The Bit Outside
There are still people who think mankind is blameless, that the environmental catastrophe taking shape before us is for others to resolve. Not true. Each of us must do what we can to help Nature recover. The Bit Outside is part of my effort to do just that. I knew little when I started, I know much more now. Join me, help me, advise me. There is little time, if any, to react. Please listen to what follows and see what you think.
Episodes
7 episodes
The Fair Folk of the Wall (a story)
This is a story, albeit a true one. Make it a bedtime tale if you desire. It is about something that happened to me one evening when I was out and about on my land. You see, dry stone walls seem to be everywhere in the Lake District...
The Hidden World of Dry Stone Walls
Dry stone walls are among the most familiar features of the British landscape, and yet they are rarely examined for what they truly represent. We walk past them, lean on them, repair them, and take them for granted. In doing so, we overlook the...
How to Plant a Tree That Survives
From my land in the Lake District, I look across at a hillside scattered with fallen plastic tree tubes. Many lie flat in the grass. Most of the trees they once protected are now dead. They mark good intentions that never quite became woodland....
The Ups and Downs of Open Space
Green and open spaces are widely believed to improve health and well-being. Public health policy, media, and urban planners frequently promote parks and countryside as restorative environments. In many ways, this is true. Yet the relationship b...
Ptaquiloside and the Hills Beneath Our Feet
Standing on a Lake District hillside, bracken looks harmless. It rustles in summer, glows bronze in autumn, and has become part of what many of us think of as wild upland Britain. But bracken is not passive scenery. Hidden within its tissues is...
Light can be bad for you
Standing on a Lake District hillside on a clear night, it is still possible to see the Milky Way. The fells are dark, the bracken has died back, and the land feels momentarily timeless. Somewhere down the valley a farmhouse light glows, while A...
