climate change – Stories from Nowhere Wood

April 22, 2026April 22, 2026

Cuckoo flowers in the spring

Spring has arrived—but the world is not yet settled.

In an uncertain climate, people choose uncertainty and so does the weather. Sun, rain, frost and wind – the persistent wind blowing through the meadows. Spring marches onwards, regardless.

The cuckoo flower in Trendlewood Meadows. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

The cuckoo flower with its dainty lilac flowers hides in the unmown grass, shielded from the biting winds. Some look white at a distance, as pretty as a lady’s smock, which is another of its names. And ladies always want to look their best in spring.

Springtime when, historically, milkmaids and farm boys thought of romance, and their parents looked away. It captured Shakespeare’s imagination, too:

“When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he:
“Cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo!”
O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!”

The ladies smock in in Trendlewood Meadows. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

In the days when country gentlemen wrote letters on paper to the Times, each year there was a race to announce that the first returning cuckoo had been heard in England.

The flowering of this meadow beauty coincided with the returning cuckoos, and so the name also became a signifier of spring.

Cuckoos are cheating birds, deceiving male birds of other species into raising their young for them. This is how a wife’s infidelity became the ‘cuckolding’ of her innocent husband.

The cuckoo flower became tainted by these unsavoury associations. They were not thought to be appropriate to pick and bring into the house, in case they brought bad luck.

The cuckoo flower needed saving from this undeserved fate, and in some parts of the country they became associated with the purity of the Virgin Mary.

Country folk live with these flowers and their stories, which have become part of our culture. We love them in the park because they are food plants for the caterpillar of the orange tip butterfly, which is also friend of the park. Each female lays one egg beneath a cuckoo flower, and the emerging caterpillar feeds on the seeds of the plant.

Orange tip butterfly in Trendlewood Park. [Photograph Andrew Town]

A single egg of an orange tip butterfly on a cuckoo plant in the Meadows, Nowhere Wood, 22/04/26. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Find out how the orange tip butterfly depends upon the cuckoo flower.

Notes on the story

A tale of two butterflies

December 4, 2025December 4, 2025

The spring…

This is the first part of a two-part story in the sustainable park series of stories.

First comes the summer rain, after weeks of drought. Then the wet drizzly, misty days, then the powerful storm from the bay of Biscay, and gradually the water table rises from its summer low.

The ancient spring fills and moves to the surface. Two generations ago, this spring fed into a pond where cattle drank. Locals picked water cress from the edges of its clear waters. This spring feeds our ancient oak (See: I bear their homes, too) and the old crack willow.

The old crack willow and the ancient oak in Trendlewood Park. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

We celebrate the return of the spring like an old friend, as people have done for fifty thousand years or more. Water is our life. We have always known that.

Our spring feeds into a pond that we have built to contain it. Within twenty four hours the pond is full, and life settles down next to it.

All streams and rivers, even the mightiest, start from springs in muddy fields flowing in tiny streamlets, that join together as they travel towards the sea. In the past, people chose to build their homes close to rivers because of their need for water to live and to transport goods from place to place.

Photograph: The river Avon, that flows through Bristol to the Channel, starts life as springs in a field in Acton Turville in Gloucestershire. [Photograph: Derek Harper, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5225584]

People use a lot of water in their homes and businesses, and the water table falls, even in winter. The springs and streamlets can dry up, affecting the flow of rivers. Dryer winters, caused by climate change, can make this even worse.

Rivers and streams are the drainage system of the landscape. When they flow freely, they carry rainwater away from our fields, towns, and roads. Global warming is bringing heavier and more frequent downpours, especially the autumn storms. This means much more water reaches the rivers in a shorter time. If the river channels are blocked by fallen branches, silt, or rubbish, the water cannot move quickly enough. It then spills out over the banks and floods the land around it.

Winter flooding in low lying floods around Nailsea, North Somerset. Small rivers and drainage ditches run next to these fields. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Healthy rivers also have space to spread out safely. When wetlands and flood meadows are protected, they act like a sponge. They slow the water, hold some of it back, and release it slowly. If these areas are lost or built over, the river has nowhere to go during a storm. So the extra rainfall caused by global warming becomes a bigger danger.

