The British are remarkably lucky, lepidopterally speaking: some of the most common butterflies to frequent the country are staggeringly beautiful. The peacock, with its four spectacular “eyes” set on wings of velvet burgundy, is a glorious sight as it suns itself, wings held open. The modest common blue, sometimes seen in urban gardens, has a … Read more
Swifts are back in UK skies, putting an end to the annual hiatus when nature seems to hold its breath, awaiting successive waves of migrant birds whose twittering is the soundscape of summer. But these are worrying times. The swift has joined that traditional herald of summer, the cuckoo, on the RSPB’s latest red list … Read more
The pandemic has underlined the degree to which humans can only develop and thrive in relation to other humans “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face,” says Duncan, about the duplicity of the first Thane of Cawdor, in Macbeth. Which on first glance has the authority of evidence – the king … Read more