nature, wildlife
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Walking from Lewes to Rottingdean
On a windy, sunny Sunday afternoon, I got my butt out of my usual, sometimes self-defeating patterns of weekend behaviour and took myself up into the Downs. I’m very lucky to have the South Downs National Park on my doorstep, and I have been rationing bits of it out to myself slowly. My brain forever Read more
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A wander up Chanctonbury Ring
“Chanctonbury is a place where time slows” [1] The last time I made it up to Chanctonbury, the world was different. It was 2019, and I was walking the South Downs Way. I was lost, but not in a geographic sense, as it’s hard to lose one’s bearings when walking a giant ridge of chalk Read more
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The Highchurches at The Court, Sweet @ The Yellow Book, Brighton
Our fifth gig as a four piece, and our third venturing beyond our spiritual and (kind of) actual home of The Folklore Rooms. The Court is a monthly celebration of folklore, produced by the marvellous Hattie Snooks and JD Henshaw. This was an imbolc special, for which we were treated to tales of the Celtic Read more
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Walking from London Road Brighton to Hassocks
A bright and cold January Friday with no work left to do, and a flat as frigid as a Carry On matron. There was only one thing to do: walk across the ridge of the Downs, and feel the reassuring crunch of snow beneath my feet. I live just off Ditchling Road, which as the Read more
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Brighton Folk Choir: Apple Blossom Day, Stanmer Park
Last folk choir gig, we were still in wassail season: January, cold, mulled cider, and songs swathed in winter spirits and fear of darkness. Late April, and you would expect a different idiom. But it’s been a cold and damp spring, as befits our climate-uncertain times of underwater county cricket grounds and new-build estates on Read more
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You Need To Be Careful With The Tits
“Tits are quite difficult”. It is half four on a freezing April morning, and a softly-spoken man is teaching us to listen for the birds. As the light threatens, a group of mainly retired folk are standing in the woods at RSPB Arne, a place very well known to nature types. We’re shown the clearing Read more
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