Keeping rivers clear and giving them room helps both people and wildlife. It reduces the risk of homes and roads being damaged. It also keeps the water cleaner for the plants and animals that depend on it. Maintaining rivers is one of the simplest ways we can prepare for a future with heavier rain.

Some indigenous peoples live by rivers and depend upon them for their survival. They often believe that their rivers are alive in ways that are more than just the lives of all of the organisms living there. These peoples believe that their rivers have rights and should be protected by laws.

What protections do you think rivers should have? Who can protect them?

Notes on the story

Being and becoming in Nowhere Wood

December 4, 2025December 5, 2025

…. and the pond

This is the second part of a two-part story in the sustainable park series.

Every year, the flow of the spring is rather erratic. In some winters it barely registers above ground, in other years it can flood the walkways and paths around the park. To reduce the risk of flooding, the Friends of Trendlewood Park decided to build a permanent pond to hold back the water, reducing the risk of flooding and (hopefully) providing new habitats for wetland creatures.

The pond was to be built next to the old oak and ancient willow, which are listed for protection by North Somerset Council. This means that the construction of the pond needed to be sustainable – with no artificial tools (like earthmovers) or materials (like plastic liners). The pond was to be built the hard way: with lots of manual labour and (mostly) natural ingredients.

Measuring the dimensions of the pond. The ancient crack willow tree is in the background. [Photograph: Simon Stannard]

First, the dimensions of the pond were determined and marked with poles and string.

Digging the foundation of the pond involves a lot of spade work! [Photograph Simon Stannard]

Then teams of volunteers started the heavy spade work. It took time, but the efforts started to bear fruit.

The pond takes shape. [Photograph: Simon Stannard]

The pond is designed to be tiered into layers. This creates ledges of different depths, that different plants and animals can utilise. It diversifies the habitat and creates new opportunities for animals and plants to live in the pond.

Digging the drainage channel for the pond. [Photograph: Simon Stannard]

An earthen dam has also been built to reduce the risk of the water flooding out of the area onto the path around the park. A drainage channel has been dug into a nearby gulley to take the flood water away. In a rare concession to modern technology, the pipes are plastic sewer pipes. but covered in bentonite clay. We shall see if it can withstand the heavy winter rains.

The pond in November, as it fills after the autumn rains. [Photograph: Simon Stannard]

It has taken over a year to build the pond and we know from last summer’s trial that dragonflies were seen on the dry edges of the pond.

There were plant arrivals, too. ⁠Gypsywort, hop sedge and yellow loosestrife.

New arrivals at Trendlewood Park pond. [Photographs: attributions at the end of the story]

It is unlikely that the pond will remain throughout the next year, that will depend on how dry and hot it will be, but it will be interesting finding out.

The Friends of Trendlewood Park Committee would like to thank: North Somerset Council for its permission for us to build the pond and for their ongoing support of the project and whole of Trendlewood Community Park. Nailsea Town Council for its enthusiasm and financial support for the materials needed to build the pond. Linsday Moore for her botanical expertise. Thank you to the many people who gave their time, energy and expertise to work on the project, including the Somerset Wood Recycling (the Green Team), and volunteers from the Wildlife Action Group volunteers, the Belmont Estate corporate workday volunteers and the Friends of Trendlewood Park.

Image attributions:

Yellow loosestrife, Photograph by: NaJina McEnany, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic licence, via Wikimedia Commons,.

Hop Sedge, Photograph by: Quinn Dombrowski, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence, via Wikimedia Commons.

‘Creating ponds are ways of increasing the biodiversity of a habitat’. What does this mean, and why is it generally thought to be a good idea?

Notes on the story

The sustainable park (1)

September 3, 2025November 13, 2025

The end of the summer

Nowhere Wood has a weary silence, as the heat stifles its life. It is ready with its autumn plans, which cannot start until it rains.

Rain, the life-giver. Yet in flood, rain is the also the destroyer. It is a question of balance. Is the balance changing in the wood? Is the balance changing in the world? This has been the hottest summer the wood has ever known. People across the world are saying the same things.

