True, housing cost less, if you had access to it. But if you were a single woman it was virtually impossible to take out a tenancy agreement or mortgage. And if you were a single women with a child, god help you!
Researcher and writer on people and nature, focusing mostly on the Peak District and the (Derbyshire) River Derwent. Formerly journalist, aid worker, educator and accidental academic, now trying to draw these strands together in my writing.
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True, housing cost less, if you had access to it. But if you were a single woman it was virtually impossible to take out a tenancy agreement or mortgage. And if you were a single women with a child, god help you!
Well you're a poetically gifted writer already, so unless you fancy the other option... But I think I'll definitely risk it one day!
Loved this! Cadair is my favourite Welsh mountain. I've always meant to spend a night up there, which is reputed to make you either mad or poetically gifted. I wonder which I'd be?
I've always thought of them as a complement to my cats! Not as cute when young, not as independent from the get-go (but they get there eventually), but they can (also eventually) unload the dishwasher.
Key themes: management & protection of temperate rainforest, natural regeneration, Curlews, peat cutting, grouse moors, rewilding. Oct 1-3, Sheffield. Booking now open. Details 🔽 raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/08/24/c...
Finally quit my university job and spent the week helping out with a survey of moorland vegetation. I can now confidently distinguish between bilberry, cowberry, crowberry, cranberry, assorted heathers and multiple grasses, sedges and rushes. Nice transition to a life more focused on #naturewriting
Definitely a listening priority for me. When I worked for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, we were negotiating with farmers to protect the coastal heath and its insect populations, which are choughs' main food supply. Looks like it worked, with nearly 100 breeding pairs last year!
Looks wonderful! "Weeds" are a cultural construct.
But there's a clear recent uptake in city-dwellers wanting to "be in nature", especially since the pandemic My own research in the Peak District shows that the vast majority of visitors come from nearby cities - not travelling far, not spending lots of money, and feeling very connected to place.
Excellent protest walk today across part of the Duke's trashed moorland. The mismanagement is not just "alleged", it's glaringly obvious. And it's not only about wildlife: degraded peat moorland releases carbon and contributes to climate change, and heather burning causes the majority of wildfires.
Trying to convince these two that this is #internationalcatday but they're not too impressed. With their very different personalities, it took some cunning (and strategically placed treats) to lure them into the same space for a photocall. But they're a roller-coaster delight every day of the year.
I was by the river a while ago with an elderly lady who loved kingfishers. She had prints of kingfishers on her walls, stone kingfishers on her gateposts, but had never seen one. We paused by a bend, and there was that flash of blue. But she was looking away, and missed it. I felt so bad for her!
Very wise words from you, Nic, about transaction and tropes. Just before the Salt Path furore, I decided that the nature memoir I've been sporadically working on for a year was uncomfortably formulaic. Now exploring other approaches, drawing inspiration from other peoples' work, including yours!
You might as well wish for piggies to take wing! Believe me, I work for a Russell Group university.
Yet, ironically, they've pinched the report title from the 1991 Countryside Commission review of English & Welsh national parks! You'd think that might have been a reminder of the importance of access to green space and nature.
Thank you for such a thoughtful piece! Very close to my own trajectory of involvement with nature writing. But I hope the Salt Path fiasco hasn't done irrevocable damage to other stories and aspirations - and I'd love to have read the book you didn't write!
Marloes is glorious but you need to watch the tides. The rock buttresses create coves which become pinch-points when the tide is high. I was once caught in one of these, attempted to escape by free-climbing the cliff, got stuck, and had to be rescued. Mortifyingly embarrassing!
I've signed up to the FB group!
Taken some time off for an inspiring week at Moniack Mhor (moniackmhor.org.uk) where @kathleenjamie.bsky.social was guest writer, followed by a glorious wander round the Ardnamurchan peninsula, combining (if I can steal some earlier Jamie-isms) enraptured solitude with blethering to the locals.
With luck you might also see some kittins and puffiwakes!
Here's a quick link to the new petition mentioned at the end of the Guardian article: act.38degrees.org.uk/act/swifts-p...
Seems I'm not the only person obsessed with the Derbyshire Derwent! The Derwent Pilgrimage (www.facebook.com/profile.php?...) sounds rather lovely. Thankfully, despite their main post, they're not starting at the source where it's pathless and fragile, but at the Derwent Dam. #naturewriting
It looks like this valley escaped the recent massive wildfire. Moors For The Future think their mini-dams might have contained the fire to some extent (www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...). Not thanks to UU though, despite their guy striking a determined-looking pose in the photo!
I'm also about to go for the second time, for a tutored retreat next month with guest @kathleenjamie.bsky.social. It's a magical place that hums with creativity. Can't wait!
Nice to see from the photo that he's eating signal crayfish, not their red-listed white-clawed cousins!
Not my usual river but it's very accessible and I'm taking things easy post-covid! This is the lovely Rivelin Brook, looked after by www.wildsheffield.com. Bluebells fringe the banks, orange-tips and speckled woods pay flitting visits, chiff-chaffs insistently call their own names. #naturewriting
Does this qualify for #BlossomWatch? The moorland above Dovestone Clough (@nationaltrust.org.uk) is covered with it. It's beautiful in Spring, although maybe more familiar in late summer foraging for bilberry pie!
I loved this story! Heard it when it was broadcast. Utterly absorbing and so beautifully written.
What do they think they're doing, other than pandering to Reform voters? Disappointing doesn't even come close!
Thank you Rob, and thanks for following me! I won't be going all the way to the sea, just to where the Derwent flows into the Trent, when it's carried all the way back northwards to the Humber estuary and the sea. I'm going to write about the journey (the river's and mine) and will post updates.
Relishing some free time to reconnect with the River Derwent, beginning its journey here in the remote high moorland of Bleaklow. I'm following its entire length in stages this year, exploring its ecology and stories. Can't wait to read Is A River Alive? (@robgmacfarlane.bsky.social) out next month!
Fabulous piece, such thoughtful and pertinent reflections from Jo! I'm reminded of Andy Goldsworthy's words: "We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So, when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves".
Re-wetting works really well. As pix in the report show, sphagnum areas can remain unburned even when fire sweeps through. That's why folks have been out in the Peak District this winter freezing their fingers off to get thousands of wee sphagnum plugs into the ground!
Interesting that several case studies in the Peak District, where land managers like the RSPB and Eastern Moors Partnership are doing great work with sphagnum planting, leaky dams etc, yet it's still widely believed that campfires are the main culprit. I'll nudge a few contacts about this report!
i hope you find some ring ouzels next time! Here on the Peak District's Eastern Moors they've been reappearing in the past couple of weeks. But we're concerned that climate change will shift their summer range ever further north.
Happy to be back on the Peak District's Eastern Moors, after desk-bound weeks of writing up research on .. the Eastern Moors! No surprise that for the city dwellers who make up the majority of visitors, it's a much-loved space of "wildness close to home". @rspb.bsky.social @nationaltrust.bsky.social
