…

A question If a charity or group took money in the last two years from a vocal known anti-trans right wing Zionist should they be eyed with deep suspicion no matter who they are or how good the cause? Or is it just me that finds that disgusting and a sign to have nothing to do with them at all?

Beautiful And Doomed Loss in a landscape, Swift (3) - unfinished Roofing slate and gold Facing the idea of damage.

Break stuff And it stays broken.

Smash things up and they remain smashed No amount of offsetting damage can fully fix broken.

Seems a fitting day to repost this.

Old pasture grazed short in late summer and autumn for the win! #waxcap #dartmoor @nffn.bsky.social

God, #waxcaps are just fabulous aren’t they? And if their grasslands get damaged they are gone. Like ‘20 years for partial recovery but maybe no coming back’ gone Makes me both full of awe (that they still exist at all, let alone in number) and so bloody scared for their future

I’ve written a thing again This time about ‘nature’ Not the thing (whatever that is) but the word. I propose we stop using it and get a bit sharper with what we are trying to say… And yes, I know that’s unhinged. www.scribehound.com/countryside/...

Signs of recovery These babies are from one of our hardest worked fields. A field that may not have been intensified as fully as most but still was pumped up with fertilisers. Four years ago we had one species of waxcaps, (Snowy One of the toughest) return Then parrot and meadow And now… More!

Here. A small tirade against half-arsed language. In which I propose we all stop using the woolly and indistinct word #nature and see how that changes how we think about our world And yes, I know it’s not sensible, but… it’s maybe worth mulling over… www.scribehound.com/countryside/...

Time on #Dartmoor to be careful where you put your feet! Especially in short mossy grass. (Where the sheep graze in particular) The change in weather has finally awoken the #waxcaps!

If you believe what BrewDog did at Kinrara was bad, don't wait to see what is coming - take the time to understand what Oxygen Conservation stands for and protest parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/04/o...

Been away for a few days. Been looking at the sea. #sketchbook

Seriously how hard is it to say “This is an outrageous attack on our friends and neighbours who are in this country legally and have followed all the rules to get settled status, who are valued members of our communities, get to fuck frog-face”?

Sure signs of autumn on our place. If you farm livestock in a very low impact way you get all kinds of good stuff* All I need now is the waxcaps!! (Which are slow to show this year here) *you may need to wait a few decades for the results but it’s worth it!

Medics returning from Gaza say Israel deliberately targeting children with sniper, drone fire, Dutch newspaper reports.

In the least surprising news of the year… … I have questions about peat. If anyone here can answer them please do!!! www.scribehound.com/countryside/...

We have published our AI generated slop and stand by it and have explained why it might be nonsense in the documentation no one will read, now kindly fuck off.

Peat map The FINALE! My final letter (apparently) in a long line of letters about the terrible peat map… I’m drawing some pretty bleak conclusions about this I used to believe that ‘the truth’ mattered in science and that if evidence was presented conclusions could be adjusted, how foolish of me

Made with rubbish Graphite shavings and packing paper from a parcel The desire to use my hands to shape the wings of the birds swept over me as I tidied the table. I’d sharpened a graphite pencil, its shavings tipped onto the waste paper. They felt under my fingers unmanageable

You know that thing where something low level petty happens and it raises a whole host of red flags? Yeah That Fun* times in the world of carbon capture, big money and ecology… (*And when I say ‘fun’ I mean ‘playground petty with an unpleasant edge’.)

Yeah That’s a very nice sight The wood edged fields are worth their weight in gold in the summer, especially in a dry hot summer For all the talk about how bad livestock is this is pretty much perfect Land use layered Food and nature, in the same place at the same time, complementing each other

*Cough* @naturalengland.bsky.social the New England Peat Map… *cough*

This was eleven days ago. Has she found food? Is she still alive? Her face is haunting me. Gaza is facing a human made, hate filled genocide. It’s obscene. And yet people are floating plastic bottles into the Mediterranean Sea, filled with air, rice or lentils and hope they will find the hungry.

Peat map! The reply to the reply to the reply to the query about why the map is SO RUBBISH Apparently the map is good and also bad, fit for purpose yet also not, without robust surveys (by us? Unpaid?) my concerns will and also will not lead to the map being changed… Help me My Brain is melting!

This displaced and starving Palestinian woman sheltering at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital says she hasn’t eaten in five days, as Israel continues its suffocating blockade on Gaza.

We are receiving desperate messages of starvation from #Gaza, including from our colleagues. Food prices have increased 40 fold. UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months, stockpiled just outside Gaza. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.

