Ledbury Poetry Festival Ledbury Poetry ! Bookings now open... So good to have it back, both with live events in this beautiful, friendly town, & Zoomed events too. I'm going there for the final weekend. Look forward to meeting friends &to fine poetry!
ledburypoetry.org.uk/home/whats-on/

I caught this compelling production of Ibsen's 'When We Dead Awaken' BBC Radio 3 just 5 days before its dead disappear. I must point out that when one character wants to deliver the worst possible insult to the hero, she spits out 'Poet!'
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

The tiny Norwegian maple, in the evening light, thinks at last it is spring...

The crows' building operation has moved along the cutting. A really substantial nest now!

Last week we had the builders in - briefly- at the end of our garden. It's hard work being a springtime crow! But this isn't the end of the story....

Delighted to be in this anthology! I found this story while researching my prose book, 'Village'. My poem for Lincolnshire Folk Tales Project celebrates the kindness of Kirmington people who told me- & ponders why my father's brave family there, after many losses, chose to forget a soldier's ghost...

'Now the storm is over'... Galloping into Friday with the The Mary Wallopers 🐖. Well done, Chris Hawkins BBC Radio 6 Music ! Happy Friday to you & all blooming listeners!

'She sucks the sweet flowers to keep her voice clear'... 'The Cuckoo', one of my favourite spring songs, is wonderfully wrong. But Nadine Shah's voice is the strongest honey, when she sings 'Cuckoo' ben nicholls Hudson Records. Thank you TimWalkerFolk BBC Lincolnshire for airplay!

In today's hailstorm, here is yesterday's peacock butterfly, basking! I hope you have a peaceful evening.

The first peacock butterfly out of hibernation! Almost vanished in recent years - how encouraging! We wish you a hopeful Sunday! #peacockbutterfly

On the job! The female blackbird, beak stuffed with mud from my fern pots, to bind her nest. Birds desperately need nesting material- twigs, dead grass, moss, dead leaves, allowed to stay in gardens...Oh, and really good mud!

The value of garden untidiness! This most un-chic pot, (with a hazel tree) is being raided by a beautiful female blackbird, first scooping out mud to bind her nest, then dead grass to line it. She also takes soft green moss from edging stones.. Do you have visiting nest-builders?

A tadpole blows you a speech bubble! Please supply your own words...

Here's the full link to Testament 's powerful piece on hedges and hedge-laying The Food Programme BBC Radio 4. My phone kept slashing it!
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

One of my favourite songs claims to see the whole of the moon...In a recent storm, I saw the whole of a rainbow. And I didn't realise, until my camera lens showed me, that this rainbow had its own glimmering shadow! Look closely, lower left...

Also delighted to hear BBC Radio 4 'On Your Farm' that minette batters has diversified her farm & is growing flowers... If you are buying cut flowers, do look for British ones (in supermarkets too) - varied & fresh!
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Food, farming & life - vivid with minette batters 'On Your Farm' BBC Radio 4. At the NFU, she created the petition signed by 1 million people to stop imports of hormone-treated beef & chlorine-washed chicken via a US trade treaty (vigilance still needed)! bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Delighted by Testament's fine tribute to hedge-laying The Food Programme BBC Radio 4! Researching my prose book, 'Village', I found my great-grandfather's 4th prize for 'plashing'. Testament merits a 1st!
://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wq36?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile