Open Mic

Open Mic

Welcome to the Buzzle.com Open Mic! My name is Traci Bonlender, and I am the Moderator for the Escape Hatch (and Open Mic).

Open Mic offers a writing venue for any Buzzle.com member. Enjoy fiction and true-life stories, "Unplugged". You don't have to be a Buzzle.com writer to submit your stories and poetry to Open Mic. The Escape Hatch moderator will take a quick glance at your work before posting it on the site.

While the Short Fixion features content written by Buzzle.com writers and are reviewed carefully by the Escape Hatch Moderator, the writing you find here in Open Mic is written by anyone with something to say. And, rather than going through the Buzzle.com approval process, pieces submitted here are given a quick glance and place them "as is" on the site.

The only requirement to submit writing to Buzzle.com is that you sign up to be a member. And, member sign-up is of course free and quite easy.

So enjoy yourself-- if you find you have something to say, don't be afraid, just submit it!

Warning: Discretionary Content. Articles in this Buzzle.com chapter may contain material that is either inappropriate or offensive to some audiences.


Home, Sweet Home The following short story is of a man who reconnects to the place where he spent his childhood days. He remembers what he forgot and finally comes Home.	A Nightmare and a Dream The dreams of illusions.
The Illusion of Dreams I wrote this when I was in my science class?	Wasn't Meant 2 Be Laying there.
Words Games We all love word games, be it scrabble, crossword, or any other one. Here is a small one for you guys.	A Waste of Life Can Change To my family who thinks life is nothing!
Weed in My Life Try to quit cause it might help you.	Alone in this World This is true about life.
Intuition: Vs. Psychosis or Delusion Mind over matter.	My Dream I have decided that some of my more spectacular dreams deserve to be told. Here's my first go!
Enthusiasm Enthusiasm simply means intense belief, interest and approval. It is something that not everyone thinks about a lot. But mind you, it is that thing that drives your whole life to where you want it...	Meaning of Numbers Numbers!!! You can't do nothing without them.
My Sayings Simple, but meaningful… by me…	Quotes and Sayings Some sarcasm here :-) And of course, no offense to anyone, just the thoughts of a rambling mind...
While Listening to Music While listening to music, time flies. While listening to music, my heart cries. It cries with the joy of experiencing something divine. Music gives me immense pleasure and while listening to it, I...	Expectations: The Thin Dividing Line Who doesn't expect? We all do, right! And on the other side, it's these very expectations that can kill…
Story Of My Life 4 Sorry I haven't written one of these in a while...sooo yeah..here it goes.	Why I Love to Teach Teaching enables me to prove my abilities. Some memoirs of my experience as a teacher and why I love to teach...
No-bility of the Nobels Obama isn't the only person shocked on winning the Nobel prize. So here is a list of people who might just win future Nobels.	Indian vs American Word Usage This article talks about some of the differences between Indian and American English. It is an interesting and useful read if you're an Indian writing for American readers, or vice versa!
Days of the Week We all are here on this planet for some reason or the other. Each new day is a gift to us from God. And so, each day has a meaning.	Assuming Things… There are some people who assume things because they don't want to understand; while there are others who can assume things because only they understand. There are people who the world fails to...
Who's Stopping the Marathi Manoos After restraining myself from stirring up a beehive for a long time, I have entered the marathi manoos vs the outsider debate as well (couldn't resist, being obsessive compulsive with courting...	India is My Country An Indian talks about the country she was born in, grew up in and loves. She reflects on its journey and its present state of affairs.
The Freedom Of Information Act A quote....	Racism Racism is a very serious issue, and accusing anyone of racism is a dead serious matter. So, before pointing fingers at others, we need to look at ourselves, and remember that what goes around, comes...
Meaning of Colors What if there was no color? Everything was just black and white! What if chocolate was black, flowers were just black or white, wine was black? How would that be!!! People refer to color charts and...	Teacher Quotes - Inspirational A collection of my favorite teacher quotes to inspire and motivate those who love to teach...
I NEED YOUR HELP! WHO DO I CHOOSE! Please help!!!!!!! Read and then take the poll!!!!!!	I Hope to Write Will I be able to write? I ask myself. But then I begin to hope that I will. Perhaps, hope is the only thing that never dies and here's the story of my hope to write.
Put a Smile on Your Face! At times like these, when everyone is under tremendous pressure of losing their jobs, it’s not easy to be positive and give any kind of advice. What tools do I have, except the words? I can try to...	The Barclays Premier League Weekend 12-13th September The Barclays Premier League is back after the international break and gave us a few exciting enough games this weekend! Here's how this weekend shaped up.
East Meets West There was a time when no one thought that East and West could meet. But, with globalization, it has become a reality. As the world grows closer by the day, we see East meeting the West.	Blogging - The Retrogression As the world advances further and forward, the depth of communication seems to be crumbling.
Will I be Able to Write Again? Once upon a time I wrote, I wrote to my heart's content and pleased many a reader. Now, things have changed. I want to write, but I don't get the (right) words. Will I be able to write? Or let me...	Writing or Something Like That While I ramble, you do not get any insight. You can try and delve into the deep recesses of my mind, if you are trying to find something. But, what is the point? This is just a break, while I try to...
The Tragedy of 9/11 The images of September 11, 2001 are etched in my mind forever. The events that took place on that day were not just a tragedy for The United States of America, but the entire world.	The England National Football Team: Problems and Solutions Despite having some of the biggest heavyweights in the game, a coach with a phenomenal winning record and an enviable domestic league structure, the English team continues to be in tatters. Are the...
The Joys of Motherhood A new mother recounts her experiences of motherhood.	Reflections on the Premier League 2009-10 The season is still in its nascent stages but if you love the premier league then you know what I mean.
The American Dream This is an article about living the American dream, and the lessons learnt along the way.	The Barclays Premier League 2009-10: I Think Chelsea's Going to Win It After a bombastic series of transfers, the 2009-10 edition of the Barclays Premier League has begun and has thrown up some surprises already. My favorites to win it this year are Chelsea F.C. Here's...
Note from Author An almost apology letter	It Hurts This is something I wrote when Ii wreaked my best friends love life. This is how I felt...
Sorry Read this...	I Choose to Forgive His presence is what it took...
Forwarded Messages A rant, not technically a story, but my sister thought it was comedic, so I'm posting it on here. Why not? Oh, and, uh- comments make me smile! :-) lol.	SENDING KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL GOOD INFO
A Few Thoughts of My Own Dear readers and friends, I am an author of Buzzle.com, one of the magnificent sites on the Web. The following are a few of my emotions about Buzzle. By the way, the Keyword is Buzzle and this...	Undefined Not really sure what direction I should take this. Feedback would be awesome!
I Owe You The loss of your best friend can be very painful; that too when you need him/her the most. I lost my best friend on Friendship Day. Can anything be worse than this?	A Sad Friendship Day There are many things you have to say to your friends that you can never say when you are in front of them. I have resorted to writing a letter to an old friend, to express those feelings.
Writing. . .Playing God ? It is an inquiry into what goes in the mind of a writer. .	The Return of the Crimson Tide A revelation, nothing less. Mr. Schumacher is back in business. Yeah baby!
Timeless Love A fantasy story, but the love is real...	Loves Romance This is about fantasy, but what is real is the love between them...
Sweet Jasmin Kisses This is a story about real love, about fantasy, but the emotions are real...	The Celebration A loss and gain...celebration, the new meaning of death.
Politics! Politics- An aspect of it that I don't agree with!!	Et Cetera Somebody told me that I was a 'seeker'. Well, not the quidditch one, but a seeker in reality. You know, searching for the proverbial 'truth' and stuff. But then again, who isn't. Aren't we all...
The Rush of Rush The rush that led to destruction of Kurus, Lalu's and probably your heart's.	Social Darwinism V/s Welfare State There are several paths to follow in order to achieve an optimum understanding of our society and its components. Two of the opposing types are social Darwinism and welfare state. In this article, I...
A FEEL How it feels to feel	Forgiveness My take on the concept of forgiveness!!
Bond, James Bond! The reason for this article, I cannot really point out. So, just read it if you want!	Questions & Decisions! For all the people who love to analyze, think and calculate their life instead of actually living it!
Dinner for One, Please!! Random thoughts about the difference between two genders.	Stages of Life Life is God's gift to us. He has sent us down on this planet for a reason. Every person leads a different life - wants, culture, feelings, likes/dislikes, love, etc…
Openmindedness, a Joke! We talk a lot about us human beings having progressed and being more tolerant of our ever changing. We somehow seem to be immensely proud about the fact that we are very openminded in life. what a...	Country Diary: Two islands John Vallins: In late May we had to pick our way carefully along the paths of Steep Holm island for fear of trampling a gull's nest, and we learned to protect our heads from aerial attack when the...
Failure This is a small lesson as to how we can look at a situation in our life… and go ahead to achieve our goals.	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: Perhaps when trying to unravel why it is we've traditionally loved butterflies, but disliked moths, we should remember the famous words of Ann Widdecombe on her colleage.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The sound of rain sizzles over the green world as a shower's trailing edge passes through.	I Have Questions PLEASE enlighten me.
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: It is a lovely thing on these early summer mornings to wake up to the soft chimes of a sheep bell from across the road.	Inspiration We all lead lives that always strive toward our own betterment, happiness and comfort. In the process, sometimes we encounter hardships, failures and depression. How many of us fight through with a...
Mary and Kate 2 This is one from my second book it's not the whole story. Oh and I want ideas of what you want in my stories.	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: Buckbarrow, Glade How, Cat Bields, Haycock, Brandreth, Dale Head, Robinson, Wandhope and Blencathra might be railway stations in a Betjeman poem.
Country Diary: Fordingbridge Graham Long: The stiff brown shape under the conservatory window made a distressing start to the day.	Country Diary: Foulis Point Ray Collier: This small promontory lies on the north side of the Cromarty
Country Diary: Foulis Point Ray Collier: This small promontory lies on the north side of the Cromarty Firth near Inverness.	They are Equal!! It is about the rights which every child should have.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: These are the days of wild roses.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Years ago I went to North Barrow and heard a farmer reminiscing about the time before tractors and the CAP, when one horse was the only source of power on the farm and the check book...
Words - Part V Final set of words…	Music, Life, Me!! For me, music is life. My life is affected a lot by music and every beat can make a difference. This is my take on music.
A blast from the past Ohh no he's back....	I wanna Fly away Just a thing I wrote.
The Truth (M.J) This is about Michele Jackson, hope you like it ppl XD	Country Diary: Snowdon Jim Perrin:A cracked Rayburn rusts among the ruins of Sir Edward Watkin's chalet, colonized by mosses, the sessile oakwoods crowding around.
Words - Part IV More words…	Addiction What I was going through for a while..
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: It was 6am, an hour and a half after sunrise.	Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers: From Penzance a network of tracks and paths, with granite stiles built as cattle grids, allows unfrequented ways across the peninsula.
Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers:	Broken Hearted Rant Worst day of my life.
Words - Part III More words…	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: It is hellish to realize we have now passed the longest day! But, naturally, the days will not appear diminished for quite some time yet.
Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: It was on the sharp, conical summit of Stickle Pike that I saw someone I thought I knew leaning against the cairn, with its incomparable view of Caw and Corney Fell.	Country Diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann: It is the most unlikely place on the RSPB's new heath at Sandy for anyone to stop and linger.
Words - Part II Some more uncommon words…	With Every Heartbeat Happy Fathers' Day to all Dads out there!
Coming Back To Life It took them a moment to come back to life	Country Diary: Hereford Country diary: We had a week of somewhat mixed weather at a former farmhouse, Old Linceter, on the National Trust's Brockhampton estate near Bromyard.
Words - Part I Just some uncommon words	Country Diary: Cairngorm Ray Collier: We had lunch at 460 meters so we could see a number of snow patches around and just below us, and the views were inspirational.
Blank. . . Its about the time when creativity dries out. . .	And Then He Simply Forgot This might sound very sad, but the harsh reality is that there isnt always a "happily lived ever after" ending to all love stories.
Faces in the Crowd Ever tried reading faces? I love doing that. So beware of me. May be, I know what's behind that ever smiling face!	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: A fortnight ago, champion representatives of 22 breeds of cattle and more than 30 breeds of sheep, as well as prizewinning pigs and goats, were paraded before packed crowds celebrating...
The Happy Ending A short little love story!	The Beauty of English Language English is a very flexible language and it allows the same thought to be expressed in several ways.
Country Diary: Sherwood Forest Mark Cocker: The story of the men in Lincoln green with their long bows and deep sense of injustice is so entwined with this place that one can easily overlook the magnificent wildlife.	Did Curiosity Actually Kill the Cat? I really don't know why I want to write on stuff. But this is one thought, that just hit me out of the blue. And I gave 'writing my mind' a shot. Spare the exaggeration, repetition of thoughts and...
Short Sayings III Some more short ones…	Short Sayings II Just some thoughts…
Honestly, Dishonesty is Way More Honest! Honesty is the best policy, but dishonesty is the way for politics!!	I Don't Want Anything Some Sarcasm here.
The Return An awaited relief.	The Albatross - A Better Look!! I found my self saying "It felt like I shot an albatross" and saw that no one followed what it meant. So here is my attempt to try an explain this metaphor that I love!!
Randomness Personified!! Its a bunch of words that can have meaning if you have the perception to see it!!	Country Diary: Snowdonia Roger Redfern: A lone skylark sang matins high in the cloudless sky one morning recently.
The Shoebox Random thoughts on one fine day.	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: The outline of Black Combe soaring above Haverigg describes a trajectory like that of the steepling six struck by young cricketer Ryan Brown last bank holiday against this grand...
Country Diary: Tetbury and Plougasnou Colin Luckhurst: On both sides of the Channel, I maintain the custom of having a bike ride after breakfast.	Country Diary: Tetbury and Plougasnou Colin Luckhurst: On both sides of the Channel, I maintain the custom of having a bike ride after breakfast.
Country Diary: Strathdearn Ray Collier: The plan was to drive on the narrow road up through this strath a few miles south of Inverness.	Country Diary: Strathdearn Ray Collier: The plan was to drive on the narrow road up through this strath a few miles south of Inverness.
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Virginia Spiers: On Viverdon Down barley shimmers against the low sun and rooks flock across large bare fields shorn of grass carted away for silage.	What Not to Do in Rains! Summer has gone,rains are almost there.Will you be steadfast in coming to church even during these showers?
South Florida Weather Can Be Unpredictable As a Pennsylvania transplant now living in the great Sunshine State of Florida, the weather sure can be unpredictable. It's a mess driving among all the crazy foreigners on I-95 as it is, a little...	Country Diary: The Begwns Jim Perrin: The pool above Gogia created by the farmer nearly 50 years ago to regularise his water supply has yet to appear on the OS maps, but its appearance is now entirely natural.
Some Rambling Thoughts From a Troubled Mind A small bit of rambling on thoughts today of my mental and physical health, how do I personally cope, how do I affect others?	A Thought For The Day: Value Friendship A life without friends compares to the barren earth, the effete ocean and the desolate woods. They are the strength of the rungs you climb towards progress. They add quality to your life, like the...
A Thought For The Day: Its Now or Never You either live light in the moment or tug along with the burden of painful memories. However, the true nature of the human soul manifests in the present moment. Live life to the fullest, now or...	(My MySpace) FTW; YO!
Can't You Forget? This is a random song I wrote. Enjoy!	A Thought For The Day: Will Power Nothing is impossible for the Son of Light, that which You are. Rise and learn, reflect and deliver lessons expected from you. Life is passing you by...
A Thought For The Day: Shed Pride Be humble in knowing that you have another day credited into your account. It is in humility that you triumph. Earn opportunity and applaud today...	Short Sayings Sayings - short but to the point...
A Thought For The Day: Crowning Glory Another breath makes you majestic this day. You have earned time and space to prove your likeness to The Creator. Cover good ground and add to the potential within...	A Thought For The Day: Your Day Every day is your day. Make the most of earned hour and rise in spirit to prove your mettle. No one or nothing can stop you now...
A Thought For The Day: Spread The Word Of what use is our existence if we cannot help others on the same path through outreach and selfless act? You are meant to shine and climb the rungs of success in the light that pervades space,...	A Thought For The Day: Be Resilient You are strong and cannot be otherwise. There is no space for a shrunken display of ability. Rise and world rises to a toast, ebb and you dry alone. Celebrate life today...
MY SON AKASH WANI A narration of an old father fantasy and fun but with real images, read and enjoy.	Lesson's From Emersons Self-Reliance An essay about conformity in today's society. (short, only three paragraphs) And yes, this WAS a school paper lol...but hey, it brings up some good points.
Better, Saver And Cheaper Than Colonoscopy Recent studies reveal that colonoscopy has a high probability of missing colorectal cancer and its precursor. There is a better way!	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank:Enjoying the mosaic of blossom and 40 shades of green foliage that Lakeland has been so gloriously presenting, it is hard to imagine flames sweeping across the fell sides overhead and...
ALL MY LOYAL READERS!!!!!!!!! READ PLEASE!!!!!!!!	Country Diary: Wiltshire Colin Luckhurst: We went to Cricklade's North Meadow, which lies on the floodplain of the rivers Thames and Churn, for a chance to see the brief flowering of that most beautiful of wildflowers, the...
Why What You Know, is Not Always as Important as Who You Know? We have all heard the saying at one time or another –"it’s not what you know, but who you know," and as cliche as it may sound.	Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: The plans of the Forestry Commission Scotland for conserving the juniper has been welcomed by conservationists.
Living Underneath This article is all about the pain I felt from a person whom I truly love and it's just so hard to think about the dying moments... Wishing and hoping it would still survive.	Mother's Day and the Atlanta Police Rushing away from my mother's side, I unknowingly set myself up for a traffic ticket.
Love at First Sight Nothing prepares one for the first sight of his or her child....	A Mother And A Child Of mothers and motherhood. I love you mom!
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: I was up on Coker Ridge, one of a number of east-west ridges south of Yeovil and near the Dorset border that are separated by shallow valleys where streams like Coker flow and the...	Just A Thought (2): Hopeful "Influenced by Pink Floyd's High Hopes"
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: A male marsh harrier lingered persistently over one area and was clearly intent on something below.	Instead Of.... These are suggestions of temporary substitutes for handshakes and hugs.
Lost Child : Whole Story (Read Introduction First) Please Read Introduction FIRST!!!The story of a girl who lost everything when she was younger and about her cold hard life. But the something happens that will change her life forever. A fictional...	Lost Child : Introduction The story of the life of a young teenager girl who has spent her whole life alone.
Country Diary: Ariège Jim Perrin on: At the top of the high Col de la Core, even on the cusp of May the white drifts are 10 feet deep and avalanche runnels draw the eye dangerously up to the mighty frontier peak of Mont...	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: Joy is abroad.
The Betrayal in My Life (Part 1) This is a true story, but I changed all the names (except mine, which is already here). This happened a little over a year ago. Ignore any mistakes, please. I need to get this out.	Two Years Without You I wrote this on my father's 2nd death anniversary, the first in a series of essays/letters I am writing on my dad....Comments very much welcome!
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: April saved the best till last: fine days full of the arrival songs of chiffchaff, blackcap, red start and garden warblers; orchard blossom, wood anemone and stitchwort; high blue skies...	Country Diary: Wortley Roger Redfern: High on this breezy ridge overlooking the fine sweep of the upper Don Valley grim-looking clouds were espied on the far western horizon.
Country Diary: Wortley Roger Redfern: High on this breezy ridge overlooking the fine sweep of the upper Don Valley grim-looking clouds were espied on the far western horizon.	Looking Forward... This is dedicated to all those who helped me through that rough patch... Comments are welcome.
Country Diary: Huntingdonshire Derek Niemann: The highest concentration of singing nightingales in Britain is found, not in some ancient bluebell woodland, but in bushes around the flooded gravel pits at Little Paxton.	Country Diary: Loch Ruthven Ray Collier:It seems strange that the famous hide on the edge of this loch is only six miles from home and yet I only go there about once a year.
Country Diary: Loch Ruthven Ray Collier: It seems strange that the famous hide on the edge of this loch is only six miles from home and yet I only go there about once a year.	A Thought For The Day: Live and Let Live Make the right moves today. Be empowered with yet another day added to your life. But, in your quest to outdo yesterday, don't hurt or exploit another. Live and let live...
A Thought For The Day: Admire and Praise Don't toe the commonly traversed line. It is those who swim against the currents who grow. Rise up and prove what you are really capable of this day...	Are you Lost in the Daily Grind? It's funny how we tend to lose the purpose of life in a materialistic world. The feeling of loneliness despite being amidst a crowd is a common situation in the recent times....
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: The name Quiet Corner Farm is recorded on 1839 tithe maps of Henstridge and still survives today.	A Thought For The Day: Invest In Deed Give the world the best you have and only the best will bounce right back at you. The world is a reflection of yourself. Have a great day...
Country Diary: Staffordshire Mark Cocker: Longnor, Our usual routine while watching this badger's sett is to sit on the hillside opposite, about 30m from the action.	Just a thought.. Please comment and give me your views..
A Thought For The Day: Shed The Baggage Don't drag yesterday's gloom into today. Everything must pass, and so has yesterday. Today is a new day. Walk light...	Country Diary: Shetland Christine Smith: It was a storybook spring day with small white clouds scudding across a blue sky and a pleasant warmth in the sun.
A Thought For The Day: Legacy You are the legacy and the heir to the legacy of life. What's holding you back? Lay claim...	A Thought For The Day: Opportunity Knocks Channelize your energies. Challenges are meant to be dared, and opportunity, taken up. You can redefine your life today...
Country Diary: Weardale Country Diary: It was an afternoon when you could smell spring, and hear its arrival.	A Thought For The Day: Reach Out And Claim There is no space for negative thought. You are the rich inheritor of every new breath and all that meets the eye. Reach out and claim the heirloom...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: "April is the cruellest month," was how TS Eliot opened The Waste Land.	A Thought For The Day: Call Of Light Be empowered. You are meant to shine. Climb towards the light...
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: Nothing stirred down in the forest.	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: Recently I walked up Brown Tongue into Hollow Stones from the head of Wastwater, heart still quickening at the hectares of grey rock above.
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: A brown belted galloway heifer stands in Linford brook, and gently ruminates.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst:At the bottom of Chavenage Lane, before the long slow climb and close to where Ken has his flock of black welsh Mountain sheep, I often hear the drumming of woodpeckers coming across...
Country Diary: Strathdearn Ray Collier: What could be better last week than a picnic by the side of the river Findhorn a few miles south of Inverness.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Last week was not only the first of April, it was also the first of swallows, the first of green-veined white and comma butterflies, the first of bloody-nose beetles.
