Returned! I have not been here for six weeks, and so much has changed. While I was away, the UK has been battered by torrential rains,...

I am very jealous to have missed the installation of this fine animal. A 7 KW Jotel wood and coal burning stove. Not a small investment...

In Norse mythology Yggdrassil (pronounced "Eggdrazil") is the father Ash tree who holds up the sky. His highest branches in the heavens...

Choosing plants. The most exciting thing in the world for any gardener, but especially when you have the thrill of a new garden to...

Typically I spend a month in the UK, then a month in Dubai, and so on. This provides a useful brake on over-hasty plans and an...

Ken is the quiet man talking to my wife Jane on the left of the photo. On the right is his JCB. All I can say is that Ken + one machine...

It has taken the best part of a week on and off to get the cleared section of woodland back to how I left it. Stumps have been taken down...

I came back to the UK on 22 August to be confronted by the resurgence of every single laurel stump in Indonesia ! I was expecting it but...

Actually a mixture of habanero and red peppers in a pickling brine. The idea is to pickle first and then to whizz into a sauce. Despite...

Today it is 45 degrees in Dubai. I have no idea what that is in real money as I now think in Centigrade. I do know that the weather...

Jane and Cheryl seem to have cooked up something fabulous. I am very excited. I love the split between the formal and the wild - work...

Part of the plan with Oaklands is grow our own food and for a few years at least have a crack at a much more self-sustainable existence....

I guess a bit of foraging was always on the cards at some stage. Over by the compost bins I found these two puffballs. I have left one...

A nautical addition to the butterflies list. This beautiful butterfly was encountered in a new glade I have cut off the edge of a ride....

I am not clear felling obviously but taking out all the invasive laurel to open up the wood floor. With light the blue bells, primroses...

We took out a long conifer hedge yesterday with the help of my Brother-in-law Mickey and a 24 inch chainsaw. The resulting bonfire was...

We are all hard at work at the house this week - chopping and burning. Meanwhile in the meadow a new butterfly has taken centre stage....

Inedible unfortunately but a very Hans Christian Anderson addition to the front lawn. Back to Dubai on a plane today for the week - a...

I am a birder essentially but now I am getting proprietorial about a few acres in Herefordshire I did promise a bit of a bio-Blitz on the...

A morning down at Indonesia chopping invasive laurel and dragging it to the bonfire up on the old tennis court terrace produces a...