Fern leaves wilting in the summer heat in Nowhere Wood. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Even the fern leaves are wilting for want of water. Holly trees have deeper roots, but they are suffering, too. The soil in the wood is very thin, because it used to be a stone quarry, and the roots cannot grow deep enough to find water.

Holly leaves wilting in the summer heat in Nowhere Wood. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Then, the remains of a hurricane in the Caribbean barrels westwards, bringing with it strong westerly winds, which blow the summer away in a moment.

The first autumn rain falls in Trendlewood Park. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

The rain falls, gently at first, then much stronger. The smell of the wood changes as the plants take up the water and everything seems to relax.

Droplets of rain on a leaf of a snowberry plant in Nowhere Wood. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

Nowhere Wood is lucky. Somalia in East Africa it has not had any significant rain for two years and a quarter of the population faces “crisis-level food insecurity” (near-starvation). Yet, in 2023, October floods killed hundreds of people and washed away thousands of homes. The harvest was ruined, leading towards more famine.

It is the unpredictability of the weather that causes most concern. Farmers sow their seeds not knowing whether it will produce enough food. And that is now the same everywhere across the world, including Great Britain. Time will tell what will happen in the future.

Meanwhile Nowhere Wood celebrates the arrival of the rain in autumn as the fruit ripens and the wood moves forward into the next stage of its adventure.

Apples ripening in the rain in the orchard in Trendlewood Park. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

1. Imagine that the autumn rains did not come. What would happen to Nowhere Wood?

Notes on the story

Climate Change and the Weather

Update:

A few days alter, after real rain, the fern has recovered and perked up.

After a few days rain, the fern recovers. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

July 7, 2025November 4, 2025

A home for the summer

The effects of horse chestnut leaf miners, on a horse chestnut tree in Trendlewood Park, July 2025 {Photograph: Neil Ingram]

By the high summer of July, the new fresh leaves of the horse chestnut are losing their lustre. The proud spread of leaves are now crumpled and marked—creased with dry, papery wounds edged in rust. At first glance, it looks like disease or drought. But the truth is stranger, and smaller.

These are the workings of a moth barely visible to us—Cameraria ohridella, the horse chestnut leaf miner.

The horse-chestnut leaf miner insect. [Photograph: Soebe https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameraria_ohridella_8419.jpg]

The insect arrived in Britain around 1990, a quiet traveller from North Macedonia, and it has found homes wherever horse chestnuts grow. As the climate warms, insects from the southern regions are able to live successfully in more northern areas.

The female lays her eggs on the newly opened leaf, which hatch to form lavae (caterpillars).

The larva of the holly leaf miner insect. [Photograph: Been-tree https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameraria_ohridella_larva_beentree.jpg]

The larvae feed within the leaf itself, tunnelling through the soft tissue, leaving behind pale blotches that crackle in the sun.

What’s remarkable is how unnoticed it all is. The adult moth is just five millimetres long and flits at dusk, almost never seen. The eggs are microscopic. The caterpillar never breaks the surface of the leaf. And yet, whole avenues of horse chestnut trees wear the evidence every July—brown-scarred leaves fluttering like worn-out flags, months before autumn should arrive.

The tree will survive. The damage is cosmetic, mostly. But it leaves a strange melancholy in the woods: an early whisper of decline in the green heart of summer. A reminder that even the mighty horse chestnut has its unseen vulnerabilities. And that nature’s smallest players are often the most quietly transformative.

What benefits do the horse chestnut leaf miner gain from living with the horse chestnut tree. What benefits does the horse chestnut tree get from the arrangement?

Notes on the story

“I bear their homes, too”

January 19, 2025November 4, 2025

Climate change and the air

The air is all round us and is a mixture of many different gases. 78% of the air is made of nitrogen, which is the most common gas. This story is about two other gases found in the air – oxygen and carbon dioxide.

girl breathing out carbon dioxide and breathing in oxygen — The girl breathes out carbon dioxide and breathes in oxygen

We breathe in oxygen and use it to release energy from sugar. At the same time we make carbon dioxide – all living organisms do the same. We all do this to stay alive.

People also make carbon dioxide when we burn fuels, such as coal, oil, petrol and wood.