Country Diary: Wiltshire John Vallins: The early morning frost in the shadows of trees and hedges was retreating fast as hazy sun rose over fields neatly grooved for seeding.	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: The latest addition to the spring chorus is a rather strange song, but is no less welcome for that.
Country Diary: Lleyn Peninsula Jim Perrin: The oaks at Chwilog canopy the green way with gnarled lace, their branches tatting the sky.	Country Diary: The Burren Sarah Poyntz: It's to be the wedding of the year, my wedding to the sailor forecast in my last diary by my seeing my first bird, a robin, on St Valentine's Day.
Country Diary: SpiersTamar Valley Virginia: The cold wind roars through the topmost branches of the spindly ashes in the steep woods where blackcap and chiffchaff have returned - their exciting and persistent songs mingling with...	Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: Tree climbing seems to have been a part of all my life.
Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: Kendal Library celebrated its 100th birthday recently.	Country Diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann: A croaking chorus breaks out in our pond.
Country Diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann: A croaking chorus breaks out in our pond.	Country Diary: Finistère Colin Luckhurst: Foxes have featured in recent wildlife sightings on both sides of the Channel.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The inflammable pad is lit and its flame fills the meter-high lantern of red tissue paper with warm air until it begins to tug gently upwards.	I Think - About God Funny how there are so many answers to the 'chicken or egg' query, and yet we readily denounce belief systems that do not appeal to our line of thought. I think about the concept of God and...
I Think – About Hunger Funny that as we plan the main course and dessert as part of an every day 'meal-affair' there are members of the human family dying on account of starvation. Something is so wrong somewhere. As...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: Decoy Carr is a flooded patch of coppiced alder near our house that probably dates to Roman times.
I Think - About The Power of Words Ever thought about how a single word or phrase can evoke diverse emotions and expressions? These APTs as I call them (alphabets-put-together) are potent and capable of much damage or repair...	I Think - About 'Karma' The Indian term 'karma' refers to the theory of 'cause and effect'. It is a theory that answers any question on the sudden surprises that life throws up every now and then. Or...is there another...
Beauty Parlor For The Soul - Propitiousness Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? Treat freckles and scars with the mask of propitiousness...	I Think - About Being 'Human' Top of the rung we are...or so we claim to be. But, something is missing. We seem to have forgotten that which makes us 'human' and different from fellow creatures. Time to think again...
Country Diary: Souter Point Phil Gates: On a perfect spring morning, with sun glinting off the sea below, the coaches disgorged second-year students from Durham University's evolutionary biology course, who were about to be...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Early morning sun begins to warm the stony banks above Knowle quarry.
Country Diary: Langsett Roger Redfern: From most of the high ground in the moorland district of South Yorkshire you can look towards the north and see, in clear weather, the great concrete and steel transmission tower on...	I Think - About Religion One quick glance around an it is not difficult to see the importance of religion in world politics and social networking. When and how did this man-made scheme get the better of our lives?...
Country Diary: Langsett Roger Redfern: From most of the high ground in the moorland district of South Yorkshire you can look towards the north and see, in clear weather, the great concrete and steel transmission tower on...	The Musical Cemetery A Spoken Word about the death of Hip Hop. It's actually not done yet, I just have extreme writer's block, so I'm hoping that if I post this things will work out. Loosely based off of Saul...
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: The road disappears into the distance, on one side sheltered by a high hedge just beyond a shallow dried-out ditch.	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: The road disappears into the distance, on one side sheltered by a high hedge just beyond a shallow dried-out ditch.
I think - About Education Poor children. Schooling is such an essential part of the formative years and yet the most dreary. Most of the fun comes out of blips made by the teachers and the entertainment provided by the...	Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Duty Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? Grab that manicure wonder called duty...
Have A Better Social Life [One Tip] Just read it .......	Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: The snow fell overnight on 4 February and by daylight there was 12 inches of frozen snow over most of the Highlands, with temperatures at -6C. For nine days the snow persisted with...
Do You? I want everyone's honest opinion...	I Think - About Boundaries I dare to dream about a common sense of belonging. The common man, like myself, is tired of being dragged into the power game. We are tired of paying the price for issues that we don't fully...
Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Faith Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? Keep sunburn away with the lotion of faith...	Country Diary: Tamar valley Virginia Spiers: High above the Tamar, in Albaston's cemetery, ranks of granite headstones face tors streaked with snow on the eastern horizon.
I Think - About Global Warming Even as 'global warming' screams off rostrums, how many environmentalists are willing to show us the change in lifestyle they have incorporated to deal with the problem...	Country Diary: Wiltshire John Vallins: Wiltshire is the county for white horses; they are carved from the turf high on the chalk downs and visible for miles around.
Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Acquiescence Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? To fill those furrows on the forehead, try the pack of...	Country Diary: Wiltshire is the county for white horses; they are carved from the turf and visible for miles around John Vallins: Wiltshire is the county for white horses; they are carved from the turf high on the chalk downs and visible for miles around.
Beauty Parlor For the Soul – Meditation Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? Gently obliterate blemishes of ignorance with the balm of...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: It has been a great winter for new mammals in my parish. I kicked off with a creature that has long been seen hereabouts but I've contrived to miss.
Beauty Parlor For the Soul – Common Sense Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? Exfoliate facial dead skin with the scrub called common...	Country Diary: Snowdon Jim Perrin: By the former mine barracks I leave the green track and climb diagonally across snow towards a prominent boulder near the entrance of an old adit. Bill Condry first showed it to me 20...
Country Diary: Snowdon Jim Perrin: By the former mine barracks I leave the green track and climb diagonally across snow towards a prominent boulder near the entrance of an old adit. Bill Condry first showed it to me 20...	Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Use'full'ness Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? For a dandruff-free scalp, try a daily application of '...
Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Prayer Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? The astringent called prayer helps to keep the blackheads...	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: It seems likely that I am about to marry a sailor.
Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Optimism Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? A daily dose of 'optimism' enhances skin tone and...	Country Diary: Rabbits Bolt Paul Evans: Rabbits bolt, crows give up their feeding grounds and fly off, owls reclaim the darkening woods
Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Un-Conditioning Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? The soul-screen of powerful un-conditioning or...	Country Diary: Anglesey Roger Redfern: After all the snow and ice the mild air came across the country a couple of weeks ago, hinting at earliest spring.
Beauty Parlor For the Soul – Travel Light Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? Take a trip to the beauty clinic for the soul and...	Country Diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann: Barely an hour's walk from where it begins on the county boundary, Bedfordshire's long-distance footpath takes a concrete diversion through the village of Everton.
Country Diary: Gloucestershire Colin Luckhurst: The house in which I was brought up in the immediate postwar period was part of the 1930s suburban housing boom which, I later learned in my undergraduate study of economic history,...	HELP!!!!!!!! I'm lost
Beauty Parlor For the Soul - Patience Creams and lotions are freely available to enhance skin deep beauty. But, what about that which makes us human...above all other creatures? A magic portion called 'Patience' from the beauty clinic...	Country Diary: Strathnairn Ray Collier: It had been more than five years since I last paid my respects to three dear friends interred in Dunlichity churchyard a few miles up our strath.
Stuff That Erks Me (Part1) This is stuff that annoysss me. Comment and tell me what you think...maybbbeee??? :D <33333	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The beginning of the week saw a new kind of beginning.
Country Diary: Mount Buffalo, Australia John Vallins: As visitors from a cold English winter, we wilted in the heat as we approached this great mountain, which rears up to a height of 1,725 meters above sea level in Victoria's alpine...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: It was puzzling.
Country Diary: Shetland Isles Christine Smith: Taking out the rubbish is not a favourite job, and winter weather can make it even more disagreeable.	Its a Mad World It is uncanny how we just won't learn. Everytime, the same experience, yet the stumbling continues. Does or doesn't this matter at all. Who has the time to introspect...
Country Diary: Durham Phil Gates: A drum roll from a great spotted woodpecker, hammered out against a dead branch high in the oak canopy, greeted me as I ducked under the barbed wire and slithered down the muddy bank...	The Magic of Love and Togetherness Love and togetherness ripple on like the gale, through the narrowest crack and even within walls. They are part of the fabric of human existence and, one without the other is like breath without the...
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Virginia Spiers: The statue of a miner, sitting on a bench beside Fore Street, reminds of the industrial past of Gunnislake, uphill from New Bridge across the Tamar.	Haha This Made Me Laugh (About My Writing Style) Haha some people left me some funny comments...
Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: The news that research shows dairy cows given personal names produce more milk per lactation is pretty obviously what anyone in the know would expect.	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: Pillar Rock soars above the valley like the Mustagh Tower especially after snow has fallen in Ennerdale.
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: The shelter of the woods seemed attractive when faced with a severe weather warning.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: The West Country and the Bristol Channel area have been particularly hard hit by the unusual winter weather.
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: The first fish I ever caught was a tiddler, in other words a three-spined stickleback.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Blood on the snow.
Country Diary: Mornington Peninsula John Vallins: Ships sailing in from the Bass Strait to Melbourne or Geelong must first negotiate "the rip" at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay, between Point Lonsdale to the west and Point...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: It was an object lesson in how difficult it can be to estimate the size of a bird flock.
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: They are back. Apparently they haven't been seen in Ireland for more than 200 years.	Letter to My Love A letter to my love with emotion...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The day before it snowed really felt like the day before snow.	Country Diary: Snowdonia Roger Redfern: The proper way to come to the summit of Foel-fras at the northern perimeter of the Carneddau is from the south, as you complete the famous "Welsh Three Thousands" - 14 peaks...
Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: It was a poignant scene.	Country Diary: Gloucestershire Colin Luckhurst: Pigs have been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently.
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier:Thirty-eight years ago I was warden on the then Inverpolly National Nature Reserve on the Sutherland/Ross-shire border.	Taxes Is the government taking your money as well?
Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers: Wind turbines, their blades turning in the breeze, tower above burrows beside the A30 going to Redruth, on the course of the old ridgeway.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Towards the end of the 19th century, two German biologists, Ernst Haeckel and Carl Vogt, made the arresting claim that the might of the British empire depended on the bumblebee.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Country diary: I can see it now.	Laws Governing the Appropriation Of Wingman S At one time or another, all men will garner the title of Wingman. The Association Of Man at www.themannation.com has proposed the following guidelines to ensure a successful endeavor.
Country Diary: East Yorkshire Rosemary Roach: The sepia wash of the last few days was blown away by the strong west wind, giving way to a clear blue sky and rays of deceptive golden sun.	Country Diary: Whitburn Phil Gates: Like all the other waders, the flock of oystercatchers, immaculately dressed in black and white plumage and standing aloof on the edge of Whitburn Rocks, would soon be forced into...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: A storm broke in during the night and dragged the sky away.	Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: I was reminded the other day of the old adage that where there's a need someone will supply a solution, when I saw a van parked in a Peak District village street.
Attention Rome Lies being told about her because she’s never been out of the USA ever.	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: Last Sunday night the rains returned with a vengeance.
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: There was no doubting the main attraction.	LOL HAI Long time no see O_________O
Country Diary: West Cornwall Colin Luckhurst: While most of the rest of the UK land area shivered under sub-zero temperatures, as is often the case this furthest tip of the peninsula remained unfrozen but with a biting...	Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: There are still crofters and farmers of the older generation that I know who remember the corn spirit of the fields.
Having Trouble With Relationships? Hello, I’m Kevin the author of the Jimmy D. Terrible series and a few romantic poems. I am looking for people who have trouble with relationships to take this simple 12-13 question survey.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: A raven flies through a cold, cloud-cemented sky.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Across the Sedgemoor flats the scene was all in shades of grey; dark grey willows lining the streams and causeways against a pale grey sky, and the tower of Westonzoyland church, a...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: It was one of those glorious anti-cyclonic winter days when you sense that there is not a mote of dust in the entire troposphere.
Country Diary: Elan Valley Jim Perrin:At Cors Llwyd on a louring winter's day the rough russet flanks of the bare surrounding hills press in upon you.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: It was very quiet today.
Country Diary: West Devon Virginia Spiers: Hardened turf and icy boulders mark the path up to the little church on Brent Tor (334 meters), blasted by wind sweeping across from Gibbet Hill on the drab western edge of Dartmoor.	Requesting Federal Immunity in Seattle, WA Disappearance of Old friend; believed to be David Stout- I recognized him in Tacoma he had a computer there- 2nd floor.
Country Diary: East Cheshire hills Roger Redfern: We came down from the high ground as the first lights were twinkling in the frosty air over Macclesfield.	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: There are moments in the Lake District when scenes among the fells evoke memories of famous views elsewhere.
Country Diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann: Spread out on the dining room table are the unappetising leftovers of evening meals from long ago.	Country Diary: Muir of Ord Ray Collier: In and around this small village 10 miles west of Inverness are some lochans.
Gone Missing A story of a sister search for her sister...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The wind that blew Christmas away swept in something else, something colder, cleaner, brighter.
Country Diary: Bristol Channel John Vallins: A rough and windy day at the turn of the year makes me think of Steep Holm, the rocky outcrop that stands up from the swirling tidal currents of the Bristol Channel.	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: Almost like a lover with a new flame I've made daily pilgrimage this month to a woodland in the parish that I'd never previously visited.
Country Diary: Shetland Isles Christine Smith: At mid-afternoon I had the car park by the sea to myself, and I settled down to enjoy the view, with a hot drink and a mince pie.	Country Diary: St Bees Head Tony Greenbank: The length of chain was for younger folk than me.
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: The prevalent dog poo is better avoided, but the forest's fox scats are always worth a closer look. Fox droppings, or castings as they are sometimes called, often offer clues to the...	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: One afternoon earlier this month we were taking young Henri, the Jack Russell, for his post-lunch walk on the lane down to Larkhill Farm.
Country Diary: River Nairn Ray Collier: Last week, when the two dachshunds and I reached the furthest point of our daily walk, we approached the narrow humpbacked bridge with caution.	Illegal Experimentation Experimental Operations - that were conducted on me without my permission.
Honesty is the Best Policy In memory of my son	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: Decoy Carr is one of those bits of the parish that's normally off limits because of the dense jungle of vegetation and the quagmire conditions.
Country Diary: South Pembroke Jim Perrin: At Gun Cliff rusty iron rings, mysterious in origin, weep a stain across pale grey rock sequined with crinoids.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz Versailles is not the only place to have its shellfish - I refer to the exhibition of Jeff Koons' giant lobster hanging from one of the palace ceilings.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The frost has not yet left the ground or the voices of rooks which circle over the Priory ruins and tall trees to broadcast their December song.	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: Exactly one year ago I reported here on a misty journey between Grindon and Warslow, on a day when the spire of Grindon church was completely concealed by the enwrapping vapor.
Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: On a clear and starry night without a trace of light pollution, the heavens above Threlkeld were jet black with brilliantly lit stars and crescent moon.	Country Diary: Guangdong, China Derek Niemann: Four hours from the Hong Kong border, our train passes before a backdrop of steep, forested hills.
Country Diary: Cornwall Colin Luckhurst: With long genetic roots in the county, my wife was disappointed to learn that the dismal summer weather has threatened the display of the famous Christmas garland at Cotehele, the...	Country Diary: Achvaneran Ray Collier: Looking out of my study window to the field below there is a loose flock of more than 50 black-looking birds of the crow family.
Country Diary: Wessex John Vallins: The road between Blandford and Wimborne runs for two and a half miles under the tall green arches formed by the grand colonnades of beech that William John Bankes laid out in 1835 as...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: As I walked along the bank a male kestrel kept fractionally ahead, facing down into the breeze.
Country Diary: Durham City Phil Gates: When I walked through these fields near Blaid's Wood in June I gave up counting flower spikes of marsh orchids when the total passed 200.	Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers: Across Penwith, brightness is at a premium on this dull November day.
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: A 17th-century house that stands conspicuously on a lofty knoll overlooking miles of green valleys and tawny moorsides has recently been sold. It has lain empty these 50 years and has...	Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: There is a watercolor by JMW Turner called The Storm (Shipwreck) with much dramatic action in mountainous seas, and with rocks sticking up from the maelstrom.
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Cobalt blue doesn't figure large in most people's idea of autumn's colors.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: I little anticipated the memories that would be stirred by my recent reference to the economic migrants who came annually from the outer isles of Scotland to replenish the thin...
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: Red squirrels are increasingly benefiting from peanuts in garden feeders originally put out for birds.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: On a damp, still day, we took a path through woodland on the edge of the town of Wellington and came upon a sheet of water with ducks, terns and a stately pair of Canada geese almost...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: This month our village has been invaded by a mob of field fares, which come here in winter from eastern Europe and Scandinavia.	Country Diary: North Pembroke Jim Perrin: By west-leading footpaths I amble out of Trefdraeth to odd and ancient little Pont Ceunant and up on to Carn Ingli common.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The oaks struck gold.	Country Diary: Snowdonia Roger Redfern: There were still golden leaves on the overhanging trees as we went down beside the crashing water of the Lledr, major tributary of the Conwy.
Country Diary: Lake District Tony Greenbank: Raindrops smeared my laptop screen as I sat among the boulders under Kern Knotts where I was downloading photos I had just taken of the crag, the scene of so many happy summer climbs.	LIfe is a Wrestling Match Extended Metaphor...
Country Diary: Bedfordshire Derek Niemann: Just after midday, that owl hoots again.	Country Diary: Braemar Colin Luckhurst:
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: The Atlas of Butterflies in Highland and Moray:	Country Diary: Tamar Valley Virginia Spiers: On calm days my home is within earshot of the train hooter across the valley at Bere Alston - close as the crow flies, but 11 miles distant by road.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Some weeks ago, when we were up in the Mendips, west of Frome, searching for relics of a Victorian canal, we came by chance to one of those spots that open up a view so striking that...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker:
Country Diary: County Durham Phil Gates: Last month's golden bracken fronds had faded to brown and the birches had lost most of their leaves.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The air is full of light, the sharp edge of a breeze and the music of destruction.
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: John Constable's skies are so believable because he spent a lifetime observing and recording them.	Country Diary: Eden Valley Tony Greenbank: To view graffiti chiseled crisply in the red sandstone cliffs at Armathwaite - and said to be so spellbinding it simply must be seen - has long been a quest of mine, but one deferred...
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Sharp afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees in the Brick Kiln enclosure at Bank, near Lyndhurst, illuminating a cascade of falling leaves.	International Credit Not Forgiven - Time Warp 17 - Under Duress University of WA
Country Diary: Inverness Ray Collier: I found myself surrounded by falling leaves while walking along the pavement adjacent to the River Ness in the middle of the city.	Country Diary: Dorset John Vallins: Slanting autumn sunshine would have been appropriate, but as we clambered down from the community bus at Broad Oak orchard, wind and rain knocked us back.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: Almost every week this year I've run a moth trap in my garden. It's essentially a bright light suspended over a box, into which moths fall and then pass the evening...	Country Diary: Rhandirmwyn Country diary: Hemlock and water forget-me-not are flourishing in the sodden alder swamps below Dinas, and woodland foliage of oak, beech and birch, rich with brocaded tints and textures of autumn,...
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: I suppose it was 17 centimeters long.	Country Diary: Tamar Valley Virginia Spiers: A giant hand proffers an apple made of turf in Cotehele's new mother orchard - the sculpture and stick-like trees visible from hilltop clumps of yellowing beech two miles away.
Life Is Still Complicated Life still sucks, but I’m coping…	Country Diary: Langsett Roger Redfern: A nearby farm was separated from its historic house years ago.
HELP!! Help!!	Country Diary: Cairngorm national park Colin Luckhurst: Only a few yards from the doorway of the Braemar Golf Club a large buddleia bush caught my eye.
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: The more I learn about wildlife the more I realize just how little I know, and such was the case recently.	Not Everyone Can Live A Healthy Life - Poverty This article is about poverty, and the effects it can have on people. It is about the people suffering and encourages people to think globally, act locally......
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The clock said it was 4.15am. I was woken up by a hissing noise that penetrated my sleep like air being bled from a radiator which increased so much that it had all the power of a steam...	Country Diary: Bristol Channel John Vallins: Getting to the island of Steepholm, five miles out into the Bristol Channel, is something of an adventure.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: One of the benefits of wildlife television that I concede is that it sometimes gives us an insight into our evolving relationship with nature.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: A busy week preparing food and garden entries for our village show - and tidying the garden, because events for the show were to be held in my field.
Country Diary: Weardale Phil Gates: There was a nip in the autumn air so it was a surprise to find huddles of naked ladies, already exposing their stigmas and stamens to the early morning sunlight, in the dewdrop-spangled...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Up into a pale blue sky, sketched high with vapor trails and cirrus cloud, the buzzards fly.
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: A relatively high ridge in the north-eastern corner of this county makes a remarkably exquisite belvedere, generally unknown or ignored by the hordes that gravitate to the larger,...	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Even on a bright day, the heath was eerily quiet. Where were all the pollinators on whose buzzing energies so much depends?
Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: I was pleased to learn, from a mailing of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust which arrived last week, of the plans for a dedicated wildlife corridor to be established along the...	Country Diary: Achvaneran Ray Collier: The view from outside the house was the same as usual with the burn flowing past the pond in the paddock, the field leading to the alder-lined river Nairn and then, beyond the bottom of...
Country Diary: Cornwall Cornwall: Tall ships glide out of Falmouth docks to cross the shining, azure-streaked bay, converging towards Helford river and the start of the race to Funchal.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Lufton fen lies below a busy A-road outside Yeovil, not far from Montacute.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: At the foot of the lane, the leggy overgrown limbs of the hawthorn hedge have become so smothered by bramble you could easily think this was just a blackberry bush five meters tall.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: The numerous heavy rain showers that we have had here during the last two months of this summer season have encouraged the weeds to flourish in the herbaceous borders and flower beds...
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: As Hamlet said: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: As Hamlet said: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: These are quiet, gentle days in the maelstrom.	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Considering the advance of the seasons, the deciduous trees remain remarkably green, decked still with the lushest leaves - all as a result of this summer's generous rainfall.
Player Boyfriend My friends dated the same guy – he’s a player	First Funeral Memories of a first funeral
Country Diary: Finistère Colin Luckhurst: It is observably true that butterflies have had a very bad year indeed over most of the UK.	The Dish Agent Edna...
Montauk Moments Confusion says much and do about the rings...	Country Diary: Coignafearn Ray Collier: Sitting on a hillside in Strathdearn, west of Aviemore, I was almost at the upper tree line of the scattered juniper bushes.
Country Diary: Dorset John Vallins: Rings E and F at the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show were for heavy horses and carriage driving, and my knowledgeable ringside neighbor was able to tell me something about two pairs of...	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: I went into my bathroom at 10 o'clock last night and saw I had an intruder: a long-eared bat was scuttling up and down the empty bath.