Over Two whole months since the peat map launch (and exactly two months since @naturalengland.bsky.social suddenly decided a user disclaimer was needed on the landing page of the maps website in case anyone actually used it) and still its full of errors (yet apparently 95% correct!)

More gannets A larger painting, but the birds stay tiny.

Dusk. Dartmoor. Nightjars nest. Ink and pencil Another small work, finding a way to show the feeling of a place, a time, and a bird (or two) The way the light changes as the dark settles in. The churring rising from the half light and the impossibility of seeing some birds!

As someone who lives and works here and cares deeply about the place, I'm feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the way in which Dartmoor has become a convenient media trope for the parlous state of nature in UK National Parks, and the tone of the debate around issues affecting biodiversity here.

Instead they seemed to have picked peat soils to survey and then rolled that data out across other soil types regardless of whether it’s right or not. Bad science… but who cares when the map is pretty and confirms your biases huh?

Over Two whole months since the peat map launch (and exactly two months since @naturalengland.bsky.social suddenly decided a user disclaimer was needed on the landing page of the maps website in case anyone actually used it) and still its full of errors (yet apparently 95% correct!)

Today has been shifting hay, moving cows and laying ink down on tiny gannets. Each of those jobs is satisfying in its own way, but I do love this delicate way of painting. Half fast and free and half very very precise!

Next in the new work series Dawn. Gannets fall. Ink and pencil 20x13.5cm Birds under 1cm This is already sold. Onto the next!

Dawn. Turnstones call Ink and pencils. 20x13.5cm Maybe it’s the weather that has prompted this flow of work? Not only making me think of early morning mist, but also, more practically, helping the inks dry as they mix on the damp paper! Whatever, this one is bliss

I have a question How much is a carbon credit? And is there much variety in price? Like gold standard ones vs bog standard? It’s just I’ve seen some simple WCC ones sold for £125 and that seems a lot. Ta muchly!

Settling into this new work. Finding a way to show here, how it can be, how I’ve felt it. The bones of the place and how the light moves. The scent. The coolness. How it sounds. Dawn. Dartmoor. Jackdaws call. Ink and pencil 20x13.5cm (birds tiny… the largest is 0.6cm long)

Next new work Dawn. Dartmoor. Ascending light. Ink and pencil 20x13.5cm Playing with the feeling of dawn on the moor. The shimmer of the light through the mist and the rising skylark above. The softness I love how the gold ink catches the light as you move past these works. Yeah. For sale. Dm.

Peat map…. The reply! Yes this is like some long running saga, sorry and all that, but I took a while to think about my reply to the reply to my email that followed my many many social media posts and (the fame) my small write up in the papers… Behold. My next email to @naturalengland.bsky.social

New work Dawn, Dartmoor, stonechats Ink and pencils 20x3.5cm Working with the ideas of light, peace, stillness. The quiet into which the birds first call. For sale. Message me.

Peat map! I forgot to say, I got a reply to my letter! It’s not 100% satisfactory (🙄) and it’s what I expected, but it’s also ‘interesting’ in a ‘lying in a dark room blinking slowly’ kind of way in places…

I’ve been working on new art today. Dawn, oystercatchers Ink and pencil. 20x13.5cm (the birds are 0.6cm long) For sale - dm me.

On #NationalMeadowsDay NOT a meadow. This is pasture (yes yes it’s a matter of semantics but still!) Created by and for our livestock. Not mown for hay but grazed instead. Grazed hard in the winter, down to its earthy bones. Then rested so it shivers with life in the summer.

#wildflowerHour not a grass but still its worth posting Greater Broomrape Orobanche Rapum-genistae Apparently it’s a good year for it.

Sara, one of the best people ever. A legend, so strong, so funny, so punk, her activism based on love and justice and food I’ve had (and cherish) 7 years of random messages bouncing between us pretty much saying ‘wtf?’ ‘agghhhhhh’ and ‘onwards’ So… Wtf? Agh! Onwards Towards Love, food & justice

Peat! And it’s mapping… UPDATE: There is no update! Yeah It’s still online, it’s still very badly wrong & I still haven’t heard a peep from anyone official about when it’s getting taken offline! Ah well, I guess for @naturalengland.bsky.social massive mistakes are just the way they roll!

It’s been a whole month since the peat map of England was launched! It’s still very wrong And it’s still online So I’ve written a open letter to @naturalengland.bsky.social I am starting to worry that massive mistakes are just a thing with the whole organisation. What else is wildly wrong?