Nailsea was once a very small village. [Image from Nailsea Town.com]

If we go back over three hundred years to the 1700’s, Nailsea was a a tiny village surrounded by farms. Few people lived there, then. People burned wood or peat (from the moors) to stay warm. They walked everywhere or travelled horse and cart.

Carbon dioxide in the air is measured in units called ‘parts per million’. Scientists have estimated that in the early 1700’s the carbon dioxide in the air was about 280 parts per million.

An artist’s reconstruction of Middle Engine Pit, Nailsea. Artwork by Mark Hornby. From https://www.nailseatown.com/heritage-trail/middle-engine-pit/

However, things were beginning to change in Nailsea: the first coalmine was opened in 1700 and this would transform the village into a town in the next ninety years. The mines employed experienced miners who came to live in the town as well as local farmworkers.

Oil on canvas of The Old Glass Works, Nailsea in about 1810 — This painting shows an appoach to Nailsea from the North. The cone of the glassworks is shown. Nailsea is changing from countryside into a town.
[Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. Attributed to the British School.]

Plenty of cheap coal led to the opening of the glass factory and more migration of people into the town. The arrival of the railway in 1841 provided new opportunities to trade with Bristol and its ports. The steam trains were powerful and burned coal.

In Nailsea, new houses were built together with new roads and shops. Trendlewood quarry was opened in 1850 to provide sandstone tiles for the roofs of the new houses.

All of this activity added carbon dioxide to the air in increasing amounts. Trees can take carbon dioxide out of the air, but the local woods were gradually chopped down to make way for the new town and for farmland. The wood was burned as fuel.

This pattern of industrialisation has taken place everywhere, all over the world since then. It continues to do so, too. In 2024, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is estimated at 423 parts per million. This is a rise of 51% since the 1700s.

Does all of this matter? Most scientists think it matters a lot, but some politicians want to disagree.

a diagram of the greenhouse effect — The diagram shows the rays of the Sum being trapped in the atmosphere of the Earth by a layer of carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide in the air acts like a blanket, reflecting heat energy back towards the land and the sea. In this way, it acts like glass in a greenhouse. The warming caused by the increased carbon dioxide is sometimes called “the greenhouse effect”.

Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air affects the climate and weather patterns across the world, as we shall see in the next story.

Do you think that the businessmen of the 1700s were aware that the burning of coal could affect the climate of the Earth?

If were are aware of this now, should this affect whether we choose to burn coal and oil.

What do you think?

Notes on the story

Climate change and the weather

January 19, 2025November 4, 2025

Climate change and the weather

Most scientists think that the Earth is getting warmer and that human activities are making it worse. This story looks at some of the evidence they use.

Weather super computer — A weather super computer at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [Image credit: General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)]

Weather experts collect millions of temperature measurements from all around the world every day. They put these results into powerful computers that build a picture of the climate across the world every day. Their results suggest that 2024 was the hottest year ever recorded.

The average October temperatures for the surface of the Earth from 1940 to 2020. The warmest temperatures have been in the last ten years.

The temperature of the Earth in 2024 is about 1.5°C higher than it was in 1880, before large factories, cars, and airplanes existed. The yearly temperatures since 2020 include three of the hottest years since we started recording temperatures.

A 1.5°C rise in temperature does not sound like much, but it is having a big effect on the weather around the world.

Hurricane Beryl over Jamaca. July 2024. — There has been an increase in the number and severity of tropical storms in recent years. [Photograph from: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2024/07/03/7-dead-as-hurricane-beryl-barrels-towards-jamaica/]

The temperature of the water in the seas in 2024 was the hottest ever. This causes the wind speeds to increase in tropical storms, causing huge damage when they hit coastal towns.

Warm air can hold more water than colder air, so rainstorms can be more powerful and last longer. Flooding in low-lying areas becomes more common.

Flooding in Monmouth town centre. 1990. — Flooding in Monmouth town centre, 1990. The number and severity of such weather events is increasing. [Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/imagined_horizons/9637969736]

The level of the sea in 2024 is about 111 mm higher than it was in 1993. This increases the risk of flooding in coastal areas.