Country Diary: Gateshead Phil Gates: When we last visited Ryton Willows local nature reserve, two years ago, some of the gorse scrub had been charred by fire, leaving bare ground and blackened stems.	Love Lasts Let me know if I should keep going…
Country Diary: Loch Ruthven Ray Collier: This year two events have highlighted this RSPB reserve that lies 16 miles south-west of Inverness.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: I hear the prrrup of wings around my head and stand still.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Our directions took us down the steeply sloping main street of Holcombe, well to the north of the county and once one of the coal-mining villages of the mineral-rich Mendip region...	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: Visitors to Ireland need to be very careful.
True Life This is a true story about my life...	Apologlogy From author of Choices? Sorry...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Seeing ravens above Ashes Hollow on the Long Mynd is to watch a moment in history unfolding.	What My Boyfriend Said To Me This is something my boyfriend told me over msn, and it made me cry...Hehe.. I love him lots
Country Diary: Anglesey Roger Redfern: In one way the destruction of Robert Stephenson's mighty Britannia bridge across the Menai Strait in 1970 was a blessing in disguise.	I was Victimized by Taliban Description of What happened - I was a target for Detonation.
Country Diary: Strathnairn Ray Collier: Each day I walk with two of our six miniature dachshunds along the verges of a narrow road with passing places, and for a week or so these verges have been dominated by the blue flowers...	Excuse Me Why don't people say excuse me anymore?
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: It was some years ago that I first saw inviting rows of vegetables springing out of the fertile soil of the Growing Space in its plot beside the old Quaker meeting house.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: A serious loss to our country communities is the recent closure of our post office counters - the post office in my village was closed down a couple of years ago.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The Lammas days of early August are quiet, except for the angry noise of little airplanes and the greenfinch.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The Lammas days of early August are quiet, except for the angry noise of little airplanes and the greenfinch.
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: The view was arresting. A sheet of spearwort mixed with bird's-foot trefoil yellow-carpeted the foreground, vivid in the sunlight and against the sombre scene across the valley.	Country Diary: Cotswolds Colin Luckhurst: One day last week I was enjoying an alfresco luncheon in Kenilworth, in the company of a score of former colleagues on the full-time staff of the Open University.
Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers:Marquee tops stick up from the bosky site of Launceston's 120th agricultural show, set beside the busy A30.	Country Diary: Snowdonia Roger Redfern: The old slate waste heaps up the valley from Bethesda have been steadily colonized by all manner of vegetation, so that by now large areas appear at first glance to be nothing more...
Changing For The Better, Or Not? Ever tried to change yourself for the better? But things just kept blowing up in your face? Ever let your guard down for once, and got hurt because of it? Here's a rant I created because I am almost...	Why Men are still dating WRONG Pointers on common dating mistakes and how to correct them. Why men are inherently hardwired to me bad daters and ways to fix this.
Maasai Mara Wildebeest Migration Safari With calm and peace having returned to this beautiful country it is time again for the avid traveler to venture into the land where safari was born.	Books I used to be a Christian. This is about the day I realized that it no longer meant anything to me. I took all my 'Christian' books off the bookshelf. And cried. Please feel free to comment......
The Dinner Table Just what it says. A scene from the dinner table!	My Dirty Little Secret I needed to vent...
Abandoned This piece attempts to describe the difficulties of close relationships for a 'borderline personality'.	The Psychiatrist's Chair The first time I made it to the psychiatrist after being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder.
Prayer This is a story about a friend who tried to pray me out of trouble. It all went badly wrong!	Bulls A story of friendship. A bright moment in the middle of a dark depression.
Inside A Cutter’s Mind This is my story. The story of a cutter. I still cut and will probably keep cutting until who knows when. Comment me or send me an e-mail.	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: There was a brisk wind from the north-east as I mounted through the stone-walled pastures towards the summit of Revidge.
E-Mail Accounts Being Used Fraudulently I believe mine has - Women are e-mailing me and I have never been with a woman. They need to admit their guilt.	Experience at Clover Creek Witch Covens Trying To Subdue "Victims"...
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Boldre church was already ancient when William Gilpin was appointed vicar in 1777.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: Correspondents have frequently reminded me that the bicycle rides I have described over very quietly trafficked lanes to the west of the town are a privilege for which I should be...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: A bird is wearing the jewellery of flies. It's hardly a bird yet, just a thing made of some light and the flesh of grubs and worms the bluetit parents brought to its tiny gape in the...	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Because of its sharp, triangular outline and the sudden way it stands up out of a horizontal landscape, with the ruin of St Michael's church on the summit, Glastonbury Tor attracts the...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: It was one of those spring days when the swifts were moving en masse through the Yare valley.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: Ten days before we had the period of unusual warmth for early May, the Victoria plum on dwarfing root stock that I planted immediately after our relocation to this town center...
Country Diary: Bunachton Ray CollierLoch: This large loch is a few miles south of Inverness and, as I sat on a boulder at the water's edge, I could sense something was wrong.	Proverbs....... Laughter is the best medicine for good health...
Jail Don’t want to stay alone…	Country Diary: Wheatacre, Norfolk Mark Cocker: The sudden flush of heat across East Anglia has set the farm fields racing skywards, and on the southern edge of the Waveney floodplain the world was divided into just two colors, the...
Same Sex Marriage is not about rights Semantics are intolerable....	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Last month was an "April fool", because we had plenty of showers and only brief blue skies, so the month lived up to its name.
Country Diary: Durham City Phil Gates: Right on cue, volcanos have erupted on the edge of the city, on a patch of waste ground that was once agricultural land but has so far escaped development.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The return of the swifts changes everything: the weather, the mood and the pace of spring.
Grief is a Journey, Not a Destination There are days you sit in a chair and stare out the window because living seems to take too much energy. Even to think about what to make for dinner is an all-consuming task.	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: A highly managed landscape, the forest is an arena of competing interests.
Country Diary: Luckhurst Colin Luckhurst: At the bottom of Chavenage Lane, just before the quarry, a sight that gladdens my heart and eye greets me on my regular morning bike ride.	Country Diary: Loch Ruthven Ray Collier: Sitting in the large, comfortable hide on the edge of the loch, a few miles south of Inverness, the scene looked idyllic.
My Punishment From God Ummmm mistakes come and go.. this one is hard to let go? Please comment I need the support... any advice is welcomed.	Afraid to Talk About Dying When my husband was diagnosed with esophagus cancer, we never talked about him dying, except in the very beginning. I think we were afraid to voice the worst scenario we could think of, him not...
Living a Half Life After my husband’s death, I enclosed myself in an emotional shell. A hard cased, untouchable cocoon of nothingness. I wanted to be numb, I wanted to be left alone.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz This year marks my 21 years as a country diary scribe.
A Dream About Dying My husband was ill ten months with cancer when I had the dream. I had been taking care of his needs for almost eleven months, and even though some days there seemed to be progress, in hindsight I...	Sometimes You Need to Cry I recall a period in time, at about 18 months after my husband passed away, that I felt pretty good about myself. I had handled what life had thrown me and come out battered, but mostly okay on the...
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Virginia Spiers: Early strawberries, grown in polytunnels above the tidal Tamar, are already for sale (at £1.50 a punnet) on a roadside stall, displayed with bundles of tasty outdoor rhubarb.	Cannibals and Vampire Covens that murder and Lie for Money I had a chip, but I was a disabled mother and they all thought I was a Government agent.
Nuclear Genocide related to warfare It is about my testimony of MIA agents that deceased here.	Country Diary: Gloucestershire Colin Luckhurst: For centuries the village blacksmith was a man of substance in his community, and his smithy both a working environment of some drama - with glowing forge, clouds of steam and...
Love Your Body, Love Yourself Just my thoughts about how (we) women put so much pressure on ourselves regarding physical appearance.	Country Diary: Loch Flemington Ray Collier: It may simply be my advancing years, but each spring there seems to be an even greater urgency to see the first summer bird migrants.
Using a microchip for an Illegal purpose Invention used for wrong intent....	Dating After Loss of a Spouse When a relationship ends due to one partner dying, what is the correct time period to begin dating again? Grief is such a funny, unpredictable animal.
A Widow's Many "Firsts" The left side of the bed where my husband used to sleep remains neatly made, hardly a ripple disturbing the quilted surface. I sleep on the right side each night, where I had slept the twenty-plus...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Wenlock Edge: A rainbow arcs low and wide like a slick of petrol over dark clouds in the north. Struck by sunlight, the high branches of poplars glow orange against the charcoal grey.
Proverb.... However much you are educated...	Living in The Box My incoherent drunken ramblings.
Important Information To Know Present factual data to inform those contemplating travel to "well-known" tourist regions. It is the right of every citizen to make informed decisions prior to planning travel.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: Romance held them in its warm embrace.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Halfway through the middle of last week, the wind dropped, the rain stopped and the sun came out.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The car was stopped in the narrowest section of the lane where the high banks reached up to old ash trees whose branches criss-crossed and rattled in the wind.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: For the first time ever the slender white heron with wire-thin legs and serpentine neck called the little egret has arrived in strength on our marsh.	Enjoy The Simple Things In Life A picnic is basking in a tree's shade at a nearby park, the warm summer breeze caressing my skin, the sounds of laughter from children, and the sweet aromas swirling from the BBQ.
What's Your View On Aging? The only time we like to get old is when we are kids.	My Mother's Battle Please help support the fight against cancer.
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: The recent sighting of a white red deer stag on the west coast led to a great deal of publicity, although the location is kept secret.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The storm that dropped in on us on Sunday night was nowhere near as ferocious as it was further west in Wales.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Most people who know the river Parrett are likely to think of it as creeping sluggishly across the Somerset wetlands, and famously dropping at only 20cm per km (or one foot per mile).	Country Diary: Tikal, Guatemala Mark Cocker: It's the sound of the howler monkeys that first strikes you.
Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Dolphins visit the Farne Islands more regularly than we suggested in the article below. Bottlenose and white-beaked dolphins are recorded every year, although Risso's dolphins were...	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Dolphins visit the Farne Islands more regularly than we suggested in the article below.
Country Diary: South Yorkshire Roger Redfern: My friend Stephen Sampson (who I've mentioned before) celebrates his hundredth birthday later this month.	The Way Of Life His Other Writing…
The Real Thing Of Life He was thinking real hard…	Country Diary: John Vallins John Vallins: The village shop at Mudford, north of Yeovil, is a combined post office, general store and hairdresser.
Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Midwinter is not a time when we can visit the Farne Islands, with high tides and unpredictable rough seas off our north-east coast.	Sounding Off Things I am tired of... can you relate?
Country Diary: Bath Colin Luckhurst: Bristol-Bath cycle track was one of the first, and most successful, of the dedicated tracks on which Sustrans and other pressure groups have focused in their efforts to extend...	Country Diary: Strathnairn Ray Collier: During the past few months extensive clear felling has taken place in the strath as conifers have become mature enough to harvest. This is normal procedure with woodland as, after all,...
Pubic Bathrooms Pubic hairs in public bathrooms...I don't know about you, but I am sick of it!	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: First light slants over frost. Like troublesome thoughts, the birds have been pecking at the silence since dark.
Hey Guys Read this please...	Preconcieved thinking about eternity People often "pick and choose" churches & groups that accommodate their preconceived thinking.
On Being A Nerd I know being in all the advanced classes...	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: It was a glorious winter morning.
Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: It was a glorious winter morning.	Country Diary: LongNew Forest Graham Watching deer is a local delight. When I worked in the forest over 50 years ago they were quite difficult to see, let alone to capture on film.
Country Diary: Finistère Colin Luckhurst: European news channels, available by satellite here, all became very excited about the story of a German dog that ate a quantity of yeast which, fermenting in its stomach, made the...	Country Diary: Achvaneran Ray Collier: We share the house with wildlife - some of which are seasonal, some that are permanent and some that can only be described as accidental.
Burning That Bridge Shutting the escape hatch that shouldn't be there…	How Green Is Your Bag? Praise of a couple of moms who want to change the world...
Country Diary: The Burren Sarah Poyntz: Today I walked the coast road towards the Black Head lighthouse, veering off to strike down to the O'Loghlen castle keep by the bay. I saw not a single insect, not even a midge,...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Daffodils have been in flower here since Christmas.
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Roger Redfern: No moon, no stars on this January night. Just carpets of cloud vaguely reflecting the glow of the far town.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: The turn of the year is not a bad time to have a critical look at the garden, especially if a series of hard frosts have reduced growth and foliage to the cyclical minimum
Country Diary: Highlands Most of the wildlife icons in the Highlands are large and conspicuous, like the salmon leaping over the waterfall or a red grouse on moorland	What’s A New Year’s Resolution? This is how I feel about New Year’s resolutions…lol
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Emerging from the slow dereliction of beech tree hulks onto the Wrekin's main ridge path, the chances of seeing any kind of sunset on the shortest day seemed remote.	Country Diary: Dorset John Vallins: If you turn west off the Dorchester road out of Sherborne and head for Leigh, you are getting into the haunts of Thomas Hardy's Woodlanders and soon start to pass through mature...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: In the last days of the year I went to pay my respects to the oldest member of our village, a fine old hedgerow oak on the ancient track that leads to Ashby St Mary.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Like many of our neighbors, I still have an open fire in my living room and, although I do burn coal, I also gather wood from fallen timber on my daily walk with the dog.
Country Diary: Durham Phil Gates: One of my most poignant memories is of the day when my mother took us back for one last look at the place where she grew up.	Time And The Past Would I kick the butt of my past self?
This Is Not A Poem But A Question I want someone to tell me what they think of this because at this point I’m confused… so please if you could respond please do so…thank you very much	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Holly's role as an essential Christmas decoration for traditionalists is matched by its importance in the ecology of the forest. Just as Christmas loses something special if there are...
Country Diary: Gloucester shire Colin Luckhurst: The big animal story in the county in recent weeks has been the wild boar population in the Forest of Dean.	Country Diary: Merkinch Ray Collier: This is the name of an area in the north-west of the city of Inverness and it is derived from the Gaelic, meaning island or meadow of the horses.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: "Bird on the horizon, sittin' on a fence, he's singin' a song for me, at his own expense," sang Bob Dylan.	Country Diary: Dorset John Vallins: They say that, in thick fog or after dark, Dorset smugglers used to pinpoint their position on the 29km length of Chesil Bank by the size of the pebbles, which are evenly graded from...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: It was the wigeon that made me think. Hundreds of birds kept rising and wheeling away across the cloudless sky, then they would fly back to the open water, land and, for some unknown...	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: High seas and a strong northerly wind have recently caused hundreds of baby seals to get blown off the rocks on the Farne Islands
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: A mystery tour.	Country Diary: Bradfield Dale Roger Redfern: A cold and frosty morning began with a bold, red slash across the eastern sky as the sun rose, painting the dale sides with a rose glow.
3 Wishes My thoughts made public…	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: Some months ago, dinner came in a bucket. Gary, an intermittent golfer in the company who play at midday three days each week on Stinchcombe Hill, had brought me a pailful of...
Country Diary: Ding wall Ray Collier: The scenes at the Dingwall and Highlands Marts, just north of Inverness, looked as if it was business as usual as the small groups of sheep milled around the sales ring.	Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers: Shoppers throng Truro, trooping along rain-washed granite pavements beside carved gutters gushing with runoff, all overlooked by the cathedral spires, sunlit between heavy showers.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: Our village pond is fed by the same stream which was used to power the mill recorded in the Domesday book. In modern times, colonies of ducks have been introduced.	Country Diary: Hickling, Norfolk Mark Cocker: "Quick, red object across the road!" It was hardly the most detailed wildlife description, but I quickly grasped what my friend meant. Suddenly there they loomed, huge and...
Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: A small dark shed in our village which was for many years the blacksmith's forge is now abandoned.	Country Diary: Newcastle upon Tyne Phil Gates: It would be hard to imagine a less likely place to find a kingfisher, but I caught a brief glimpse of one here yesterday, so we came back today to look for it again.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: For a couple of days the light was far-reaching. A full moon of wild silver: seen on the first night above the cathedral of St Asaph in north Wales and on the second over Wen lock...	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: If I had not known otherwise, I would never have suspected the presence of Grindon church (the so-called "cathedral of the moors") the other morning
Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: For all its new mystique as a national park, the forest is a highly managed landscape.	Country Diary: West Cornwall Colin Luckhurst:In the low angle of morning sunshine in mid-November, and under high barometric pressure which gave a flat sea surface, Mount's Bay looked not unlike an enormous natural amphitheater...
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: In a farmhouse at Mudford Sock, down by the river Yeo, I asked the farmer, Phillip Snell, what kind of pig it was that had won all those glittering trophies displayed at the far end of...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: When I say I can smell winter, I'm not just talking about that curious astringent sensation at the bridge of your nose when you breathe in the sharp ice air.
Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Fallen apples from the trees in my field have been more numerous than usual this autumn.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: "A Garden is a love some thing, God wot!", wrote 19th-century poet Thomas E Brown.
Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers: Pink flowers of campion, fresh stinging nettles and toadstools grow along a splashy bridleway towards the calm sea near Porthleven.	Mobile Phoney The ironic inability to connect in a hyper-wired world.
Country Diary: Bradfield Dale Roger Redfern: It's that time of year again, when long settled periods bring out the best autumn coloring and, scanning the southern and eastern horizons, I see the man made cauliflowers of steam...	My Life Is F'ed Up! I hope this answers all the questions about my life, and stops the complaints about how I shouldn’t hate...
Country Diary: Tyntesfield Colin Luckhurst: My previous visit here fell in the interregnum between the death of Lord Wraxall, the last of the dynasty which had established the house and estate in north Somerset on the wealth...	Country Diary: Strathnairn Ray Collier: A brief survey of the wild fruits and berries in the strath have revealed a shortage of sloes on the blackthorn, mast on the beech trees and almost nonexistent rowan berries.
Jagad Guru Chris Butler: The Body You Have Today Is Not The Body You Had Five Years Ago… An explanation on understanding who you really are.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge. Paul Evans: The Royal Oak at Cardington claims to be the oldest pub in Shropshire.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: We were barely above sea level in the moorland that is bordered by the Polden hills to the south and the Mendips to the north.	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: Along the lane to the marsh I invariably stop on most autumn mornings at the spot where the hedge is smothered in ivy.
Country Diary: Teesdale Phil Gates: On an unusually mild and windless autumn afternoon, we were hot and breathless by the time we reached the fell above Shipley Wood, so we were glad of the excuse of a fine view to pause...	Country Diary: Teesdale. Phil Gates: We were hot and breathless by the time we reached the fell above Shipley Wood on an unusually mild autumn afternoon, so we were glad of the excuse of a fine view to pause awhile and...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The woods are misty and wet and many of the taller ash trees which catch the weather have already lost their leaves.	Scaring The Crap Out Of Me With Bowtrol I have been poopin some of the most ugly looking things ever. This is my story on why this is happening.
Country Diary: Langsett Roger Redfern: Days of low, murky cloud brought down light levels to those expected at midwinter.	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: The tiny, prettily marked skew bald Shetland pony pawed the ground in restless agitation.
Country Diary: Cromarty Colin Luckhurst: On my only previous visit to the Black Isle I was accommodated in a University of Aberdeen house near Muir of Ord from which, at breakfast time on a spring morning, I had the...	Country Diary: Strathnairn Ray Collier: The visit to the grove of aspen trees was to count them and make a sketch map to see if they would qualify for the new inventory of these trees covering the Highlands.
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Virginia Spiers: A narrow spiral stairway of granite steps rises to a cupboard-like door, opening on to the slated roof of Botus Fleming's church tower.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: The highest point of Mendip, at 316m above sea level, Beacon Batch commands the surrounding lowlands through all the points of the compass.
Country Diary: Ilkley, Yorkshire Mark Cocker: The trees were in their autumn beauty, the parkland paths were wet and the light had that sad, slightly opaque quality that only happens as the year dies.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Thankful for my waterproof clothing on the open deck of the boat from the town of sea houses to watch wildlife on the Farne Islands, the skipper gave us a running commentary on the...
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: There are no weasels in Ireland. This seems to be a sweeping statement, but of course I refer to our wildlife.	Country Diary: Wen lock Edge Paul Evans:
Country Diary: Bradfield Dale Roger Redfern: A cold, northerly blast at the end of last month brought an early sign of the advancing season.	Country Diary: Tetbury Colin Luckhurst: I was delighted to learn, from a recently delivered regional news update for the West Country from the RSPB, that its work to safeguard the future of the UK's rarest farmland bird...
Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: Crimes against wildlife are now so prevalent in various parts of the country that incidents are reported almost every week in the media.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Beautiful days with random acts of violence.
Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: A booklet called Walks around Cheddar turned up at the bottom of a pile and drew us towards what the author, Paul Macnab, regards as the outstanding geographical feature not just of...	Flush America is too comfortable, get off the pot...
Country Diary: Combs Edge, Derbyshire Mark Cocker: Suddenly from the last rowan on the hillside rose a long-winged, lean blackbird-like thrush with a call that sounded like stone upon stone.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: After a wet summer, we have recently enjoyed several weeks of sunnier weather, and fungi have erupted; but, sadly, no edible mushrooms.
Country Diary: Wylam Phil Gates: Inspired by Jenny Uglow's biography of Thomas Bewick, we spent Saturday morning following in the engraver's footsteps along the banks of the Tyne, from Wylam to Newburn.	Country Diary: Northumberland Virginia Spiers: At the outset we stagger across Hexhamshire Common, buffeted by a south-west gale and accompanied by a shallow rainbow.
Country Diary: Bradfield Dale Roger Redfern: There's something alluring about the British countryside that spells magic to its natives - something, for them, that is quite absent elsewhere on earth.	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Late summer's colors are giving place to autumnal tints. The heath's purple sheen is being succeeded by shades of brown as heather flowers wither and bracken dies back.
Country Diary: Gloucestershire Colin Luckhurst: Here's good news on the nature conservation front.	Country Diary: Strathnairn Ray Collier: For the past few months road casualties along the half mile stretch of minor road between the house and Gask Burn have included toads, sometimes one or two a day.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: The hawk lands in a small tree.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: I went to revisit the local flock of Grey face Dart moor sheep on a warm, dry morning.
Country Diary: Norfolk Mark Cocker: Just as I was pouring the coffee I spotted it - a strange, hunched presence on the lawn that immediately had me dashing for the telescope and tripod.	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: The herd of Chillingham wild white cattle are the sole survivors of their species to remain purebred.
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: They came in a pack, the thieves, stealing everything they deemed to be of value.	Country Diary: Wen lock Edge Paul Evans: If the Wrekin were a ship and not a mountain, the Little Hill at its southern end would be the prow, cutting through the line of the Stretton Fault towards the hills of south Shropshire.
Country Diary: Brad field Dale Roger Redfern: This deep valley of north-eastern Peak land seems to be slumbering just now, resigned to the fate of autumn's onset: earlier sundowns, few birds singing, the moorland rills almost...	Country Diary: Finistère Colin Luckhurst: The Azores high edged into the continental landmass and gave us a period of splendid late summer weather of sunlight, warmth, and light winds.
Country Diary: Dundonell Ray Collier: It seemed a long way to go to see a single tree but it is a very special tree, the famous Dundonnell yew.	Country Diary: Dorset Virginia Spiers: Fresh green tendrils and silky flowers of traveler's joy overgrow elderberries, sloes and buddleia in the valley bottom leading towards the Purbeck coast.
Country Diary: Dorset John Vallins: The great park of the Stock Gaylard estate near the village of King's Stag in Dorset is dotted with venerable trees.	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: The most recent modification to our garden's architecture is a small plywood circle fitted into a wooden plinth beneath the lilac tree.
Country Diary : Northumberland Veronica Heath: Swifts and swallows are busy sweeping over my lawn, constantly returning to their old clay nests in the eaves of this house, where they must by now have hatched a second brood.	A Delicious Bit of Intrigue Please rate and vote on my work...
Country Diary: Northumberland Phil Gates: Like many others, we headed for the beach on the bank holiday, so we had to pick our way through the sunbathers, beach-cricket players and kite fliers who had been driven on to a...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: I'm sitting, lolling really, in a tree. It stands in an old hedge-line on top of a small bank that may have been raised during the middle ages, perhaps earlier. On my side of the hedge...
Country Diary: Bradfield Dale Roger Redfern: The stiff westerly breeze maintained a lovely freshness despite brilliant sunshine in a cloudless sky.	Country Diary: New Forest Graham Long: Two colors predominate across the forest at this time of year, pushing greens and browns into the background.
Country Diary: Gloucestershire Colin Luckhurst: The public footpath from Tetbury to Westonbirt, a distance of about four miles, fringes the western side of the Highgrove estate. We often use a stretch of this for an afternoon...	Country Diary: Highlands Ray Collier: Before refrigeration, the food for most people was seasonal, although some food could be kept if dried, salted or pickled. A wider variety of food was available to the rich because of...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: I've just come back from camping in what the sculptor Barbara Hepworth called "the pagan landscape between Penzance and Land's End".	The Gods Universal!!! Is God real??
Peace by 2027 A serious plan....	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: I was late arriving at the Pen Selwood horse show and the loudspeaker was already announcing an early prizewinner:
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Mark Cocker: On the face of it, the poplar hawkmoth might seem an uninspiring little creature. Aside from a tiny triangle of fox red on the underwing, it's almost entirely different shades of grey....	Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Weeks of wet weather last month has had a devastating effect on some soft fruits and vegetables, especially strawberries and potatoes.
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Sarah Poyntz: One of the best things about the Burren is the frequency with which we come upon small rock gardens.	Country Diary: Cornwall Virginia Spiers: Two miles upstream from Bude Haven a fisherman sits on the grassy wharf, overlooking water lilies and shielded by willows from the "Atlantic Highway" - the A39. Close by,...
Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Roger Redfern: In hot sunny weather, the Dane Valley, in south-western Peakland, can be very oppressive, with its dark, hanging woods and rank bankside flora.	Josh Dinnerman It is all about the relationship between Josh (Dinnerman) and me (Sunil) that starts from a wrong phone call.
Country Diary: Gloucestershire Colin Luckhurst: My last meeting with Matthew Oates, the National Trust's butterfly specialist, was in June last year when he took me to a south-facing combe on the edge of Rodborough Common to see...	Country Diary: Achvaneran Ray Collier: Wildlife mysteries are always intriguing, and perhaps even more so when they are on your doorstep and you see them every day. Several weeks ago the swifts turned up again and each day...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Paul Evans: Whatever the calendar says, it feels like autumn. The nights and early mornings have that chill, the day's sunshine has a clear, clean brightness and the air has a delicious autumnal edge.	Country Diary: Somerset John Vallins: The whaleback outline of Creech Hill, crested with two copses, forms the backdrop to life in the town of Bruton, but when we headed north towards Batcombe that familiar outline was...
Country Diary: North Ronaldsay Mark Cocker: This tiny spot of flower-rich pasture, low-slung stone farmhouses and rocky shoreline is the most northerly of the Orkney archipelago and has to be one of the most atmospheric islands...	I Need Your Opinion Really…may be its not an important matter to you but it’s necessary for me so I am waiting for your comment because also its my first trying to write.
Country Diary: Northumberland Veronica Heath: Fifty years ago, hen harriers were not uncommon in this county. I remember accompanying my father in the north Tyne valley, the Simonside hills and on Longframlington moor to record...	He Brings Me A Lot Of Pain And Trouble I fell in love with him and he made me change, and he changed everything around me…
Country Diary: Derwent Valley, Gateshead Phil Gates: When we arrived, the red kite was no more than a dot on the southern horizon. It circled closer and finally made a slow fly-past in front of the small group gathered around the Kite...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge A sighting of the serpent is always exciting but this time it brings real drama to a quiet summer afternoon. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Langsett From the heather beds atop Hartcliff I looked out to the north to see a wide sky filled with languid rolls of steel grey cloud, not a speck of blue peeping through or a single sunbeam slanting down...	Country Diary: New Forest With low-hanging grey skies, Anses Wood on the slopes below Cadman's Pool had an oppressive air. By Graham Long
Country Diary: Gloucestershire An unremitting media focus on the flooding in Gloucester center and Tewkesbury has resulted in a flood of telephone, email and personal queries on our health, fitness and survival in this unusual...	Country Diary: Achvaneran Wildlife - such as insects, mice and occasionally birds - frequently comes into our house from the strath, but sometimes it is different. By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Somerset News of floods covering whole stretches of the country, cutting off transport and disrupting thousands of lives gave a new perspective to a conversation I had already had about the effect of June's...	Country Diary: Ring of Brodgar, Orkney It comprises just 21 free-standing stones, yet it vies with the 5,000-year-old Neolithic village at Skara Brae or even Kirkwall's St Magnus Cathedral as the most celebrated structure in this...
Country Diary: Northumberland This is a county where there are castles, pele towers, old bastle buildings (fortified farmhouses) and miles of dry-stone walls stretching up steep hills and down into some of the wild valleys. By...	Don't Hurt My Feelings or: Those who say that they are not politically correct in fact are…
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland During the recent rainy season I decided to take a quick walk up our back road, beyond Cappanawalla Mountain. By Sarah Poyntz	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge On a bright, sunny day, the flowery rough of woodland edge and uncultivated fields are full of butterflies which have managed to survive the monsoons. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: North Derbyshire It was a surprising afternoon, all the more remarkable for its brilliant sunlight punctuated by the iridescence of towering cumulus clouds after days of sullen grey and slanting showers. By Roger...	Country Diary: Finistere Memory tells me that steam locomotives could only manage gradients that did not exceed 1:88. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Highlands The man with the metal detector - they call themselves "detectorists" these days - found a flat piece of metal in a field. By Ray Collier	The Man who Lost Everything This article is about a true person who had learned a life lesson the hard way and it ends up causing him his life.
Country Diary: Somerset News stories had told of thousands of homes flooded in the north, and of 40 families made homeless in Gloucester. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk This month I made my maiden voyage into the pleasures of the moth trap. Basically, it involves a wooden box crowned by a bright light. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland The damp summer has been beneficial to our small kitchen garden, although weeds in the flower borders have flourished and are keeping me busy. By Veronica Heath	I Had A Dream It was pretty funny. It had nothing to do with tea parties.
Country Diary: Weardale It was the largest collection of fairy bonnets that we had ever seen. Row upon row, tier upon tier of conical toadstool caps, each about the size of a thumbnail, smothering a rotten tree stump. By...	Dear Pyramid, thou art out ! As an Egyptian, I was heartbroken to know that the Great Pyramid of Giza is now out of the seven wonders list. I am not writing this to whine or protest, I am just
Hate Emos Read This This is a poem that I found and it made me cry so I thought that I would put this on the website because everyone should have the right to live their life the way they want to…	Country Diary: New Forest Nearly 2000 years ago, the naturalist JL Knapp, writing from Gloucestershire, noted that different nature lovers will have similar ideas but the varying times and places of their observations will...
So Distant Take it for yourself...	Country Diary: Finistere A couple of days before leaving for the Breton fastness I thought it sensible to collect and freeze the soft fruit available at this early point in the season. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Foyers Ever since the Highlands began to attract tourists in the 18th century this village on the edge of Loch Ness, 19 miles south west of Inverness, has had many visitors. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Apart from the wheezing scream of a few swifts racing with inspiring recklessness over the rooftops and the treacly-thick deep green of the vegetation, it's hard to believe this is summer and the...
Country Diary: Dorset It was well before the deluge, but already, at the summer solstice, a grey morning looked unpromising for the enthusiasts assembling at Stonehenge, Glastonbury and Avebury, while we set off to visit...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Don't you think it strange how, once we're put in control of a lawnmower, we instantly become a devotee of the Greek deity Apollo? By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland The recent heavy rain has had a serious effect on wildlife. Last week, I found that two muddy clay nests had finally collapsed from under the eaves of this old house, where swifts and house martins...	Belief A brief compilation of my thoughts on belief…
Country Diary: The Burran, Ireland I am somewhat wary of butterflies and moths. This wariness originated in upstate New York while following an Indian trail. I reported my sighting to Mary Ann of a butterfly, "large, wide...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Rain beats on the roof above me. Rain races down the windows. The wind is getting up again and trees sway wildly, hissing in the downpour. By Paul Evans
Native Americans to me. . . I am part Native American and I would like to tell you how much I am proud of it.	I Hate That Stupid Dog! The thing bit my cats leg and now shes in the hospital!
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Walking down a narrow green lane near home the other evening my eyes fell upon a mass of common horsetail (Equisetum arvense) that covered the ground falling away to dark shadow, and that quite...	Country Diary: Wiltshire The National Trust has had Lacock Abbey since 1946, when Matilda Talbot, the lineal descendant of William Fox Talbot, photographic pioneer and all round Victorian good egg, gifted the estate and...
Country Diary: Gask Burn My daily walk from the house to Gask Burn and back with the two miniature dachshunds, Sgeir and Jilly, is only just over a mile but there is always something to see. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Cornwall Orchids, growing with yellow rattle, survive in a meadow beneath Hingston Down, uphill from Cotehele valley where woodland glades are thick with regenerated foxgloves. By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Somerset We joined a large and attentive crowd at the Bath and West show to watch the farrier making horseshoes - his craft is much in demand in this horse-riding country. Four patient horses stood in a row....	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk In the Yare valley the only thing to break the absolute flatness of the marsh is the network of gates and upright posts, which give access to every field. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Early this month I walked along a track which sweeps down below the walls of Berwick Castle to meet the river Tweed from the hilltop above. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Wensleydale We set out early to walk the entire course of the river Bain, which is not as energetic an undertaking as it might sound: this is the shortest river in England, flowing two and half miles from...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge As I look down on the countryside from an airplane - something I usually curse for their noise and pollution - the landscapes blend senselessly one into another. By Paul Evans	I Love France Of course, I am part French and so there for I have a right to love it.
Country Diary: Longdendale It seems intolerable that we are soon to pass the longest day. The freedom of bright early dawns and sunlight well towards midnight imparts a feeling that we have all the time in the world. By Roger...	Why we still hate the Germans "The Polish hate the Germans more than our grandfathers who actually fought Hitler. The truth is that we will never live up to their heroism," writes Joseph Benson.
Country Diary: Sark, Channel Islands A jolting trailer ride makes easy the steep ascent from Maseline Harbour to the centre of this small island. From the top, flower-lined lanes fan out, enticing walkers to stop and admire both color...	Country Diary: Tetbury The ongoing BBC2 evening programme Springwatch sings a delightfully upbeat song on the status of wildlife in the UK, which is, I suppose, quite easy if you base consideration on an organic farm in...
Country Diary: Strathnairn In the last few years many trees have been felled in the strath so that people could sell off plots of land for building houses. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge What is it about water? When the weather is bad we grumble about it. When the weather is good we go looking for it. By Paul Evans
Is It Possible? A person being prostituted illegally on a porn site in a different country - without their knowledge and against their will.	Country Diary: Boscastle, Cornwall Just south of this now-famous village are the remains of several derelict mines. By Mark Cocker
Procrastination Postponement and waste of time...	Country Diary: Northumberland Last week I attended the annual general meeting of our county's branch of the Wildlife Trust, which is well supported here and has many enthusiastic volunteers. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland This morning I sat on our garden bench facing the stile that leads into our front field. This gives an excellent view of the bay, Ballyvaughan Bay within Galway Bay. By Sarah Poyntz	Country Diary: Cornwall At Helston's Furry Day, bluebells, prickly yellow gorse and greenery bedecked doorways and windows along the route of the traditional dances. By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Anglesey The long dry spell that lasted right through April certainly encouraged the maritime flora into early blooming. By Roger Redfern	Country: Finistere By way of underlining my not infrequent assertion that wildlife does rather better here than it does in most of the UK, I must tell you about a day which just preceded our return to the misty...
Why I Love Being Indian It rocks!	Country Diary: Strathnairn There are signs that the numbers of badgers in the Highlands are increasing despite suffering a heavy death toll on some main roads. Ray Collier
Why We Still Hate The British Army See, I am Indo-European. I have an interest in being Asian. I don’t like what the British did to India.	I Hate Being Irish! It sucks!
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Fat-bottomed clouds sail through a brightening sky and the swifts climb up to meet them. There are fewer swifts each year - screaming over the rooftops and flinging themselves from around the church...	My Future Through Tears I wrote this before 'Suddenly Over'...
Country Diary: Somerset For nearly three weeks, two red-legged partridges have been pottering about the garden. Wikipedia describes the red-legged partridge as a rotund bird which tends to run rather than fly. By John...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Buttercups. Even the name hints at luxury. One wonders also if the associations with cattle and milk - since they were so often the dominant flowers in cow pasture - were deliberate. By Mark Cocker
I Just Found Out, I’m Portuguese! The only problem is that I don’t know anything about Portugal.	Why We Still Hate The US Army You see, I have Native Norwegian ancestors who were in America at the time. They almost had to leave!
I Just Found Out, I’m Native! But I have NO idea what tribe I’m from!	Country Diary: Northumberland The herd of wild goats in the Cheviot hills and the border fells of Kielder Forest are believed to have begun under the aegis of the monks of Holy Island, who had a chapel at Memmerkirk in the heart...
Use The Mic When we are part of the problem we have to be aware, and make a transition into becoming part of the solution…	Country Diary: Weardale After the trudge down from the fell tops, we sank down wearily to eat our sandwiches among the dandelions. By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge It's raining; in fact it's monsooning down. It seems that April's showers, and March's and February's dyke-filling rain too, are all falling at once. Gutters are guttural, drains swill and the river...	Country Diary: Derbyshire The heavy showers that fell earlier this month brought to life the colours on the lanesides here on the flanks of the south Pennines. Crossing the valley fields, I passed banks of stitchwort, the...
Country Diary: New Forest From a distance the open heaths look without colour. The drying winds and unseasonal warmth have sucked the moisture out of them. By Graham Long	Country Diary: Finistere We arrived to find the arum lily by the front door in full flower with a backing of the bush fuschia with its scarlet bells. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Strathnairn There are 14 large nest boxes in the strath and, in the last few years, they have been occupied by a range of large-hole nesting birds. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Cornwall Seawards of Delabole's deep quarry, stunted trees of May blossom lean away from the coast, shading the ferny lane to Treligga. By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Dorset In February I wrote about Bradford Hollow, a sandstone tunnel on the edge of Yeovil. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Roaches Hall, Staffordshire The steep west-facing ridge of gritstone monoliths known as the Roaches is now a famous spot with walkers and climbers. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Years ago I inherited a Geordie proggy mat from my parents, and it lay in front of our Aga in the kitchen for 20 years until it finally succumbed to wear and tear from feet, children, dogs and...	Country Diary: The Burren and Achill Island, Ireland North we went to spend a few days on Achill Island (it is joined to the mainland). By Sarah Poyntz
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The morning breeze lifts a drifting sleet, not of snowflakes but fairies. These are millions of dandelion seeds, each with a pappus - a cluster of tiny feather sails - that catches the breeze and...	Country Diary: Southern Snowdonia Standing high above the Cardigan Bay coast, I looked at the brilliant promise of an April morning out across miles of scintillating aquamarine towards the pencil line of the Llyn peninsula. By Roger...
Looking for Missing Persons Finding missing people who may have been injured and unable to get help.	Country Diary: Gloucestershire Water conservation in terms of reservoir capacity has, historically, been predicated on the assumption that rain will fall at all stages of the year over most of the UK. By Colin Luckhurst
Terrorism A short write up…	Teens-N-Parents Synopsis of teens…
Country Diary: Loch Garten The scene from the RSPB hide could have been the same as last year, almost to the day, as the six-year-old female osprey sat contently on her nest. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Rain came hesitantly, reluctantly, but at least it came. After weeks and weeks of hot, dry weather, a coy shower or two has damped the dust down and sparkles on emerging foliage. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Somerset Like every country show I had been to, the Sunday morning bird auction was welcoming to all comers, though it was clear that this one was the gathering of a clan to which I was not qualified to...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk A broken pantile in the roof above my office means that each spring a pair of starlings uses it as a nest hole. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Our parish church, like thousands of others, is used for regular worship. For more than 800 years parishioners have been baptised, instructed, confirmed, married and buried here. By Veronica Heath	What Is Body? Body, Mind & Spirit excerpt from Bill Crimi's Basic Health and Fitness.
Country Diary: The Stang We sat on the soft, mossy carpet on the precipice of Hope Scar, sun on our backs, wind in our faces, with the Stang forest's regimented ranks of spruces below. Beyond lay fields and white-painted...	Identity Stolen Forged Identities…
Country Diary: Cornwall Although I have been indoors for most of Easter week, brief forays outside reveal a dry and sunny landscape. By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Though spring is now in full swing, certain features of former seasons are in ever shorter supply. By Roger Redfern
My Scared Memory This is another descriptive piece I would like you to read and comment…	My Happy Memory This is a memory which I would like you to read and comment…
Country Diary: New Forest With grey overcast sky and slight mistiness we set out mid-morning along the Ashley Walk. By Graham Long	Country Diary: Wiltshire The Malmesbury swans have moved. Who knows what drives humankind to up sticks and remove, and even more mysterious are the compulsions on wildlife. The swans have been a summertime entertainment for...
Country Diary: Isle of Skye How encouraging to see the latest initiative to get youngsters involved in wildlife coming from the International Otter Survival Fund, based on this island off the west coast of Scotland. By Ray...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The tractor ploughs downhill, too close, it seems to me, to a tall oak tree, a lone survivor of an ancient hedgeline which stands in the open field like an exclamation mark. By Paul Evans
Writers and Editors Notifying editors in a timely manner.	Country Diary: Somerset Walkers pass along the tracks and footpaths that cross a stretch of farmland by Carymoor below Castle Cary, where the river Cary and a tributary called Back Brook flow. By John Vallins
Country Diary: Norfolk It was so bright it could have been a flower at my feet. It was a rook's eggshell - a delicate green-blue wash overlain with brown markings, sparse at the broad "top" but intensifying into...	Toxic Gas Fumes I was affected by a poison gas from the underground.
Country Diary: Northumberland Although I am an enthusiastic cook, I do not attempt to bake my own bread. More of us might do so if we felt that it was a practical proposition and not a lengthy, mysterious process, demanding...	Country Diary: The Burren and Clew Bay On a two-day break up by Clew Bay in County Mayo we did a grand walk on an old railway track towards the foothills of the mountain, Croagh Patrick, with its high, rounded summit, the sun so...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The narrow path across a wheat field rises to a stile where the step has fallen off and the way through almost shouldered out by a hedge.	Country Diary: Anglesey It was a sort of pilgrimage. Since my friend Sir Kyffin William's death last September I had not been near the island's north-western corner, but now we came down the secret network of winding lanes...
Country Diary: Gloucestershire Livestock farmers know that there are certain key stages of the year when you need to get it right if the rest of the season is to yield a marketable result. By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Loch Ruthven This freshwater loch, about 12 miles south of Inverness, is the most important British site for breeding Slavonian grebes, and the reason for my visit last week was to see if the birds had arrived...
Country Diary: Cornwall Pyramids and plastic facepacks of creamy cauliflowers were interspersed with tiers of perfect camellia blooms at the 83rd West Cornwall Spring Show at Penzance, a week before the recent icy blast of...	Country Diary: Dorset The road between Wincanton and Sherborne passes between a variety of banks and hedges that divide it from fields on both sides which are mostly grazed by sheep. By John Vallins
Country Diary: Wayland, Norfolk Whenever I hear the term "ancient wood", I can't resist a mental picture of great-limbed veterans heavy with the years and widely spaced like old...By Mark Cocker	Veronica Heath: Northumberland I am saddened by the amount of litter I see which has been thrown from cars, and perhaps from a few cyclists, on to our country roadsides. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: Weardale One of the benefits of living in hill country is that it only takes a short walk up the fellside to extend the seasons. By Phil Gates	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge This has been a spring of moments, so far: the moment blackbirds began singing, way back in what should have been winter; the moment bumble...By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Derbyshire After a morning of heavy rain the clouds parted as our train shot south out of the south Pennine foothills to let late, low-angled sunshine light the gentle green valley. By Roger Redfern	Everlasting Gossip Stoppers If we can condition our mindset and attitude, we have won half the battle in the subject of gossip
Country Diary: New Forest The half-metre-high pile had three large pits dug into its surface. Each held a mass of teeming reddish-brown insects.	Country Diary: Gloucestershire The birdsong of spring, whether or not birds know that global warming is making things earlier, continues to be a delight. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Coignafearn There are many reasons why this part of Strathdearn is so fascinating. The river Findhorn is the dominant feature and, as I stood on the north bank last week...By Ray Collier	Costa del Sol Vacation Rentals Quiz Free Prize Draw Quiz. Your chance to win a copy of , "Rough Guide to Andalucia"
Country Diary: Southern Brazil Big and brown and powerful and lovely, the beetle from Ipanema goes walking, and no one it passes takes any notice of it at all. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: The Severn Somerset rivers tend to meander indecisively for much of their length across the flat central lowlands. By John Vallins
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk In our parish I usually know whenever a female sparrowhawk is passing overhead because she triggers a boiling clamour of rook calls and jackdaw ...By Mark Cocker	Country Diary: Northumberland Our sea coast is still very cold at this time of year, but I do enjoy a walk at one of our harbours where fishermen and ornithologists are already busy, preparing for a new season. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland He has such delightful curls on his forehead. He has taken up residence in the field next to ours. His offspring often lie beside him. By Sarah Poyntz	Country Diary: Tamar Valley Clear spells, between bouts of rain and wind, reveal the progression of the strengthening sun towards the equinox. By Virginia Spiers
Living Well is the Best Revenge This article is about an extraordinary divorce group that was led by a unique psychologist named Skylar Moon, and the moral of the story applies universally.	When Old times turn to new…
Country Diary: South Shropshire My Brazilian friend looked at a map and declared Ludlow too small a place to make an interesting base from which to explore the Welsh Marches. By Roger Redfern	If I Had The Power, The Things I Would Do Living in a fantasy and wishing if we ever had the power for one day, the things we would do and change.
Country Diary: Tetbury The publication last month of the National Trust report, Shifting Shores - living with a changing coastline, attracted a lot of attention and hit the spot for me. By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: River Nairn The rain was fine, almost mist-like, a speciality of the Highlands that ignores any waterproofs. By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge It is a bright, hopeful day with bursts of unusually warm sunshine and clear, still air. It is a day for preparation ...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Dorset Parkstone golf club has long preserved and nurtured a surviving stretch of heath and wetland hemmed in by residential suburbs and lying at sea level ...By John Vallins
As Simple as I Can This is a song that I wrote personally...	Country Diary: Lynford, Norfolk A friend of mine put it best: he said winter lasted about six hours where he lived. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Walking on Cragside moor, which lies above the river Coquet, I made my way to Moss Lake. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Weardale This is a restless, impatient time of year for field naturalists waiting for spring. By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge A pair of ravens flies south-west above the woods which plunge down from the Edge. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands The other morning I crossed Wetton Hill and Ecton Hill to climb up the oozing pastures towards Warslow, high on the slopes of these western uplands...By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: New Forest An obdurate pony blocking the road, and a pair of roe deer that sped down the mossy slope before pausing to study me, delayed my arrival at Castle Hill ...By Graham Long	Country Diary: Tetbury Fosse Way, the old Roman road which rides the limestone ridge for most of its distance from Exeter to Lincoln...By Colin Luckhurst
The Rag-Doll Boy Everything is boring. Everyday commuting is a pain. Everyday, the Rag-Doll boy is watching me. Until one day... the Rag-Doll boy moves.	Country Diary: Strathnairn The mystery of the red squirrels continues. This attractive mammal was reintroduced into the Highlands at the Beaufort estate, near Inverness...By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Tamar Valley A band of azure, streaked by condensation trails, overarches the gloomy rain-soaked land, momentarily lit by patches of sunlight. By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Somerset Despite a lovely, perpendicular church, buttressed and pinnacled, and some stately Georgian town houses, Yeovil is a country town better known for ...By John Vallins
"Am I In Love?" I think I’m over Phillip and ready to get back with someone special to me like my best friend, and now boyfriend Dan. Please comment…	Country Diary: Claxton As I left the house I had to sidestep a tortoiseshell butterfly sitting forlornly on our doormat. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland There is a bitter wind here, straight off the Cheviot hills, which have a covering of snow, although we still only have severe morning frosts. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland It was riding the air between two very high, snow-capped mountains, its great wings scarcely moving, its breast gold and bronze in the sun. By Sarah Poyntz
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Rooks file roostwards across a full moon rising in the north-east. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: North Derbyshire It seemed to me that global warming had been confirmed when I looked out the other morning to see a duck-billed platypus on the grass behind the...By Roger Redfern
Just A Thought (1): Sleepless "One rainy night….."	Country Diary: Finistare We were greeted, on our arrival at the Breton fastness, by mimosas on the lane in full flower. A glorious blaze of canary-yellow blossom against the dull ...By Colin Luckhurst:
Country Diary: Strathnairn The snow came last week and transformed the strath with the whiteness covering the lower ground, the hills and the woodland floor under the birch and rowan trees. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The gardens and backlands of Wenlock - full of snowdrops, hellebores and daffodils in full flower - are alive with the songs of robins. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Somerset Gusts of wind woke us by rattling our roof tiles and snapping branches off trees, but the storms did not strike this locality...By John Vallins	Mike and Patsy - the second installment... More zany adventures of Mike and Patsy...
Country Diary: Nkob, Morocco It's 28 years since I last visited this place, which is famous as the town with more kasbahs (fortified houses) than any other in the country. By Mark Cocker	A Future Through Tears Just something I wrote one night it's nothing special but I hope someone might enjoy it…
Country Diary: Warkworth Like many naturalists, I have a collector's instinct which, had I lived a century ago, probably would have manifested itself as drawers of ...By Phil Gates	Country Diary: Tamar Valley Downriver from the Hooe meander, exposed Thorn Point is strewn with seaweed, the strand littered with driftwood, cabbage leaves... By Virginia Spiers
Velvet Lips of a Vampire Aidan was the average girl and she had the normal life, until she became a rebel and met four guys that changed her life in more ways than they'll ever know.	Country Diary: Regent's Park Regent's Park may not be the heart of the country, but on a recent late afternoon my friend Rafael and I traversed the open spaces...By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: New Forest After days of leaden skies and heavy rain there was a dramatic change on Sunday. By Graham Long	Country Diary: Appleby-in-Westmorland The village of Hilton owes its solid construction to the lead mining that flourished here for centuries and left a building heritage which has since been almost completely gentrified. By Colin...
Country Diary: Highlands An unopposed last-minute amendment to the aquaculture and fisheries bill has been passed through the Scottish parliament, and ...By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge It was the damp, uniform grey that turned a string of days into a dismal institution. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Wiltshire Maiden Bradley is the traditional seat of the dukes of Somerset, but its community-owned village shop has to be briskly alive to modern needs and...By John Vallins	Country Diary: Cley-next-the-Sea As I sat in the famous Daukes hide at this even more famous Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve, I reflected that it was...By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland For hundreds of years men, and ponies, have been employed in coal pits and drift mines in this county. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Stormy weather and there I was, surrounded by frills, flounces, fringes and furbelows. By Sarah Poyntz
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Walking up the hogsback ridge of The Wrekin during the late afternoon, there was no indication that there might be a sunset. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Wortley After the endless gloom at the end of the year, New Year's Day dawned bright, the sky of palest duck-egg blue and punctuated with skeins of silky cloud ...By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: Gloucestershire As we returned late, from Oxford, a large dog fox walked slowly across the road just at the point where we were re-entering the county. By Colin Luckhurst	Ana & Mia go to school A satirical, fictitious glance into the world of two stereotypical teenagers of today. Submitted for my GCSE English coursework, I thought I’d share it with you.
Country Diary: Dores Signs of spring take a long time coming in the Highlands but this year has been different as the silver male catkin buds...By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Cornwall In prevailing dullness, soft mosses glow bright green against the leaf mould in Bowdanoddon wood, on the sheltered eastern flank of...
Country Diary: The Otway Ranges, Australia We had planned to travel some 300km north-east of Melbourne to Mount Buffalo, but the...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk At dusk it was the murder scene in the woods that got me ...
Country Diary: Northumberland I slowed down and I was looking at a buzzard. I was surprised, because the last one I saw was...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Co Durham With the winter solstice so recent, there was no need to get out of bed early to watch this morning's sunrise. By Phil Gates
Stopping horse slaughter Between 65,000 and 100,000 horses are slaughtered in the United States each year. In Canada the number is around 62,000. Most of the meat processed is sold for human consumption in Europe and Asia....	The greenest cars Honda and Toyota models led the pack as the world s greenest automobiles for 2006. Pictured here is the Toyota hybrid Prius.
Rainforest medicinals Logging in rainforests, along with other destructive commercial activities, render some 137 species of plants and animals extinct every day. As rainforest species continue to disappear, so will many...	Versatile and green-friendly hemp The Declaration of Independence and the first American flag were both made from hemp, a plant that is now illegal to grow in the United States because, though smoking it cannot get you "high...
Avoiding toxic hair care products Ecocolors hair dye is made with a soy and flax base, and uses rosemary extract as a hair conditioner.	Is hydrogen safe? The cause of the Hindenburg accident was not hydrogen but an electrostatic charge that ignited the blimp’s highly flammable waterproof skin, made from a mixture of lacquer and metal-based paints...
The perils of outdoor wood furnace boilers Wood smoke is a complex mixture of carbon monoxide and other organic gases, particulate matter, chemicals and some inorganic gases. Some of these compounds, such as aldehydes and phenols, are toxic,...	Finding green-friendly holiday gifts A number of online merchants offer green-friendly items for the holidays--from clothes, bed-and-bath and organic baby products, to food, the latest books and "gifts that give back" such as...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Fog, frost and fox is an exciting mixture for the senses...	Country Diary: New Forest The pigs were a surprise. Two large rich-brown beasts were snout deep in the ditch, sifting through the decaying leaves in search of acorns. By Graham Long
Country Diary Day temperatures scarcely rise a couple of degrees above freezing as I take my regular bike ride, an eight-mile circuit over quiet lanes...By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Loch Farr The loch lies a few miles south of Inverness and is in the bottom of an amphitheatre formed by surrounding woodland and the snow-capped...By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Somerset Sturminster Newton's cattle market used to be one of the largest in the country. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Norfolk Whenever I go down to the Yare, I always make for the same spot: the red-brick block which houses the only water pump on these levels and the one ...By Mark Cocker
Wake up Call! This article challenges individuals to wake up to the reality that life is passing them by, more quickly than they realize. It asks a couple of pointed questions.	Country Diary: Northumberland Barn owls used to be resident in my parish, both in the church tower, and in a disused barn attached to farm buildings. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Up we went, the first 15 minutes of our climb being the most difficult - it seemed almost vertical to me! By Sarah Poyntz	Country Diary: Tamar Valley Gushing springs and turbulent water converge towards the tidal river. Fields are waterlogged and streams have burst their banks...By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Salford Looking out from my friend's ninth floor flat in the dead of night, I could have been in any of dozens of great world cities. By Roger Redfern	Country Diary: Pembrokeshire The annual conference of the West Portholland Literary and Philosophical Society (corresponding members in all parts) was held this autumn far from ...By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Highlands Once you get known as a naturalist, then people ask you to identify things, and this can be by descriptions or by bodies. Descriptions are difficult as people see things in different ways. By Ray...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Under cover of darkness, a gale heaves over the hills and comes crashing through, ramming up the vales, screaming through the trees. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Dorset I went down towards Bulbarrow to a dairy farm worked by Nick Tuke, a young county tenant farmer, and his wife, Marilyn, with one helper on one day a week. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Wheatacre, Norfolk Beyond the A143 to Yarmouth is a spur of "upland" - a relative term, since it's no more than 20 metres high - bounded to the south, north and east by a long snaking bend of the river...
Country Diary: Northumberland After a mild autumn, winter is now on its way here; local bird tables are being replenished, but avian guests have been slow in coming forward. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Weardale Just when it seemed that this mild autumn might never end, a sudden drop in temperature dusted the fell tops with snow, delivering a reminder of colder months to come. By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge After days of callow weather slinking around the hills, and rain to make people stoop but rivers surge, the threats of storms came to nowt and the sun came out. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: North-east Cheshire To someone like me who follows form, the recent death of Desert Orchid is a great sadness. By Roger Redfern
Internet citizenship is being sold on eBay Have you heard something about Internet Citizenship? It appears that you can buy it now on eBay auction.	Unbeatable, Money-Making Features Get Rich Quick Scams Revealed. Read this article before you consider paying for a "get rich quick" program.
Country Diary: New Forest The ponies are looking good. The prominent ribbiness at last winter's end held on, for some, well into the summer.	Country Diary: Exmoor I will not be surprised if it has, so far, escaped your attention that this is national tree week. The Tree Council and the National Trust, acting in concert, identified 10 of the best properties...
Country Diary: Farr Several years ago there were only two thatched cottages left in the village, and both were covered with corrugated iron sheets. By Ray Collier	Which is faster texting? Do you prefer T9 or ABC?
Country Diary: Peak District On the limestone and millstone grit and at home, on shale and granite, fields are still green, vivid against late autumn colours. By Virginia Vallins	Country Diary: Somerset Thomas Hardy's poem, In Time of "The Breaking of Nations", pictures "a man harrowing clods" in the Wessex landscape, apparently untouched by international conflict. By John Vallins
Doing without flame retardants Fire-retardant chemicals can easily "off-gas" from the very products -- like kids pajamas -- that they are designed to make safe.	Individual actions to help stop global warming A walk to the store will do you good--while keeping climate-altering greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.
Save the Environment: Support your local Carwash Washing our cars in our driveways sends gasoline, oil and residues from exhaust fumes into rivers, streams, creeks and wetlands where it poisons aquatic life and wreaks other ecosystem havoc.	Sugary soda pop and healthier alternatives Over the past 16 years, the amount of sugar in American diets has increased by 28 percent, with about a third of it coming from soft drinks.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk It was a shaft of light that showed the way. A pinhole in the cloud let through one intense beam that fired down across the fields and into the ragged canopy. By Mark Cocker	Country Diary: Northumberland Both my grandparents died of flu in the 1920s within months of one another, and I have always been aware of the seriousness of this virus. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Au revoir the Burren. Such variety of landscape in a drive of less than two hours! We went from our limestone, karst Burren to the richer farmlands of south Galway, past the great Lough Corrib ...By...	Defining "Not tested on animals" Testing of chemicals and consumer products accounts for roughly 10 to 20 percent of the use of animals in laboratories (or approximately two to four million animals yearly) in the U.S.
Under-inflated tires add to pollution, waste energy and increase fuel costs Vehicles running on soft tires contribute nearly 3,000 extra pounds of carbon dioxide to the environment annually.	Country Diary: Langsett "By gum, water's low still," observed the elderly walker as we passed on the impounding wall of Langsett reservoir, largest of the dams formerly owned by the Sheffield Development...
Country Diary: The Tetbury Owl Here's a one-off natural history event, unlikely to be repeated, but memorable. By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Highlands The AGM of the Highland branch of Butterfly Conservation was recently held in Inverness and featured much unusual, excited small-talk about the summer. For this was the "year of butterflies and...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Sunny days, clear skies, a full moon, the white breath of frost: this is becoming a classic autumn. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Somerset We set out to explore nearby remnants of the forest of Selwood, once a great tract of wood and scrub some 50 miles long and 10 miles wide. By John Vallins
Country Diary: Newton Point The gently rolling swell off the Northumberland coast was deceptive - just enough to create a few treacherous, larger-than-usual waves on the incoming tide. By Phil Gates	Waste-to-Energy" plants Waste-to-energy power plants are a mixed blessing. They get rid of our garbage and provide electricity in the process. But they also generate toxic pollution, usually as a result of burning vinyl...
Healthy Home Improvements Hundreds of websites offer tips on environmentally friendly building and repair. For less handy homeowners, a referral from the Natural Handyman Network can set you on your way to a healthier and...	Country Diary: Cornwall Traditional dances, of the furry, or serpent's coil or scoot variety, and an early fiddle or "crowd" (its design copied from a carved bench end) are featured at the Gorsedd open day at...
Country Diary: Wortley Sir Roy Strong's recent memory of driving in a Land Rover with the Queen Mother on the Long Walk in Windsor Great Park when everyone else was ...By Roger Redfern	Country Diary: New Forest In autumn the forest can look stunning. After several days of heavy rain it just looks sodden. Roads are crossed with drifts of gravel.
Country Diary: Tetbury Yesterday, I received an extract from the 2005 Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology and Natural History Society, titled A Late-Medieval Screen Fragment from Glastonbury Abbey, that immediately...	Country Diary: Dalarossie Strathdearn: Tucked away on the banks of a broad bend on the river Findhorn, south of Inverness, is Dalarossie church and churchyard. By Ray Collier
Country Diary: West Penwith We are back from a week in the far west - high above Sennen Cove and a short walk across windswept clifftops from Land's End, with a wide view of Atlantic weather racing in towards the striking...	"Carbon sequestration" and global warming What's better, capturing and "sequestering" carbon emitted by smokestacks like this one, or eliminating the pollution in the first place?
Radio and microwave frequencies from cell phones and other sources The jury is still out as to whether -- or how much -- radio and microwave frequencies from cell phones and other sources may negatively impact human health.	Home canning Home-canned foods like these tomatoes will last for years without refrigeration, while retaining the same taste and vitamin content as the day they were harvested.
Debt for Nature Swaps Debt-for-Nature swaps seek to preserve critical environmental areas around the world, especially forests like this one being cut in the Philippines.	Poetry Contest Modest prizes with free publication to the top 13 authors $250, $125, $75
Country Diary: Northumberland It has been a prolific year for garden vegetables, as well as apples and blackberries, and our church will benefit at harvest festival. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland I was sitting on a stone in the little deserted village of Formoyle, above the Caher river in Lochrann, known locally as the Khyber Pass. The village was abandoned in 1848 during the great famine.
Country Diary: Upper Dove Valley The season for sheep sales is upon us. At traditional venues throughout sheep country, surplus animals are arriving at what has long been a combination of commercial and social events. By Roger...	Country Diary: Ilminster Barrington Court, a splendid Tudor manor house, is celebrating 100 years as a National Trust property by creating a centenary cider for 2007. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Highlands There were rumours that the tallest tree in Britain was a Douglas fir, and initially there were two contenders from these non-native trees. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Tamar valley High water floods across Cotehele Quay, enabling a kayaker to float out of the boatyard before paddling up the calm river. By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Somerset The two finest houses in our village are the Manor and the Grange. The Grange was built in 1686 as a rectory for Thomas Wickham, the first of a line of Wickham rectors that lasted for 211 years. By...	DDT is back - fighting malaria - but is there a better way? The Bald Eagle was nearly extinct in the lower 48 U.S. states by the middle of the 20th century, pushed to the brink by its sensitivity to DDT.
Nail Polish Dangers Conventional nail polishes contain a veritable witch's brew of chemicals, but safe, non-toxic alternatives are available.	Country Diary: Winterton, Norfolk For most birders a creature like the pallid harrier has it all. It's a medium-sized bird of prey, long and rangy in both wing and tail. By Mark Cocker
Golden Memories of My Grandfather My grandfather was the finest man I knew, and this memory of him shows his character at its best.	Country Diary: Aberystwyth Drifts of dry beech leaves from last autumn still edged the stone steps in the woods above Llangorwen...
Country Diary: Northumberland Craster kippers are the taste of the sea and, for over a hundred years, four generations of the Robson family have been smoking them in the small harbour village of Craster on our north-east coast....	Country Diary: Teesdale We have an optimistic mantra for summoning enthusiasm for a walk on grey days like today, when rivulets of rain snake down the window, that goes "it can't be as bad as it looks out there"...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge October begins brown, not so much a colour as a mood: something soft and earthy. By Paul Evans	Solar hot water heaters Ahhh...a nice clean shower -- and so much more so with solar-heated hot water.
Autumn leaf burning "Why burn leaves? They're so much fun!"	Country Dairy: Wortley South Yorkshire may be associated with motorways, abandoned collieries and industrial estates but that's only one chapter of the story. By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: New Forest For the poet, autumn and her fruits presage decay and death. Well, maybe, but for the creatures of the forest they are the harbinger of strength for winter's worst.	Country Diary: Gloucestershire Chedworth Roman villa, a Romano-British structure, lies in the Cotswolds north-west of Cirencester. It is the National Trust's oldest stately home, dating from the fourth century. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Achvaneran It is a strange and moving feeling picking and eating apples off a tree I planted myself in the garden about 18 years ago. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The roads are littered with the carcasses of pheasants, in varying degrees of flatness. In some places there are so many, the roads look like they will soon be paved with dead birds who had yet to...
Country Diary: Dorset On a Monday evening we visited the Gaggle of Geese, a pub tucked away in the Dorset village of Buckland Newton. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Woodwalter Fen The Great Fen project is one of the most important environmental schemes ever launched in the UK. Wildlife Trusts, English Nature, Huntingdon district. By Mark Cocker
Wal-Mart's environmental legacy and commitment Wal-Mart's new green commitment includes powering facilities and fleet with renewable energy, cutting back on waste and selling green products, including organic produce, sustainably harvested fish...	Defining and protecting wetlands The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines wetlands as "lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development and the types of plant and...
Mad Cow Disease and Alzheimer's -- Is there a connection? Some scientists believe that the infectious ?prion? proteins that cause Mad Cow Disease and its brain-wasting human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), could be a factor in the substantial...	Eliminating kids' school lunch waste A typical American school kid generates 67 pounds of discarded lunch box packaging waste per school year. That?s more than 18,000 pounds yearly for the average sized elementary school.
Country Diary: Northumberland For many countrymen, and a few women, fishing is a relaxing pastime, active and passive at the same time, and there is always the chance of a tug on the line. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Visitors often exclaim and indeed tourist brochures confirm their first impression of our Burren: "It is a lunar landscape." Well, I've never been on the moon but, if I remember accurately...
As You Wish Love Lost..I have run out of ways to express the way I feel about you. Even though I know you don't feel the same for me..	Country Diary: Anglesey With the recent death of my friend, Sir Kyffin Williams, Wales has lost probably its greatest artist and eminent ambassador for the mountains and coastlands. By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: Finistere Here's an avian success story to hold up against the more usual accounts of the retreat of the natural world. By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Strathnairn Red deer stags are now preparing for the rut and the ritual of bluff and double bluff will once again take place in the straths, glens and high tops. By Ray Collier
The University of Love An attempt to understand such an illusive concept.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge On sharp sunny days like this the lure of the sea is irresistible and half of Shropshire and the West Midlands decamps for the nearest stretch of coast in Wales: Barmouth. By Paul Evans
Love: How Can a Four-Letter Word Be So Complicated? Again, I was feeling contemplative and decided to share some of my thoughts on the subject of love.	Country Diary: Somerset It was one of our district council's "Health Walks" that led us to Pill Bridge, near Ilchester, an ancient stone structure spanning the river Yeo and leading, it seemed, to nowhere in...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk I stood by the sandy hollow, the sunlight of late afternoon seeming to enhance all the colours in its soft orange glow. By Mark Cocker	Country Diary: Northumberland A stone wall separates the churchyard and our field, and from my bedroom window I occasionally see wildlife, especially when rabbits are abundant. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: Alston We spent the morning following footpaths across high pastures, chased by shadows cast by patchy rain clouds that trailed showers from their ragged edges. By Phil Gates	Healthy and green-friendly flooring and wall coverings A smorgasbord of irritating chemicals and compounds can "off-gas" from carpets, wallpapers and paints, wreaking havoc for people -- especially children -- with respiratory issues."
Global warming and the spread of disease Climate change accelerates the spread of disease in part because warmer global temperatures enlarge the geographic range in which disease-carrying insects, like this mosquito, can survive.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Although cooler and damper, there is a real challenging in the air, gusts of windy energy powering across the sky and a kind of daring at play in the landscape. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Adelboden, Switzerland The Otterrepass is the key to crossing the high watershed between the Engstligental (Adelboden's valley) and the unfrequented Fildrich valley to the west. By Roger Redfern	"Back To The Garden" Marriage Conference 2006 Free marriage conference. Space limited. Must register to attend.
