#673: Countryfile calendar voting

Today's the day that the voting took place for next year's BBC Countryfile calendar.

If you're reading this in time, you can vote for your favourite for the final 12 chosen images.

The theme is "Signs of the Seasons".

Vote for your favourite here.

#667: Natural History Podcasts #10: 'As the Season Turns'

Thanks to Michelle Graffagnino for the recommendation to this podcast on the Facebook group.

It's presented by Alice Boyd.

"As the Season Turns" has two new episodes each month - on the first of each month there is a post from Lia Leendertz, who was mentioned in the previous post.

Later in the month, Alice speaks to someone.

In the August edition she visits Jackie Morris.

Jackie Morris has worked with Robert MacFarlane on a series of projects.

#666: Lia's Almanac

Thanks to Michelle Graffagnino on the Facebook group for the recommendation of this book.

This has been published for quite a few years, and the 2027 version is now available to purchase. 

This would be a useful resource to have a copy of within the 'department' and refer to when working out some activities and foci during the year(s) that the course is taught for.

Reconnect with the seasons in Britain and Ireland with this month-by-month guide to the world around us - including tide tables, sunrises and moon phases; wildlife and folklore; seasonal recipes and more.

The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2027 gives you the tools and inspiration you need to celebrate, mark and appreciate each month of the year in your own particular way.

Divided into the 12 months, a set of tables each month gives it the feel and weight of a traditional almanac, providing practical information that gives access to the outdoors and the seasons, perfect for expeditions, woodland foraging and beach holidays.

You can also sign up to receive weekly seasonal posts.

Check out the ones so far this year here.

Click and search the archive for 3 years' worth of posts, which will contain useful ideas and inspiration for following the course of the seasons and how they are reflected in the landscape.

#541: Nature - by Royal appointment

Catherine: the Princess of Wales has shared the 4th in a series of videos as part of her personal journey with cancer, and sharing the power of Nature. 

It is called Mother Nature.

Here are the 4 videos so far:

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

#424: A year of Environmental Lunacy

The NAEE is sharing a Year of Environmental Lunacy. 

There will be a monthly post looking at the full moon which occurs in that year. These have a name which often stems from America and Canada's Indigenous / first nation people, and the world they lived in, but that means they are not always appropriate for the UK.

This project is about suggesting a name which fits with the UK's wildlife.

The first one has just gone up, with Paula Owens suggesting that we call the Wolf Moon (January's full moon - which occurs tomorrow) as the Fox Moon.

NEW Blog series :: Environmental Lunacy Project - UK NAEE https://t.co/cYbi32Rd3m

— NAEE in the UK (@NAEE_UK) January 12, 2025

Delighted to say that I will be contributing one of the monthly posts later in the year.

Check back each month to see a different author suggest an alternative new name for that month's full moon.

#328: NENP: 'Weather and Seasons'

The National Education Nature Park (NENP) is making good progress. 

Over 1000 schools are signed up now, although that means there are many thousands still to sign up. 

🌤️ The National Education Nature Park's 'Weather and Seasons: Explore' activity encourages students to observe and compare the four seasons in the UK, helping them understand the impact of various aspects of our lives.

Learn about this free resource 👉 https://t.co/8JwbOWp331 pic.twitter.com/kTntneAKRn

— RGS-IBG Schools (@RGS_IBGschools) March 9, 2024

The Weather and Seasons activity is worth checking out.  It's designed for KS1

It will be interesting to see where the National Education Nature Park and Climate Awards fit in with wider developments of the GCE Natural Histoty.

#287: Cherry Tree Blossom

Phenology is the study of the changing dates when natural events happen.

There's Japanese data on cherry tree blossoming stretching back to 812. Some commitment. pic.twitter.com/YdQx4HepYf

— Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert) March 6, 2024

This year's blossom was a warning. 

This according to National Geographic writer Ayurella Horn-Muller

latest, written on assignment for @NatGeo:

A 1,200-year record of cherry blossoms shows our current climate is historically unprecedented. “We haven't experienced anything like this...it's a new world that we are heading into.”https://t.co/Z8Fz6u1PCO

— Ayurella Horn-Muller (@ayurellahm) March 26, 2024

Image: Blossom, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license 

#120: Natural History Poetry #1: 'To Autumn'

Alongside the other sources that students will be exposed to during the GCSE in Natural History courses, poetry will play a part. This variety of cultural sources including art and literature and music is one of the interesting aspects of the course, and the selection of these sources will be interesting, and will I am sure lead to some debate about inclusion and exclusion. 

It will certainly need to be diverse and not just created by old (and possibly dead) white men.

Having said that...

As we enter the season of autumn, here's a classic which is full of natural history references... and written by a dead white man: aged just 25 when he died of tuberculosis in Rome.

To Autumn (1820)

John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! 

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 

Conspiring with him how to load and bless 

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 

With a sweet kernel; 

to set budding more, 

And still more, later flowers for the bees, 

Until they think warm days will never cease, 

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells. 

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find 

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; 

Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, 

Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook 

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers; 

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 

Steady thy laden head across a brook; 

Or by a cider-press, with patient look, 

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? 

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too – 

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; 

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 

Among the river sallows, borne aloft 

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft 

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; 

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Image: Conkers and autumn leaves, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license