Rising sea levels are affecting the survival of many islands. [Photograph credit: Envato Elements pic, https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2022/02/24/present-day-rise-in-sea-levels-may-have-begun-in-1863/]

Some small islands in the ocean are at risk of disappearing due to the rising sea waters. Nyangai Island off the coast of Sierra Leone has almost been lost to the waves.

Polar bears are finding it harder to hunt because of melting summer ice in the Arctic. [Photograph: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/29664357826]

The rising sea levels are being made worse by the melting of the ice in the Arctic and Antarctic. Summer ice in the Arctic is disappearing by about 12% every ten years. It is affecting the survival of polar bears.

Notes on the story

Climate change: what can we do about it?

January 15, 2025November 4, 2025

Climate change and new arrivals

Some animals and plants can’t live in Nowhere Wood because it’s too cold or too wet for them. But the climate has warmed by about 1°C since the 1970s. This small change has allowed new species to come and live in the wood because the climate now suits them better.

Rosel's bush cricket — A pair of Rosel’s bush crickets were found on Golden Vallety field in 2019. [Photograph: Andrew Town]

In 2019, a pair of Roesel’s bush crickets were found in Golden Valley field. They seem to have bred successfully. The warmer climate has helped them find more places to live. They are moving northwards from the South of England and have migrated more than 50 miles over the past 20 years.

The Downland Villa bee fly was first seen in Sussex in 2016 and has been moving northwards, probably because of the warmer climate. These flies look like solitary bees, which are bees that do not live in hives or colonies. The bee fly feeds on solitary bees by dropping their eggs into the bees’ nest, where they hatch and eat the bee larvae.

Scientists think there may be over fifty species of animals arriving in the UK because of climate change, although most of them have not yet arrived in Nowhere Wood!

Crickets eat grass. Do you think the arrival of the Roesel’s bush crickets will harm or help the wild life that live on Golden Valley fields?
Roesel’s bush crickets seem to have bred successfully on Golden Valley. What does this mean? How will this help the survival of the crickets in the area?
How might the arrival of the Downland Villa bee fly affect the solitary bees in Nowhere Wood?

Update, 7/5/25: New bee arrival!

The orchard bee is a solitary bee that is spreading rapidly in the south of England, which was once too cold for it. It won’t be long before it reaches Nowhere Wood! Read more here.

Notes on the story

Climate change and the leavers

May 28, 2025November 4, 2025

A tale of two butterflies

It is a sunny afternoon in May and two butterflies are flying round each other in a shaft of sunlight. The smaller one chases the larger one away.

I first thought they were a courting pair, but then realised they are different types. Where do they come from and what are they doing in the sunshine?

Specked wood butterfly in Nowhere Wood, May 2025. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

The chasing butterfly is a specked wood, seen resting on an ivy leaf, keen to be photographed. It is a true native of Nowhere. It started life as an egg laid during the previous autumn, perhaps on some of the long grass that skirts the wood. It probably emerged a few days ago, and has taken to flying in the same shaft of sunlight.

It is warm and bright in the sunlight and both males and females are attracted to the same spot. No wonder our male wants to chase rivals and other butterflies away!

The unfortunate butterfly to be caught up in this tussle was a red admiral. It was harder to photograph against the floor of the woodland.

Red admiral butterfly, Nowhere Wood, May 2025. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

This butterfly was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The red admiral butterfly is a summer visitor to the wood, with large numbers arriving in the UK from southern Europe and North Africa each year. They love to feed on flowers that produce a lot of nectar, so are often found in the gardens that surround the wood.

They will breed whilst they are living in the wood, and some of these new butterflies will try to fly back to Europe in the autumn. It is not clear how many of them will survive the long journey.

Others will try to survive the winter in the UK. In the past, most of these have died because of the cold, but warmer winters mean that more of them are surviving to breed in the spring.

We could be seeing a shift in their behaviour because of climate change, that could lead them to being permanent residents in the wood.

Update:

Two days later, the speckled wood was still patrolling the same patch of sunlight. Let’s hope he gets lucky soon!