Country Diary: New Forest To some visitors, the forest is puzzling. They expect to find the whole area intensely wooded, unaware that the word originally meant an area of land, wild, uncultivated and largely treed. By Graham...	Love As An Attacker My thoughts on love (unprovoked, not sought after)
Zazzle! Articles offering; poetry items too; orderings upon these, poetry sites of; (Example: Dr. Gwendolyn Louise Evans-Gambino, Poetry-Lines.)	Country Diary: Strathnairn The rowan trees in the strath are now drooping under the weight of the dense, flat clusters of berries that vary in colour from a rich orange red to dull red. By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Dark red, aromatic Rackydown and primrose yellow Rattler apples are ripe for juicing and this year there are enough to take down to Derek's press and pasteurising unit near Halton Quay. By Virginia...	Country Diary: Norwich Sometimes naturalists have to wait many years for fulfilment. My friend is a classic example. By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Butterflies have been a delight in the garden this summer: peacock, red admiral, small coppers, and cabbage whites. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge A great bough, broken off in the storm a few days ago, has left a livid white scar on the ash tree above...By Paul Evans
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland I could scarcely believe my eyes but there it was resting on a long grass blade by Lough Murree, close to the sea at the Flaggy Shore. By Sarah Poyntz	Paperless bill paying Receiving paper bills and paying them with paper checks may soon become as passe as getting up from your chair to change the TV channel.
Beach pollution Beach pollution is not healthy for children and other living things.	Country Diary: Adelboden High summer in the high alps in Switzerland - and what a summer. One hot, sunlit day follows another to be punctuated on most afternoons by a heavy shower. By Roger Redfern
Jeebus This is a poem with no point, I just made it for the poll…	Country Diary: The Gower Peninsula The last response to my small survey of common lizard populations came from a lady reporting from the beachhead above the sweep of Rhossili strand. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Strathnairn There are more rabbits this year in the strath than anyone can remember for a decade or more and they have been causing havoc in gardens. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The countryside shakes out the green and gold of its August flag against a grey sky. It's not just the weather that has changed. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Somerset If you step across the main road from the White Horse Inn into South Cheriton village street, which slopes down towards what we call the marsh, the first significant building you come to bears the...	This August For this August and any other to come…, that’s how I am…
Country Diary: Peloponnese, Greece Bug-eyed, its squat, half-egg abdomen like a rattlesnake's tail, and its long wings with tea-coloured veins like a diaphanous tent over the body, the cicada looks straight out of a Gothic horror.	Escaping fear...so it won't control you! Ever had your fears overtake you? Here's what I did...
Country Diary: Brecon Beacons The overnight rain at Llangors had soaked the tight-cropped grass and the bracken, but below the turf, in the eroded hollows where the sheep shelter in bad weather, the shallow rocky soil was still...	Air quality during heat waves Air pollution "cooking" in the heat and hot sun during heat waves can knock asthma sufferers for a loop.
Child mortality causes and solutions Children in developing countries struggle to survive in the face of water pollution and scarcity, lack of basic sanitation and poor nutrition.	Country Diary: Northumberland The herbaceous borders are blooming with flowers, a cheerful sight as I sit writing at the window, and the small vegetable patch is full now of ripe courgettes, lettuces and various bean varieties....
Country Diary: South Yorkshire Take a look at a road atlas of the area around the head of the river Humber, east of the junction of the M18 and M180, and you'll notice a strange emptiness. By Phil Gates	Country Diary: Tamar Valley The 10.30 train leaving Calstock for Plymouth glides into Devon across the viaduct over the Tamar, high over tidal water and purple flowering reeds. By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: East Cheshire Hills The giant telecoms tower on the summit of Sutton Common has dominated this magnificent hill country since 1958. By Roger Redfern	Thirsty India reviles Coca-Cola Obtaining water is difficult enough for India's rural poor with bottlers like Coca-Cola draining the aquifers dry to produce commercial beverages.
Global warming's real and present impacts Maple syrup on your morning pancakes may become just a distant memory if global warming's impact on seasonal harvesting cycles persists.	Too Far To someone, somewhat, or something ... I miss so much!
Country Diary: New Forest The grass in the pasture woodlands is still refreshingly green but the ground feels thirsty. By Graham Long	Country Diary: Peeblesshire Readers blessed with retentive memories will, I imagine, recall that for a happy decade until the early 1980s my diary came from this location high in the Scottish Borders. By Colin Luckhurst
Forgotten Warriors A brief glimpse into the life of an everyday hero...	Country Diary: Moray The sea was calm at Burghead but there was enough movement to surge waves on to the rocky shoreline and it was good to hear the sound again. By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The heatwave did not break with a long-expected storm here. There was no thunderous fanfare and electric flashes of brilliance to mark the end of the hottest July on record, no cathartic downpour...	Electric dryers vs. paper towels in the public washroom Most experts would agree that wall-mounted electric hand dryers are preferable to paper towels from an environmental standpoint.
Defining "sustainable" "Sustainable," quite simply, is the positive result of conducting economic, social or environmental activities in such a way that current needs are met without compromising the well-being...	Country Diary: Somerset When we visited Woodspring Priory near the coast beyond Weston, we read that in 1317 a friar of the Augustinian community there, one Thomas Taverner, had been found to have behaved badly in the...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk It's been a standard experience recently to go down for breakfast and, on opening a jar of honey or jam, to find that black ants have been there already...By Mark Cocker	Country Diary: Northumberland Midsummer in Whalton village where I live is still celebrated this month with dancing and feasting. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland Our walk began badly. We came upon visitors who were dismantling one of the glories of our Burren - a stone wall, a normal single wall. The stones were being loaded into a car. By Sarah Poyntz	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge I'm writing this with a pencil dipped in blood, not through any appeal to the dark arts to aid my writing - although that might help - but because of a herpetological encounter. By Paul Evans
Multi-level marketing companies that focus on environmentally friendly products? Back in the 1950s, Amway and a handful of other consumer products companies first pioneered the concept of "multi-level marketing" (MLM). In this business model, individuals act as...	What ever happened to the purely electric cars that were around 10 years ago? The main problem with the electric cars that reared their heads briefly a decade ago was their ability to only go so far on battery power. Charges lasted just 50 miles or so, so you were in trouble...
Country Diary: Upper Derwent Dale My old friend Stephen Sampson is two years short of his century and has the memory of a 20-year-old. The other day he was recounting the way of life in this high country where the Derwent has its...	Country Diary: Tetbury Last month I asked readers to tell me if they had lizard populations where they lived. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Highlands The Highland Bird Report 2004, which covers some of the finest areas of wilderness in Britain, ranging from north-west Sutherland to Skye and Lochaber, has been worth waiting for. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: South Hams Clumps of yellow horned poppies grow on top of the shingle ridge of Slapton Sands, seawards of the swaths of dark blue viper's bugloss with creeping pink and white bindweed, pale yellow branched...
What are the implications of the massive thaw that is taking place right now in Western Siberia? Russian researchers returned from an exploratory mission in Western Siberia last year to report that the world’s largest frozen peat bog there, land as large as France and Germany combined, was...	The soda bottle I’m holding only lists a few U.S. states and deposit amounts on it Aren’t more than just a few states requiring that bottles be returned for recycling?
Country Diary: Somerset In 1867, when they started to build a pier out into the mud and sand of the north Somerset coast at Clevedon, they had to contend not only with the nature of the ground but with tides that can rise...	One Chance [Fiction] The story of doing something you never thought of doing in your life!
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk We are in the real dog days on Ducan's Marsh, and by midday the cattle are slumped in the well of shade cast by the large willow near Carleton Beck. Of the three sounds audible, the most prominent...	? Oh My God Why ? Friends ... Seriously stop this…
I'm An Ocean This is the quote of me...	Now I Will Forget My Favorite Quote...
The Way You Look At Me This could be YOU. Because you’re changing everyday…	Country Diary: Northumberland Roseate terns are the UK's rarest breeding seabird and the nature reserve on Coquet Island, which I recently visited, has now been targeted by thieves. Police believe that a boat landed illegally...
Country Diary: Mull of Galloway The heathland and seabird nature reserve surrounding the lighthouse on Scotland's southernmost point is a popular attraction, but beyond it the sign on the gate warning visitors that they pass...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The wind got up after midnight. By the small hours, as the sky began to lighten with a pale blue glow, a strong breeze was swinging over roofs and sweeping through the streets. By Paul Evans
Is bamboo really an environmentally friendly alternative to wood for making paper? If so, why are we still cutting down trees to keep our copiers and printers humming?	Can you explain what "hormone disrupting" chemicals are, how they affect our health and what they have to do with environmental problems? Many of the human body’s process, including reproduction, mental processing and metabolism, are controlled and regulated by hormones, chemical "messengers" produced by the endocrine glands.
Country Diary: Alstonefield By Bright sunlight flooded the green undulations that are the limestone hills west of the River Dove. A fresh breeze swept the last clouds from the morning sky as I took to the field path to...	Shady Ladies..(and/or men) My article for a local newspaper on prostitution...READ IT AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION..XD
Country Diary: New Forest One midday many years ago I walked through a lush dew-drenched meadow high in Kenya's Aberdare range. The visit was popped into the day's schedule by my African host who thought that it was...	Country Diary: Finistare Seven kilometres to the east of us here at Plougasnou by the country road there lies the tiny hamlet of Prajou. Below the settlement a wooded valley falls steeply to the sea. By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Highlands In damp areas along the sides of burns, some spring flowers have already gone over, such as marsh marigolds, cuckoo flowers and bluebells. By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Mad dogs and Englishmen - well, just one of each - go out in the midday sun. As a fierce heat soaks into the flowery grassland of Windmill Hill, the true celebrants of summer gather across its...
Complications And Consequences Something I wrote about my thoughts! (kind of)…	What is better for the environment, cork wine stoppers, or plastic or screw tops? Though you might be surprised, natural cork wine stoppers are the best choice, primarily because harvesting the real stuff is an age-old practice that keeps the world's relatively small population...
What are the health and environmental issues associated with the noise and air pollution at airports? Researchers have known for years that exposure to excessively-loud noise can cause changes in blood pressure as well as changes in sleep and digestive patterns--all signs of stress on the human body.	Country Diary: Somerset The school that serves our twin villages was built in 1856. The squire provided the land and local farmers carted the stone. By John Vallins
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk The first sound I heard as I walked down the lane was the burbling song of a swallow overhead. By Mark Cocker	my LETTER to you It’s the letter I’ve been trying to write to somebody that moved away!
Country Diary: Northumberland Amble, once the largest exporter of coal on the north-east coast, is now a fishing port and also has a marina with sailing and canoeing clubs...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland A perfect day in June - warm, sunny, and the still air scented with wild flowers and grasses - and we were walking Lochrann, known locally as the Khyber Pass, on one of our annual pilgrimages to see...
Country Diary: Hartland to Bude Eastwards of the Atlantic highway hilltop trees are severely stunted, lopsided or non-existent, and the west-facing coast offers no haven... By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Bishop's Castle Here, right on the western fringe of Shropshire, midsummer rests green and luscious on the quiet hills. Writing the best part of 40 years ago Jean Ware... By Roger Redfern
Where I Always Smile Cold...no it’s just not warm....	Do fireworks celebrations cause any significant pollution? Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the fireworks displays that go on around the U.S. every Fourth of July are still typically propelled by the ignition of gunpowder--a technological...
What have been the most significant environmental impacts of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans? Perhaps the longest-lasting impact of Hurricane Katrina was its environmental damage that, in real terms, has mainly to do with public health.	Why do modern bacteria "resist" antibiotics, confounding medical treatment? Antibiotics have played a profoundly important role in staving off bacterial infections since Alexander Fleming first discovered them in 1927.
Do houseplants really help to clean indoor air? One positive result of the 1970s energy crisis was the development and widespread adoption of improved insulation materials to maintain indoor energy efficiency.	Country Diary: Tetbury A friend of mine, Harry, who lives in Nailsworth, told me recently about the common lizards which lives on a south-facing wall in his garden despite ...By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Strathnairn With so much rain and so many cold nights in late May it was a pleasant surprise to get so many "aristocrat" butterflies in this strath in the second week in June...By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The sky is grey and a breeze swishes through leaves refreshed by last night's rain. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Somerset Forget the picture of fuddled labourers reeling in fields at harvest time after draughts of the farmer's rudimentary cider. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk As I walk down the bank of the River Yare both reed and sedge warblers sing along the route, one bird seeming to pass me on to its neighbour...By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Wylam Haughs was recognised as a local nature reserve three years ago by English Nature, since when it has continued to be a haven for wildlife. By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Weardale Twice before we had spotted a hare in this pasture that borders on a wood and gently slopes westwards towards a gully. By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge What's up with the ash trees? It is nearly midsummer and the older ash trees - although festooned with bunches of keys - have barely leafed out properly. By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Radnor Forest As we climbed steeply from New Radnor towards the summit of Whimble, we overtook a Dor beetle going our way. By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: New Forest After a morning mowing lawns under the blazing sun, the cool of the woodlands beckoned. I set out to follow on foot one of the many cycle trails that now criss-cross the forest, but my...	Colin Luckhurst: Gloucestershire Butterflies are having a particularly bad time at present - so think, when did you last see one, and could you identify it?
Pull Through Anyone can make something of their self if they try...	Country Diary: Loch Garten As we approached Abernethy forest, the dominance of the Cairngorms as a backcloth was made even more impressive after a snowfall at the end of May. By Ray Collier
Funny - but true! Two 16-year-olds get married, and have adventures...	Country Diary: Cornwall Sometimes I accompany my sister, a painter, on her occasional forays away from the Tamar Valley to the coast. Dizzard wood at bluebell time is buffeted by storms...By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Somerset So far this summer outdoor events have been drenched by rain, but two indoor events have given us contrasting windows into country life. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Zelve, Turkey Cappadocia must be among the most captivating landscapes in all western Eurasia...By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland A neighbour who keeps a few beehives told me that this has been a tough spring for his bees, they were unhappy with the cold, wet windy weather we have had.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland I thought of making an expedition to the Rine, that arm of land jutting out into the sea, a little peninsula, part of which lies opposite the house. By Sarah Poyntz
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The edges of whatever dream I had bled into unfamiliar sunlight and compelling birdsong. Although the clock said it was far too early to ...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Longdendale It's a well known fact that some of the finest Peakland country lies outside the boundary of the national park...By Roger Redfern
What Old Glory Means to Me By Anna Film (13) - first place winner in Oklahoma School contest...	Tormented: Eight Years and Back This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.
Tormented: Eight Years and Back This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.	Tormented: Eight Years and Back This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.
Tormented: Eight Years and Back This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.	Tormented: Eight Years and Back This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.
Tormented: Eight Years and Back This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.	Trusting in the Lord: Stolen Car Testimony Deep down, we direct our disappointments toward God--thinking that somehow He let us down. We trust God with our eternal life; why then can we not trust Him amid the adversities of daily life?
Psalm 91: God's Umbrella of Protection If any thoughts of cancer, terrorist attacks, chemical warfare, and natural disasters ever trouble your mind-this book can be one of the most important books you will ever read!	Trusting in the Lord: A Wedding Miracle Deep down, we direct our disappointments toward God--thinking that somehow He let us down. We trust God with our eternal life; why then can we not trust Him amid the adversities of daily life?
Psalm 91: God's Umbrella of Protection If any thoughts of cancer, terrorist attacks, chemical warfare, and natural disasters ever trouble your mind-this book can be one of the most important books you will ever read!	Country Diary: Gloucestershire Although a south-westerly wind, which must have been approaching force 4 in strength, was battering Stinchcombe Hill as I played in the midday roll-up game today...By Colin Luckhurst
Trusting in the Lord: Carpet Miracle Deep down, we direct our disappointments toward God--thinking that somehow He let us down. We trust God with our eternal life; why then can we not trust Him amid the adversities of daily life?	Psalm 91: God's Umbrella of Protection If any thoughts of cancer, terrorist attacks, chemical warfare, and natural disasters ever trouble your mind-this book can be one of the most important books you will ever read!
Psalm 91 Military: God's Shield of Protection Psalm 91 has been called the soldier's prayer. This book explaining our Psalm 91 protection covenant needs to be in the hands of every military personnel and family.	Psalm 91 Military: God's Shield of Protection Psalm 91 has been called the soldier's prayer. This book explaining our Psalm 91 protection covenant needs to be in the hands of every military personnel and family.
Psalm 91: God's Umbrella of Protection If any thoughts of cancer, terrorist attacks, chemical warfare, and natural disasters ever trouble your mind-this book can be one of the most important books you will ever read!	Are you tormented by depression? This is a woman's struggle through eight years of emotional illness, shock treatments, prescription drugs and hopelessness--culminated in absolute victory by God's supernatural delivering power.
Psalm 91Military: God's Shield of Protection Psalm 91 has been called the soldier's prayer. This book explaining our Psalm 91 protection covenant needs to be in the hands of every military personnel and family.	A Lesson in Trust: A MIRACLE of PROVISION Deep down, we direct our disappointments toward God--thinking that somehow He let us down. We trust God with our eternal life; why then can we not trust Him amid the adversities of daily life?
Country Diary: River Nairn Sitting on the narrow humpbacked bridge and dangling my legs over the parapet was like stepping back in time...By Ray Collier	Psalm 91: Protection From Your Greatest Fears If any thoughts of cancer, terrorist attacks, chemical warfare, and natural disasters ever trouble your mind-this book can be one of the most important books you will ever read!
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Rain has fallen in an unbroken curtain these last few days and as a burst of morning sunshine draws it back, a snowy-white flash appears...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Dorset On the day we planned to visit Duncliffe Wood, near Shaftesbury, a spokesman for the Woodland Trust told the BBC that, across the country...By John Vallins
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Lying on my back with binoculars trained on the sky, I could see them drizzling through that blue orb as softly focused black motes. By Mark Cocker	Country Diary: Northumberland Our avian summer visitors arrived late this spring, but it is now such a joy to watch and listen to them in the garden - when I should be planting and weeding. By Veronica Heath
Country Diary The car park at Moor House National Nature Reserve was almost full when I arrived this morning. Anyone unfamiliar with the delights of the windswept reserve, 600 metres above sea level and without a...	A Colorful Soul An apology, A "Thank You" Note….or a friend for life.
The Irony of the San Diego Agenda It is ironic that the very freedom people seem to want is something they fight the most.	Country Diary: Shropshire From the sandstone castle at Shrewsbury, set among wallflowers and circled by swifts, we set out on a nine-day walk...By Virginia Spiers
Country Diary: Anglesey All connoisseurs of wildlife art will welcome the establishment of the Charles Tunnicliffe Society on May 1. By Roger Redfern	Country Diary: New Forest Fortified by an excellent pub lunch, we set out from Frogham in the general direction of Slodden, following the many paths as terrain and curiosity led us...By Graham Long
Country Diary: Finistère Madame Lemoine, the white Belgian lilac is in flower, the Quetsche plum which I planted five years ago is carrying a good load of recently...By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Achvaneran These days it is difficult to know where to look and what to listen to around the garden and acre paddock...By Ray Collier
Money from Heaven? Is this some new spiritual gift?	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Ducking underneath overhanging branches of blackthorn, still bearing wreaths of white blossom, on one side of the path, and those of ...By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Somerset We had been away and after the long, dry and often cold spring, the countryside had changed markedly in the week since we had last seen it...By John Vallins	Country Diary: Northumberland As a child, brought up in the shadow of the Roman wall, I walked, and, occasionally, rode my pony along some of its heritage trail...By Veronica Heath
Country Diary: Lios Mac Taidhg We turned the first corner of the narrow little road leading to Newtown and eventually to Lios Mac Taidhg, under Cappanawalla mountain. What a sight.	Mother Some traits are inherited. If you have children, the chances are your mother did too.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Growing out of cracks in the pavement opposite my front door is a usually overlooked plant: the rue-leaved saxifrage...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Langsett What a difference a week can make. Seven days earlier, we had bent against gusting north-westerlies and taken shelter from a sudden ...By Roger Redfern
The Dinosaur Default ...the games we may not know we play...	Country Diary: Dorset Although this may be a minority view, I have always felt that the greatest value achievement of ...By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Loch Flemington The low night temperatures for April, many of them down to 0C (32F), have meant that many spring flowers, such as primroses, violets and ...By Ray Collier	Truth is Stranger than Fiction What did you think was the central chapter of the Bible?
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Rooks nesting low and ash before the oak may or may not precede a windy, wet summer, but the songs of...By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Somerset A friend was intrigued by an unfamiliar crop that he spotted when walking in the long valley west of Curry Rivel...By John Vallins
Country Diary: Cressbrook Dale, Derbyshire Perhaps it's the contrasts between the dank claustrophobic woodland of its lower reaches and the open, light-filled grass...By Mark Cocker	A Deep Look into Soap Operas Here is a humorous look at soap operas 36 years ago. See how closely they mirror today's offerings. This will also show an author how NOT to run sentences on.
Country Diary: Northumberland There are a number of lakes in this country which, like the larger reservoirs, are described as ...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Wolsingham At last, a respite from northerly winds and frosty nights brought a perfect spring morning. Spring has been hesitant here...By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The claret-coloured stamens of elm and the deep purple ash stamens open from the darkness of their buds and...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Langsett The infant April is so much a favourite for its reliability. John Clare's "fairey month of waking mirth" can always be relied upon to produce ...
Country Diary: West Hampshire Recent heavy rains had made the path almost as boggy as the many streamlets that combine to drain the valley west of Fordingbridge...	Country Diary: Tetbury The extent to which quarrying changes the landscape will not be news to anyone living within sight of former slate quarries, gravel pits or any of...By Colin Luckhurst
Country Diary: Highlands Golden eagles would have had their full clutch of one to three eggs by the beginning of April; laying them in their huge nests mainly on cliff faces and ...By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge One swallow may not a summer make but it certainly brightens up an April morning. Seeing the first swallow of the year is one of those commonplace miracles which convinces the...By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Dorset On the way down towards Poole, we used often to pass a pub called the Silent Whistle at the entrance to what was the yard of Shillingstone ...By John Vallins	Country Diary: Boscastle, Cornwall In this beautiful, ancient landscape, nothing impressed me more than the country lane that meanders past Minster church...By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Late snow this spring has curtailed my usual walk on the seashore, hopefully I shall be on the beach again...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland It was 5.30am and I stood watching the space between Cnoc an Bhoirnin (Hill of Rock) on the Flaggy Shore and Abbey Hill above ruined ...By Sarah Poyntz
Country Diary: Cornwall Pink magnolias tower out of misty woods above Caerhays castle, just inland from the breaking waves and wet sand of Porthluney...By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands The lovely group of limestone hills that lie between the valleys of Dove and Manifold in western Peakland are not so well known ...By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: Tetbury A population of amphibians - frogs, toads and newts - is a low-level sign of a healthy local...By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Highlands For centuries one of the backbones of agriculture in the Highlands was the droving of cattle from even the remotest parts, including the Western ...By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge All it takes is a warm, sunny day and the song of spring spreads across the landscape like a flash...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Somerset To get up to Norwood Farm you must leave the sheltered valley of the river Frome, south of Bath, and climb through the historic village of...By John Vallins
Counterfeits of Love Each of the virtues of love have their counterfeit - imitating true love...	Country Diary: Rockland Broad As I trained my telescope on a great crested grebe, the recently acquired corolla of chestnut ...By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland In those birds that migrate to warmer climes in winter, the urge to leave must be very strong, as can be seen by swallows obeying the...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Crook, Co Durham The blizzard reduced the landscape of muddy farm gateways and winter-worn pastures to an ...By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge A dark shape floated through the sky from the direction of the church. It was a large bird with long, narrow wings and a forked...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Staffordshire Moorlands Was this to be the last snow of winter? We stood upon the heather top of Hollinsclough moor and looked east across the broad basin that is...By Roger Redfern
It is Impossible to Square a Circle The Enigma of Pi - 3.14, Eludes us all.	In Search of the Truth What is truth? Is there a way of finding it without a doubt? YES.
No Quiero Taco Bell Say goodbye to Taco Bell...	Country Diary: The Avon Valley Two wood pigeons flew into the conifer rising from the midst of the lawn just as dawn...By Graham Long
Country Diary: Tetbury By Farm displenishing sales are both depressing, especially if it's raining, and uplifting at the same...By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Achvaneran For most of the year there are very few signs of mammals in our one-acre paddock next to the...By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Dartmoor and Tamar Valley Seared slopes of Dartmoor on our eastern skyline have receded into the distance, or been blotted out as moist and milder air...By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Dorset Through much of the heart of Dorset, there are great, rolling chalk hills, and the roads and flinty tracks that keep to...By John Vallins
Country Diary: Norfolk Jackdaws are surely one of our most sociable birds. The poet Kathleen Jamie perfectly caught their easy... By Mark Cocker	You Don't Know What You're Doing (Or Why You're Still Fat) People with perpetual obesity issues are playing a game with themselves.
Country Diary: Northumberland Ferrets, domesticated polecats, have always been popular with Geordies. This is Roman Wall country and it is the Romans who...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland In one of the hundreds of caves which honeycomb our Burren, archaeologists have excavated human and animal ...By Sarah Poyntz
UFO's - A Bizarre Subject When it comes to the subject of UFO's why do we treat it as if it is a "religious" subject?	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Only a few shards of snow, like the white glaze of old crockery pushed up out of the soil, remain in stubborn corners where the...By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Anglesey High on a windy hill with the first glimmerings of earliest spring in the sweeping, green country that falls towards the northern...By Roger Redfern	DNA Fantastic Design The DNA "Fingerprint" of each human being is so fantastic, it is a wonder how some continue to argue "Darwinian Evolution"
Country Diary: Melrose The historic abbey church, originally a Cistercian foundation, is probably the most finely sited of the four abbeys in the Scottish...	Country Diary: Strathnairn Whenever the question of poultry crops up in conversations with people in the strath, predators are inevitably ...By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The cold north-easterly brought a couple of days of real winter. A flurry of snow settled like the brief arrival of an arctic ...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Dorset It was almost a year ago that we took the Tuesday bus from Wincanton to Salisbury and promised ourselves the Wednesday trip to ...By John Vallins
Sonoluminescence - Turning sound into light Scientists have been able to change one form of energy into another - even with acoustical energy.	Country Diary: Norfolk I could walk in any direction from my house and find wildlife...By Mark Cocker
Methods & Consequences of Deception Is worrying worth it? Hardly. Often the fear and dread of an event is worse than the event itself.	Loyalty Loyalty demonstrates our convictions about what we believe. And we need to live according to the dictates of our own conscience.
Veronica Heath: Country Diary Northumberland: I came in from a walk and saw a pigeon sitting on the roof of my car; it looked tired and ignored the dog circling the ...	Country Diary: Bishop Auckland The first hint of spring in Auckland Park has also coaxed out a few lesser celandines among the snowdrops and glossy leaves of the lords and ...By Phil Gates
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Between showers a glimmer of midday sun strikes the south-facing sides of the steep Cleave and Radland valleys, and the farmsteads, cottages and converted mill buildings whose ...By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: East Cheshire Hills The Macclesfield to Buxton highway has been listed as one of the country's bendiest...
Country Diary: New Forest For many people spring is the best season of all. It has vibrancy, and its emerging foliage decorates town and countryside with ...By Graham Long	Country Diary: Tetbury The regional meteorologists at the Bristol weather centre reported last week that rainfall since the turn of the year had been just over one-sixth of the normal precipitation at this...By Colin...
Country Diary: Loch Ruthven My route took me past fields bordering the river Nairn where the dippers, one of the earliest breeding birds in the Highlands, are now ...By Ray Collier	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge On Windmill Hill, a raven swoops low overhead and yells "yonc!" This seems like one of those calls ravens adopt when they’re saying and meaning something quite. By Paul Evans
Country Diary: Somerset It was race day at Wincanton, so there was a bustle in the town. By John Vallins	Country Diary: Sotterley Park, Suffolk There were 12 blackbirds spread across a large sunken dell that was covered with dead foliage from a number of ancient...By Mark Cocker
Country Diary: Northumberland Some commuters who move here find the country too mildewed, and everything too far...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland He used hair gel to make his hair stand up, probably to give an impression of ...By Sarah Poyntz
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Even though I like the misty myopia of winter days and the way they wrap the spirit in with the landscape, there are times when...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: Langsett For days the moorland sky has been draped with high rolls of dense, grey-blue cloud... By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: Tetbury Although I did manage a return to the Scottish Highlands one magic summer evening a couple of years ago in an attempt to watch the surviving ...By Colin Luckhurst	Country Diary: Muirtown Lagoons The aim was to photograph bulrushes so I contacted the regional plant recorder who advised me to go to these lagoons on the edge of...By Ray Collier
Country Diary: Bodmin Moor Outside Minions’ heritage centre sheep range over rough turf, sheltering in hollows and between gorse ...By Virginia Spiers	Country Diary: Somerset The Domesday book calls our village Hortenestone, which means "the settlement of the horse-keepers" or "the grooms’ enclosure"...By John Vallins
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Although the air was burning cold and the surrounding landscape glazed with a covering of ice, the brilliant sunshine must have been enough to stir it into...By Mark Cocker	Country Diary: Dolgellau It has been more than 40 years since trains ran along the Mawddach estuary from Dolgellau to Barmouth but, fortunately, the track bed...By John Gilbey
Country Diary: Northumberland It does seem strange that moles like to live in church terrain, there cannot be much room for them there, but our village graveyard frequently erupts with mole...By Veronica Heath	Country Diary: Weardale Whatever the weather and whatever the season, you can't walk far along becks and burns hereabouts without encountering ...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Cherubic clouds chug across the cool, blue sky like cartoon smoke ...By Paul Evans	Country Diary: South Shropshire Another still, cloudless midwinter day when the low-angled sun cast elongated shadows across this crumpled Marches... By Roger Redfern
Country Diary: New Forest The wind whipped eye-wateringly across the Solent on to the forest's shore midway between the Beaulieu and Lymington rivers, just along ...	Country Diary: Tetbury The farmland to the north and west of the town, on Cotswold limestone, represents a mixed economy...
Country Diary: Inverarnie Esker Trails A few miles south of Inverness and despite the strong sunshine I had to scrape the ice off the information panel to read the...	No more fear - I've got peace at last! Fear can destroy you - and steal your peace...Without peace, we slowly wither away, and die...so fight for peace!
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge January is at the skint end of the year. There was a day of bright, vibrant sunshine, when birds were tempted to try their spring voices and the far hills ...	Country Diary: Somerset Last year one of the village's farms was sold and stocked with horses in place of cows and ...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk Though it was not yet light I could tell that dawn was coming by the way the headlights no longer carved their clean-edged tunnel through the ...	A perfectly Good Day... Ever have a Perfectly Good Day shot to hell? Here's what you can do about it!
Ask Mikey... Rem that old Life commercial... "Give it to Mikey, he'll eat it - he eats ANYTHING!". This Mikey will answer almost anything...eventually! Post your questions below, and he'll get back to...	NBC has no fear of GOD! Jesus was mocked by those who crucified Him...and now NBC is jumping on the bandwagon! Obviously they don't know whose Son Jesus is...or what GOD can do to those who make Him angry!
Country Diary: Northumberland Kielder is the largest manmade forest in Europe, and during this month its 155,000 acres come alive with the teams of husky dogs driven by their mushers along the wooded ...	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland One of my favourite walks, especially after a few winter storms, is on our local beach, Bishop's ...By Sarah Poyntz:
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Looking upriver from the folly tower at Mount Edgcumbe, beyond a rainbow arching above the Hamoaze estuary between Torpoint and Devonport's tower blocks, land towards misty Kit Hill is barely...	Country Diary: South Shropshire It was one of those quiet, still, remarkable midwinter days when a cloak of high, blue-grey cloud canopied all this Marches ...
Country Diary: Finistère The far west of Brittany lived up to its reputation in the new year week of usually being the warmest part of the country in...	Country Diary: Strathnairn The weak winter sun had no affect on the iced margins of the burn as I walked up through the woodland above our house to the badger ...
Country Diary: Somerset The village of Ansford, though much built up in modern times, retains clear marks of its old ...	Country Diary: Rockland St Mary, Norfolk Emboldened perhaps by the ice-bound conditions, a wren popped up suddenly and, with a bee-like whirr of tiny wings, flew to the bush by the side of the...
Country Diary: Northumberland For 60 years, a pair of barn owls has made a derelict old mill their ...	Country Diary: Blanchland You can't walk far in this part of the north Pennines without hearing the sound of water rushing over a...
Country Diary: North Derbyshire Sitting on the 1,296ft summit of Longstone Moor the other day, we gazed and wondered at the broad vistas visible under a calm, blue sky to every point of the...	Country Diary: New Forest Just inside the forest boundary at Brook there is a sign that makes melancholy...
Country Diary: Tetbury Year end approaches and I was reflecting on activities of the past 12 months. Most thought-provoking was my visit to ...	Country Diary: Highlands Eagle owls, the largest owls in the world, have been in the news recently with the revelation that a pair has reared 20 chicks in a hidden valley in...
Country Diary: Tamar Valley During short days towards the solstice, low sun transforms the drab ...	Country Diary: Somerset Hard rain in the night had knocked all but the last few leaves off the trees, so bare twigs and bundles of mistletoe showed black against the ...
Country Diary: Hardley, Norfolk There were 30 black-headed gulls spread across the rolling sweep of a ploughed field and for each gull there were about 10 lapwings, their green-black upper bodies almost invisible against the dark...	Country Diary: Northumberland Snow, icy roads and a chill wind does not encourage me to venture far afield, so I go for a walk at a local country ...
Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland As I write she may be resting at or departing from the Canaries. She was caught in a lobster pot and brought back to Dingle, Co Kerry, where she was fitted with a satellite device, powered by a ...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge On a fine, bright morning, there's a sound like applause in a far-away auditorium. It's a rockfall; a tumble of stones into the water of a pool at the base of the ...
Country Diary: Bradfield Dale The upper reaches of Bradfield Dale, close to the eastern boundary of the Peak District national park, are dominated by plantations of massed conifers - Sitka spruce, Japanese larch, Lodgepole pine,...	Country Diary: Upper Wharfedale The conventional wisdom is never go back. And it's usually right, for most returns are blighted by a panorama of bungaloid growth or similar nasty touch of the ...
Country Diary: Highlands For several days now lorries laden with Christmas trees have been on the move with some heading south while others have ...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The cold snap vanished like a conjuror's table-cloth trick, as the whiteness of frost and a flurry of snow was pulled from the landscape...
Country Diary: Cornwall I first noticed the stately tower of St Buryan's church when I looked up from the ploughing match at a nearby...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk It was one of those mornings when the dim browns and greens of the winter landscape were blurred further by...
Country Diary: Weardale Mornings like today's sweep away memories of transport delays, dark days and similar miseries of ...	Country Diary: Northumberland Leading scientists, conservationists and squirrel experts have held a two-day meeting at Kielder Castle, drawing up plans to fight the spread ...
Country Diary: Tamar Valley Within two hours, snow had mantled red and purple fuchsia, yellow Longkeeper apples, leafy magnolia and the fruiting dogwood sought by ...	Country Diary: Anglesey We thought it a clever move to follow the island's south-east coast as heavy rain and westerly gales were ...
Country Diary: New Forest The frost that has scarcely lifted for days has given the fallen leaves an early ...	Country Diary: Bohortha We had a National Trust holiday rental for the first week of the month at this tiny village only a couple of miles short of St Anthony's Head on the Roseland peninsula in...
Country Diary: Inverness We were stopped at traffic lights in the middle of the city. Immediately to our left, the river Ness, swollen with melted snow from the...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge "Time was," said an organic farmer in the Shropshire borderlands, "when the first clear night of a full moon in September could bring a ...
Country Diary: Cornwall The 60th annual Western Area Ploughing Match was being held the day before Plough Sunday in sight of the tall tower of ...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk We should never let scientists convince us that our fellow species are no more than complex but purely functional automata.
Country Diary: Northumberland This is one of the counties in England where you can still find a really perfect view. I am standing on the low ha-ha wall, looking south over the lovely park at...	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland It is always a pleasure to ramble in our Burren's small villages, although there is seemingly little to...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The tell-tale mercury flashes in the west, seen through leafless ash trees on the Edge, are the signal: the flood has come to the riverlands of...	Country Diary: Snowdonia The golden leaves fluttered above the silver cascades of the Afon Rhaeadr-fawr on its boulder-strewn way to the northern sea below Abergwyngregyn, the ancient seat of the ...
Country Diary: Wiltshire The two pairs of mute swans that live on the Avon at Malmesbury are a year-round...	Country Diary: Loch Farr The loch had its winter coat on as the lily pads had sunk below the water while the sedge beds glowed green and tawny in the low sunshine.
Country Diary: Tamar Valley and Reigate Wind, buffeting trees on Buckland Hill, masks the ongoing roar of traffic on the M25. On this chalk escarpment, muddy paths are strewn with twigs, red yew berries and the yellowing leaves of...	Prescriptions or Food Making difficult choices between food or medicine should not be an issue in this country. If you are facing tough decisions like that you need to take action to reduce your medication expenses.
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk It swooped from the trees amid a hubbub of raucous screeching, then set off across the pasture with that curious, lazy, halting and...	Country Diary: Northumberland During the last 12 months I have visited farms in this county which have been owned and run by the same family for generations.
Country Diary: Hamsterley Forest A week of drizzle, downpours and warm sunshine; just the kind of mild, wet conditions that send toadstools erupting through the soil, expanding their caps, ready to release their spores.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge I'm standing in a lost field at a lost hour. It's early morning and the clocks have gone back - or mine would have if I'd remembered to reverse...
Country Diary: Earl Sterndale We climbed by way of wet nettles up the north-east flank of High Wheeldon under a grey blanket of cloud that spat down...	Country Diary: Tetbury The annual movements of wild-bird populations, bird migration, have become of interest to a far wider slice of the human population than was previously the case.
Country Diary: Achvaneran The leafless oak stood tall in the paddock all summer while I made the decision.	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge After some rain, the woods release that unmistakable autumn fragrance.
Country Diary: Somerset As I went along the ancient causeway across the moors and flood plains at Langport and over the old Bow Bridge that spans the river Parrett, my eye was caught by a striking...	Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk At the moment around our village, the roads are an ecological unit all of their own. The mangled remains of pheasants greet the driver almost every few hundred metres.
Country Diary: Northumberland A village trip to Dunstanburgh saw half of our party choosing to play golf on the course here, and the rest of us opting for a walk to the castle.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland, and France Inhabiting a cloud-capped tower leads to unusual encounters. From our abbey tower in Mayenne, France, Mary Ann and I overlooked....
Country Diary: Southern England We walk from Streatley on Thames in west Berkshire to Maiden Newton in Dorset, mainly on the Ridgeway national trail, passing a succession of chalky horizons marked by knolls of trees, ancient forts...	Country Diary: Langsett In the year and more since formerly forbidden Snailsden Moor became open country, there haven't been many changes to this delectable never-never land high in the southern Pennines.
Country Diary: Tetbury Although there were at one time four distinct clockmakers operating in Tetbury, notably John Coates whose workshop reached its...	Country Diary: Strathnairn The largest field in the strath was seeded for silage, and as it was in the local government-run Rural Stewardship Scheme the...
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The cloud settled for a few days: grey and wet but warm, and filled Wenlock in its bowl of low hills.	Country Diary: Dorset Our plan was to find the source of the River Tarrant in Cranborne Chase, and follow its eight or nine mile journey through an almost secret valley, between windswept...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk It was one of those strokes of fortune that bless naturalists about twice a year.	Country Diary: Northumberland The Kielder Challenge is a national outdoor adventure competition for youngsters from all over Britain.
Country Diary: Teesdale The view of the Tees at Bowlees is a favourite with ramblers, partly because here the river tumbles over cataracts at Low Force and...	Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Jackdaws crackle through a sky of slate grey and lilac pink. Paul Evans
Country Diary: Brecon The high tops of the Brecon Beacons lie crenallated across the southern horizon when viewed from Brecon town.	Country Diary: New Forest Many of Minstead's visitors arrive by car. That's a pity. The village is better approached on foot. Graham Long
Country Diary: County Cork Summer visitors to rural parts of the south of Ireland may have had their evening travel plans surprisingly disrupted if they came across road bowling, a popular sport in these...	Country Diary: Nairn Harbour, Highlands The Moray Firth looked featureless with the grey, calm sea extending northwards to the Cromarty Firth eight miles away.
Country Diary: Cornwall With the onset of autumn more cars leave than enter the county, drizzle enhances the intense greenness of little pastures set below the shrouded tors of Bodmin Moor, and wisps of mist steam out of...	Country Diary: Isle of Purbeck Our route lay over the light grey sand of a track that meandered across heathland on the Isle of Purbeck, through gorse, spiky grasses and purple heather...
Country Diary: Claxton, Norfolk It's cranefly season for the spiders in our house.	Country Diary: Tempsford Airfield Hitler's bombers failed to destroy this East Anglian airfield: now nature engages in stealthy obliteration.
Country Diary: Northumberland With the unwelcome increase in the number of rabbits now back in our fields, I read in the press that it might be wise to reintroduce myxomatosis. What a ridiculous suggestion.	Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland There I was at 6.30am and down our drive hopped a magpie, seemingly harassing the back of what looked like a pine marten, which was moving very slowly, injured perhaps.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge The congregation in the church sings evensong hymns and outside the sky rings as roosts of rooks and jackdaws belt out theirs, too.	Country Diary: The Black Mountains Which is the finest upland - the Brecon Beacons or their brothers across the great, green trough of the Usk Valley to the north, the Black Mountains?
Country Diary: Finistère The quality of the marine environment is a topic of ongoing concern to the residents of the Breton peninsula.	Country Diary: Achvaneran Since the pond in the one-acre paddock adjoining the house was cleaned out and enlarged, complete with two islands, it has attracted various water birds.
Country Diary: Wenlock Edge Autumn arrives like an old song. After days of misty weather, the autumn song comes whistling down the years of memory into a warm, bright day.	Country Diary: Somerset On a sunny morning, swallows were swarming round the farmhouse roof, a black Labrador pup was frisking on the lawn, and a week-old Friesian calf was looking picturesque under the shade of a tree ......
Country Diary: North Yorkshire Pete Bowler's latest dispatch from North Yorkshire was due to appear in today's paper. Instead, we reprint his article of February 26 by way of tribute.	Nowhere This is about people not really hearing me out and not what I am really saying.
Country Diary: New Forest A walk in the woods at the end of a long hot day has great attraction. Starting from the entrance to New Park, I went across the main road and through the gate on to the grass strip that borders...	Country Diary: North Yorkshire Cayton and Flixton Carrs, south-west of Scarborough, look, at first glance, like any modern farmed landscape in the lowlands.
Life for me Just stuff I'm dealing with at the moment.	Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire In May orange-tipped butterflies seemed to be everywhere, but we have had to wait till August for another fritillary plenitude - peacocks.
Ghoshen Got to get away and clear my mind...	Indigo and Roo I need a second opinion, true love, or true love?
Country Diary: South Yorkshire As we entered Anston Stones wood, the tree canopy shut out what little light there was from the overcast sky above. Inside, three strides turned mid-afternoon into dusk. Pete Bowler	Country Diary: New Forest A walk in the woods on a wet day guarantees solitude. On the day after the heavy rains, the sharp footprint in the mud made clear that I was not the first to take advantage of the better weather,...
Why did I change? This is about a very painful experience…	What is in a name? More dysfunctional thought…
The life of Riley - my dogs Another slice of humorous dysfunction from the life of m.d.	Always a friend Falling in love with a friend when jealous people ruin the relationship…
Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Peace and heat - the dragonflies love it. Golden rings were patrolling their territories along one of the small Preseli streams.	Pete Bowler: Country Diary South Yorkshire: It is called a brownfield site, but the land we were standing on, beside the River Don, looked decidedly yellow. There were acres of St John's wort, with tufts of wild mignonette...
Wow…all in one month! Another slice of dysfunction…	Country Diary: New Forest My first encounter with badgers some 50 years ago was through the tenant of a forest property who was fed up with the local family digging up the bulbs in his garden every night.
Country Diary: Lincolnshire Despite the perfect weather, the sandy beaches above Chapel St Leonards were almost deserted. Perhaps the attractions of nearby Ingoldmells and Skegness were too tempting.	Country Diary: Spurn Most people visit Spurn, at the end of the Humber estuary, for the wonderful range of bird life. Pete Bowler
Country Diary: Guernsey For some people a walk along the colourful southern cliffs in late spring is the climax of a visit to the island.	What do you know? You think you do but you DON’T...
Why?!?! Every Body always made fun of me and I always wanted to ask WHY?!?!	Being a Testee Another slice of dysfunctional humor...
Country Diary: South Yorkshire The mild smell of wild garlic drifted on the early morning breeze, long before the wood itself was entered. Overnight rain had freshened everything, enhancing scents, polishing the leaves.	I Remember I remember when...
Masks Nothing to say…just read it…	The Big "C" Another slice of dysfunction pie…
I Wish Do you ever wish you could tell someone something...	Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Rhos y bwlch is Welsh for a moorland depression. It lies on the north-west side of the Preseli hills, where one of the leading, 19th-century slate workings in south- west Wales was established.