A male speckled wood butterfly was found in the same spot two days later. — The male speckled wood butterfly was found in the same spot two days later. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

In Southern Europe and North Africa, red admiral butterflies can breed continuously throughout the year. Why is important in the survival of the red admiral species?
Why is it an advantage for the specked wood to defend a territory in Nowhere Wood?

Notes on the story

Being and becoming in Nowhere Wood

January 20, 2025November 4, 2025

Climate change and the leavers

Rams horn gall oak wasp — The ram’s horn gall oak wasp was first found in Berkshire in 1997. It is now quite common in the Park [Photograph – Andrew Town].

We can spot new arrivals in Nowhere Wood, if we have time and patience. Anyone can do this if they walk through the wood often, thinking about what they see. It is much harder to notice species that disappear because the changing climate does not suit them. Species come and go from the wood all of the time.

So how do we know which species have left permanently because of climate change?

News article about declining number of insects — This news article from the Natural History Museum is about declining number of insects. From: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/

One way is to combine our observations of Nowhere Wood with observations from other woods across the country. This helps us to see the ‘bigger picture’.

When we do this, we can see that we do have a problem: London’s Natural History Museum reports that “UK’s flying insects have declined by 60% in 20 years”.

Three reasons are given for this fall in numbers, rising temperatures caused by climate change, loss of suitable habitats and the use of harmful chemicals as pesticides.

The hairy-footed flower bee, pollinating a lungwort flower [Photograph – Andrew Town].

Losing insects could have serious effects on Nowhere Wood and the surrounding farmlands. Bees are insects that are suffering this fall in numbers. They help to pollinate many crops, including the apple trees in the orchards.

Many insects are food for birds and other animals. A loss of insects could lead to a reduction in the number of these animal, too.

Bee hotels are sometimes used as a way to help encourage solitary bees to breed and survive. Learn how to do this here.
Imagine what a world would look like without insects. Does it matter if we lose our insects?

Notes on the story

Climate change and the weather

February 17, 2025November 4, 2025

Climate change: what can we do about it?

The average global temperature is now two degrees warmer than it was in the 1700s. [Image generated by AI]

The climate of the whole world is changing because of the rising temperatures. Scientists think that increasing levels of carbon dioxide gas in the air are making these changes worse.

The Earth is now an average of two degrees warmer than it was in the 1700s, before the start of the industrial revolution.

We should try to do two things: to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air and to try to look after and encourage the wildlife in our local areas.

Wind energy is renewable and helps to reduce global warming. [Image from https://www.peterduffyltd.com/old-whittington-wind-turbine-generator/]

Burning fuels, such as coal, petrol, gas and oil are the main ways that we add carbon dioxide to the air. As a country we are aiming to increase the amount of energy we produce from “renewable ” sources of energy that do produce carbon dioxide. Last year 45% of the UK’s energy was produced from such sources, which include wind, solar, hydroelectric and nuclear power.

We can think about switching from petrol to electric cars and to insulate our homes better to reduce the heat we lose to the air. We use less electricity and gas and save money at the same time!

Food and drink cans inside a recycling bin. — We can recycle our food and drink cans [Photograph: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Food_and_drink_cans_in_recycling_bin.jpg, creative commons licence]

We can recycle our waste, so it gets reused and this reduces the amount of energy needed to produce new goods. Reducing aluminium food trays, cans and foil can save about 95% of the energy needed to replace these products from raw materials.

We can grow more plants and grow more trees. Plants are very good at removing carbon dioxide from the air. Scientists are trying to restore lost habitats like forests, wetlands and marshes, that are very good at removing carbon dioxide from the air. This is called ‘rewilding’.

The Meadows next to Nowhere Wood is a rewilding project.

A bee hotel for sale in a local supermarket. [Photograph: Neil Ingram]

We can encourage the wildlife in our gardens, parks and school grounds. Bird and bat boxes and bee hotels can provide places where birds, bats and solitary bees can live safely.

one candle does not produce much light, but many candles can make a bright light. — One candle on its own does not produce much light, but many candles can make a bright light. [Image: Neil Ingram and Google Gemini AI]

Solving the problem of climate change is difficult and needs all of us to work together to make it happen. Every person can make a small difference, but these differences add together to make a big change.

Notes on the story

A tribute to fallen trees