No Women No women on the front line in combat 4th military...bull***t!!!	Country Diary: West Yorkshire Early mornings or late evenings are the best time for wildlife watching. So many of our native animals are most active then. While doing some work in the valley of the river Calder, we have been...
Once Do you ever wish certain things would happen but they never do?	Allen or Keith Let me know if you guys could help me with this…
Country Diary: New Forest Hyde common, on the high ground of the western fringe of the forest, is well known for the ponies and donkeys that congregate there.	Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Bluebells are everywhere, even along the coastal path. Blue is taken up by the spring squills, with their small, clear flowers surrounded by agitated leaves.
Heavy Petting Another slice- back to the funny...	Forgive Me Another slice…
Apple Pie Another slice of dysfunction…	Flash - Back Another slice from you-know-who. Yeah- maybe it is funny.
Losing the Passion Just more moaning about life getting duller and duller!!!!	How do I make this funny? Manis-depression- another slice of dysfunction from the mind of M. DeWayne Benson, semi-humorous…
Eating my depression Another slice, hopefully humorous, from a bipolar comedian…	Country Diary: New Forest What better place to begin a forest walk on the chill bright day of a certain wedding than a Royal Oak, this one the ancient pub at Fritham.
My moments Another, hopefully humorous, slice in the function of my dysfunction…	Thanks for the Manic Moment Another page from dysfunction, humor, uni - bi and tri-polar, who is who…
Everything worries a teenager! Just more ramblings of a teenager with no where else to get things off her chest!	Doing a charity event for kids I am doing a charity event to help kids with cancer…
Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire The hot sun over Easter has brought out the season's smells and opened the flowers. A walk along the river Nevern gives spring abundance: masses of wood anemones, some with purple shooting through...	God, holy water and animal planet More dysfunction from the life
So here we are. You’re surfing…me submitting... Another epiphany on existing and co-inhabiting the earth until better days come along!	Country Diary: New Forest The sign points towards Bolderwood. Close by the gravelled track stands a once mighty beech, now battered, but still proud.
Don't Drink Vodka!!!!!!! A little advice for those who want to start drinking, or whatever....	Am I really a sucker? Part 2 of the smoking wars. Just another day of dysfunction and acceptance.
Country Diary: New Forest The drying wind after the rain has begun to take away the underfoot squelch. The cold, crisp morning has put something of the crackle back into the fallen leaves, which the wind pushes across the...	What have I done Another humorous episode. Let's laugh along with God.
Rough Try being ripped away from everything you ever had.	Turn the TV Dysfunction, addiction and my TV…
Falling in love Don't do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!	Asking Why, who, what, and where the things we all ask..
Dakota Richardson Love, Life& Lust. Love, Life & Lust. We all have that one special person in our life that we...	Another New Year’s Resolution Humor about quitting smoking, holiday blues, New Year’s depression, life's dysfunction and then it rained.
Country Diary: Gloucestershire Westonbirt, the National Arboretum, with a collection of 18,500 trees and shrubs from around the world, dates to the 19th century and was founded because of one man's driving enthusiasm.	Country Diary: South Yorkshire There are fresh molehills everywhere. Along hedgerows, by paths in the woods, across the herb-rich pasture, our little velvet-clad friends have been busy, very busy.
Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Walking through this mild November looking at foxgloves and dandelions in bloom around me, I saw buzzards soaring and calling. Then two days running there was a peregrine looking down. A clear sign...	Country Diary: South Yorkshire Sixty acres may be a tiny area for wildlife conservation in the grand scheme of things, but the three parcels of land at Broomhill Flash, totalling just that much, have become a beacon for those...
Country Diary: New Forest For nearly 500 years, Henry VIII's circular Calshot Castle has guarded the approach to Southampton Water.	Country Diary: South Yorkshire Seven swans-a-swimming. It must be near Christmas. Sadly, no turtle doves (they are summer visitors), no geese laying (it is out of season) and neither partridge nor pear tree in sight.
Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire There was a blue-grey blanket instead of sky. So we walked up Foel Eryr. With no sun, colour is always reduced.	I See You! This is just saying that at times u may feel insignificant. Don't worry u were made for a purpose and that God is always watching over u!
Country Diary: New Forest A spirited production of Oklahoma by the north Hants village Hartley arts group sent me homeward down the rain-lashed motorway humming "O, what a beautiful morning."	Country Diary: South Yorkshire The rain was unrelenting as we made our way around the outside of Wombwell Ings. It was good weather for ducks, as people often say, and from the viewing hide on top of the low flood bank, we were...
Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire . The National Park erected a bridle path post. I saw they had cut broad tracks over the common and assumed that the long-awaited path reconnecting the village to Water Lane was open.	Country Diary: Derbyshire A meadow pipit rose up just in front of us, piping an alarm call as we waded through the knee-high grass. Moments earlier, a red grouse had clattered off, squawking at the top of its voice.
Country Diary: New Forest The white dot of a large property, buried in woodland near Ower, draws the eye down the ride between Linwood Copse and the King's Garn Inclosure across miles of hidden countryside.	Found what you want Ever think of cheating? Think of what goes through your head to make you not.
Country Diary: South Yorkshire Hundreds of thousands of bright green acorns littered the ground in Ecclesall woods, the result of recent gale force winds.	Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Now the storms have swept in. Leaves have been whipped from the trees, but not the fruit. Blackberries, damsons and sloes await our picking.
Country Diary: New Forest Visitors love the spectacle. Many come to the forest hoping to see deer during their holiday. For some it will be the highlight. They will not be disappointed.	Mental Anguish Against an Ignorant Church This is about a time in my life when I was searching for the truth and eventually I found it.....
Country Diary: North Yorkshire The ings alongside the lower Derwent valley are alive with tractors - mowing, turning and baling, as the farmers literally make hay while the sun shines.	Country Diary: South Yorkshire There must have beeen 60 purple spikes of marsh orchid flowers tucked away in a tiny glade by the Chesterfield canal, near Kiveton Park. Set back from the waterway, hemmed in by silver birch and...
Wassup Bill Cosby A rebuttle to Bill Cosby's latest comments about the Black Community.	A Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire On June 16, I found a scarlet tiger moth in the garden. In 1996, a more normal year, its first appearance was July 14.
Country Diary: South Yorkshire Wombwell Woods has been in the news recently, due to an eruption of mottled umber moth caterpillars, which has stripped dozens of oak and birch trees naked of leaves.	A right nice place Children can be so sincere and honest in their joy for others.
Out of the mouths of babes ...and i could not wait to hear them speak!	Country Diary: West Yorkshire There is a good feeling to being out and about really early at this time of year. Dawn begins around 4am, and the bird chorus is awesome. Even in the suburbs between Leeds and Bradford - countryside...
Country Diary: North Yorkshire Invisible ducks paddled away as we approached, and, above our heads, a common snipe thrummed its display flight across the meadow. Wheldrake Ings, at the dead of night, belongs to the wildlife, and...	A Country Diary: South Yorkshire It was a good job there were no members of the public about as we walked around the pond edge, crouched forward, stooped over a torch beam, grunting to ourselves every so often.
George on Our Mind The English need to celebrate St George's Day, says Billy Bragg, while Martin Linton is glad that the day passes virtually unnoticed.	Pet-ty Journey Down Memory Lane My journey down memory lane. About pets...
The Life, Vol.I A thought...The life of Tommy Chaney has not been shrouded in dark clouds of racial injustice, incompetence of a fatherly figure, mental complexities, tragic occurrences, life-maiming happenings, or...	Just words Do as I do...not as I say. Or something like that.
Slept like a Baby Counting Sheep...and other useful sleep aids....	Raining Quarters I should not be surprised by other people's kindness...but I still am.
Thrill of chase...rest of heart. When is contentment...just that? If one finds what they are looking for...do they keep looking anyway?	Peace All this education and still no closure. Does anyone have peace of mind?
Complicated Construction Just a ramble about how unforgiving people can really be...even when there is nothing to ask forgiveness for, something will be made up.	A Country Diary: Dale Dike Stepping into the dark, silent, conifer woodland that borders Dale Dike reservoir, it is difficult to imagine that here, 140 years ago, began an event which resulted in hundreds of deaths. Pete Bowler
Dreams Come True: A short story There once was a lady who was looking for more in her life. Knowing there must be something out there, but wasn't sure where to turn. Delida was sad and blue, wondering what she could make of her...	The Vampire Bane "What's wrong with us?" I only ask this question of late to express my confusion for my, for our predicament...Bloodlust.
A Country Diary: Old Denaby As dusk gathered over Old Denaby wetlands, small birds dropped in to the reed beds to roost. Pete Bowler	Smile please An article on why do most people in the hospitality business look so miserable.
A Country Diary: Canklow Woods It looks as though someone has been playing paintball war games in Canklow Woods, so many of the trees have lurid pink, circular spots on them. Pete Bowler	A Country Diary: Hallamshire In one of Hallamshire's several beautiful valleys, the Rivelin brook flows down to the east from its peaty birthplace on the crest of Stanage Edge at High Neb. Roger Redfern
A Country Diary: East Yorkshire Everything came to a halt for a few minutes as a small flock of sheep were moved from one field to another. As the flock approached the crossroads, everyone who happened to be around joined in,...	Snowdonia Long, dry, settled conditions are not necessarily a promise of ideal mountain weather. Take one day of recent memory; we climbed, by the miner's track, up the southern flank of the Glyderau to the...
The triffle with love The after thoughts a worry of the loss of love. In the morning my pain was only amplified by the headache that I had inflicted on my self through last nights drinking binge.	A Country Diary: East Yorkshire The grain harvest safely gathered in, the fields are turning to a rich gold to dark brown as the tractors move on to plough in the stubble. Huge leviathans, tyres like balloons to reduce soil...
Silence of the grave As Jack Straw says, it would have been preferable had Uday and Qusay Hussein not been killed. Many may feel that Saddam's odious sons richly deserved their fate at the hands of US special forces in...	The Lost Kitten This was my attempt at writing a children's short story. So far it is my first and my last.
A Country Diary: Bradfield Dale The heady scent of honeysuckle filled the deep shadows as we went through the trees bordering Dale Dyke reservoir the other day, a notorious body of water that caused such death and destruction when...	Dreams Come True This is my attempt at writing a story. I usually just write poetry. There once was a lady who was looking for more in her life. Knowing there must be something out there, but wasn't sure where to...
A skewed American pie Poor and average earners need larger slices. The gap between the rich and poor in America is fast growing into a chasm. Latest figures show that just 400 Americans collectively had an income of $70bn.	A Country Diary: North Yorkshire Marshes, fens - I'm never quite sure where one becomes the other - are rich diverse places with a huge range of specialist plants and animals, drawing naturalists to them like a magnet.
Window's immaculate deception It started as a flaw in maintenance and ended up as a figure of the Madonna. Five years ago a seal broke in a third-floor window of the Milton hospital near Boston.	Road map in reverse The latest upsurge in violence between Israel and Palestine is particularly dismaying, coming so soon after the Aqaba summit seemed to promise a new beginning.
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire The woodland carpets of bluebells are largely over now, the deep blues and greens giving way to paler and yellower colours. They have been replaced by great drifts of white flowers, accompanied by...	Repeating the error Indonesia's decision to let its army loose in Aceh province is a dangerous mistake, blind to history and likely consequences. The military has a notorious record of abuses, from East Timor to Papua...
The Cup That Jeers In this week's email exchange, Will Buckley and Julie Welch ask if the beautiful game has been wrecked by ugly capitalism.	American payback; justified? A British 17-year-olds view on Americas foreign policy; questioning the intelligence and the morals of Americas reprisals against those countries that opposed military action.
Shunted aside in Iraq Despite US assurances that it would play a "vital role" in post-war Iraq, the UN is being systematically sidelined by the Bush administration. This does not make good sense for Iraq. It...	Where are the weapons? Tony Blair may have won the war, but he is in danger of losing the peace. This country did not go to war in order to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The fact that Mr Blair inserted that objective into his...
Tax RELIEF now!!! Learn how tax refunds are reshaping and revitalizing our country.	Rebuilding Iraq It was conceived as a way to heal the "hunger, desperation, poverty and chaos" of the war so that America could do "whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal...
Bush's next move President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian leader, can be forgiven for feeling nervous as he listens to the accusations being levelled at him by the United States.	Price of fame Mr and Mrs Douglas's nuptial photographs may well go down as the most expensive wedding pictures in history. They have so far cost more than two years of legal argument which, without even counting...
There but for fortune There is no single explanation for the looting and lawlessness which has swept through Iraq's cities in recent days and which now needs urgently to be brought under control.	The flickering flame George Bush likes to give the impression of living according to strict rules and regular routines. With the exception of his weekend retreat at Camp David and his ranch in Texas, he does not go out...
Beyond Baghdad Fixated on the military defeat of Saddam Hussein's regime and arguing over post-war political reconstruction, the US and Britain are in danger of ignoring the bit in-between: how Iraq will be...	Wider still and wider Threatening the neighbours is hardly the best way to rally Muslim support, or at least to elicit Muslim and Arab understanding, for America's cause in Iraq.
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire A pair of teal rose vertically from the shallow margins of the reed bed as we walked through the evening gloom. From deep among the dried stems of last year's growth, a water rail called, then...	A Country Diary: Shropshire The topographical writer and artist Sydney Jones (1881-1966) got it right when he called Shropshire a "claimant for England's most beautiful county".
Striking at Saddam If US forces had succeeded in killing Saddam Hussein, the principal target of yesterday's hit-and-run raid on Baghdad, there would without doubt have been general rejoicing.	Iraq's ultimate option Iraq must surrender. It really has no other viable choice. The Baghdad regime should agree to relinquish power and place the country under the protection of the UN security council. Saddam Hussein,...
Avoiding water wars The prospect of battle between nations over a shared resource vital for life is an unappealing one. Yet the chances of a war over water are increasing. As the prime minister noted last month 40% of...	A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Fishlake is one of those forgotten bywaters, isolated by the sweep of the rivers Don and Went. It has meadows as rich in wildflowers as my grandfather would have known. Hares race across fields,...
“Criminal’s Accomplice” (A one act/one scene play with a potentially horrific end.) Setting: A War Crimes Tribunal, somewhere in Europe. Actors: Three Judges; an international war crimes Prosecutor; a Court...	New world order As matters stand, the result of the security council's forthcoming vote on Iraq will almost certainly be rejected by the "losing" side. From this likely failure to attain consensus on a...
Our patience is wearing thin The world stands, starkly divided, on the brink of war. Yet even now, rather more unites the two rival factions at the United Nations than meets the eye. That the Paris-Moscow-Berlin coalition can...	A Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Cnwcan footpath - cutting and burning gorse. A working party of national park volunteers foregathered for the task. The sun was still burning off the early mists as we looked down over Cardigan Bay.
No votes for Saddam Iraqi exiles and opposition parties based in Britain and elsewhere all agree on one point: Saddam Hussein must go. But beyond that one unifying issue, agreement is hard to find.	The widening Atlantic Amid talk of Nato's imminent disintegration, transatlantic trench warfare and the UN's collapse into League of Nations oblivion, it is vital to stay focused on the issue from which these disputes...
Powell shoots to kill Colin Powell turned the UN security council into a firing range yesterday and aimed his best shots at Saddam Hussein. Some of them undoubtedly hit the target. Mr Powell's keenly anticipated...	In a bind over Iraq Deservedly disconcerted by unsuspected depths of public and allied scepticism on Iraq, the US and Britain are increasingly tying themselves in verbal and policy knots.
Zoo This is for all the people in the world.	Dutch ghost story For outside observers, the main interest in this week's general election in the Netherlands is not so much who won it but rather who did not. It is nine months since the charismatic populist, Pim...
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire The legacy of our out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach to dealing with waste water and drainage came to a head this week.	A Country Diary: East Kent Westbere marshes lie unsullied between former gravel workings along the Great Stour valley. Part of a string of wetland pearls along the river, east and west of Canterbury, they are largely...
Song This is a really good song, it is a message to everybody...legalize it!	A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Strolling through the woods in the early morning drizzle may not be everyone's idea of fun, but it does bring a certain masochistic pleasure. The air is fresh, washed clean by the rain.
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Visible from miles around, the top of Hoober Stand sits more than 600ft above sea level, affording magnificent views across the surrounding countryside - except when, like today, the clouds are low,...	Lady: She was more than just a dog When she got close to the age of 14, Lady began to get more and more lethargic. Lady was a dog with hip dysplasia. The condition began shortly after she turned 12 and got progressively worse.
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire The villagers of Harlington, Barnburgh and Adwick-upon-Dearne are becoming experts on planning procedures. They are gathering information on the wildlife, local history, geology and the moods of the...	A Country Diary: South Yorkshire It was Harold Armitage, most eloquent of topographical authors, who described one exposed, moor-edge locality near here as receiving "the stringent, salutary winds that stir the blood and brace...
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Before we had even got out of the car, a grey squirrel was peering at us from a low shrub by the gate. It scurried across the top bar and up the trunk of the oak on the other side. We gathered some...	A Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Our unusual weather had dried up wells and springs. In October, there were households having to import water. The river Nevern had salmon lurking in shallow pools, unable to move up to their...
A Country Diary: Anglesey It was a surprise to me to see the clear, blue profile of the Isle of Man as we traversed the clifftops between Bull Bay and Cemaes Bay. Here, at the very gates of autumn, we looked out across the...	A Country Diary: West Yorkshire Rummaging is the only word to describe the search for water vole signs at this time of year. With plants full grown, not yet died back, yet concentrated and flattened by autumn winds and rain, the...
A Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire High pressure and high tides give much pleasure. There was no wind as we walked along the coastal path. The sea was snot green, calm as a well-made bed.	Don't ask me how to... ...speak French or make gravy. From scientists to writers, comedians to presidents, we know what they can do - but what they can't do is much more revealing.
The flim-flam has to go At last, a convincing answer to the year's most poignant conundrum: why, when the government is perceptibly less than perfect, are the Tories still so unpopular? Professor John McRae, of Nottingham...	A Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Swallows and martins swing on the wires, their squeaks and squibbles filling the air with excitement. A gusty wind adds to the zest of the day.
Biblical task for city zoo keepers Prague diary: Jonathan Ledgard on never-ending rain, absurd international coverage and the zoo keepers' challenge.	Horses for courses These are times of delicious turmoil in the Conservative party. A Portilloite think-tank called C-change says the party must "modernise" and head for the middle ground, while the...
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire All along the water's edge, plants are showing signs that summer is well advanced. The bottlebrush flowerheads of false fox-sedge look rather bedraggled, while the spear-like leaves of branched...	Feathered fiends The glorious 12th. The start of the grouse-shooting season. Across the country, great stacks of old money, new money and nouveau riche will be standing around in Barbour jackets to blast thousands...
Mollywood and Milly Tree Expostulations have appeared in this column before about the extraordinary names now deployed at horse race meetings. Take the last two races at Brighton on Thursday.	A Country Diary: High Alps A recent morning dawned cool and cloudless; it turned into a perfect day, the sort that only the high Alps seem able to concoct. Traversing the pastures to Hahnenmoos at 6,000ft we saw good...
Berlin diary Berlin is bust. Its debts of £25 billion are expected to rise. Sir Simon Rattle, who arrives in a month's time to take over as artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic, has negotiated a deal...	A Country Diary: Yorkshire The past few days of torrential downpour may have dampened things down a little, but so far this has been an excellent year for butterflies.
Wake Up Don't be a fool. Oh no! September 11th 2001! What a tragedy! Oh wait most of you say the WTC tragedy.	Stoic supporters In the Commons this week, Tony Blair, while declining to intervene, commended supporters of Wimbledon football club for their "stoicism and determination" in their fight against having the...
A Country Diary: S Pembrokeshire: Lakes and lily ponds Bosherton lily ponds are beautiful. Formed by the Campbells of Cawdor, who owned the Stackpole estate from 1689 to 1796, they have the joyous presence more easily achieved by a rich landowner with a...	9/11 documentary: the US reaction The Observer reveals today that the BBC will screen the controversial CBS 9/11 documentary which was broadcast in the United States last autumn. The US screening of the programme was marked by a...
Athens Diary: I'm dreaming of rain with the thermometer at 40 C I'm dreaming of rain with the thermometer at 40 C, writes Helena Smith.	A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Tearing our eyes away from the magnificent sunset across the valley, we scanned the slopes below us - a patchwork of woodland, scrub, wet meadow and grassland. A ghostly brown tawny owl floated by...
Smallweed Steven Spielberg, I see, is planning to make a TV series about King Arthur. It will feature the usual crew: Arthur, naughty Queen Guinevere, naughtier still Sir Lancelot, cunning old Merlin...	A Country Diary: Snowdonia Going up from Rachub, above Bethesda, we came to the great stone archway which gives access to Bryn Haul. This low-built, white-painted house and its courtyard of cottages was once a gamekeeper's...
Smallweed Capitalism, cadaverous MPs, the Marcello brothers, dog names, Pyetistic iambic pentameterism and tennis.	Diary In weekly free sheet the New York Press, the Cypriot wine waiter Taki-George raises doubts over his involvement in our forthcoming Summer Party.
Too hot to handle Sometimes, this weariness comes over you that's got nothing to do with tiredness. It's part contempt, part boredom and part real revulsion at the totally predictable.	K is the key If the kappa fits, don't knock it. Is K special? Breakfast cereals aside, there are grounds for suspicion. Modern history has been warped by wars and other unpleasantnesses curiously linked by...
The convention named Penmachno A battle is under way between ITV and Channel 5, both of which have been making histories of Britain's kings and queens. ITV's is a high-budget affair starring high-budget David Starkey; Channel 5...	A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Sedge warblers and reed buntings called continuously, the wind rattled the stems of reed and bulrush above my head, as I rummaged around in yet another ditch, field drain or dyke. I might have been...
On punting and plastering A bargepole writes: I would like to protest, on behalf of myself and my fellow bargepoles, at the quite unjustified obloquy now so routinely heaped on us by politicians and others in public life.	Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire The Preseli hills mark Pembrokeshire. Foel Cwmcerwyn, at 536m the highest point in west Wales, is one of many tops which form the hills.
Confidence takes a dive "Bankruptcy or a credit default is not a concern"	Teetering on the edge of insanity All sorts of culprits have been arraigned for Tony Blair's recent slide out of popular favour.
A Country Diary: South Yorkshire Despite the early hour, 6am, the sun was strong and warm as we made our way across the fields to the ponds. While still some distance from the water, the long grass was alive with newly-emerged...	A Country Diary: Snowdon Larks were singing matins above the slaty moor as we climbed westwards from Llanberis, up the narrow lane that traverses the northernmost extension of Snowdon's north spur.
Caught between an unlikely and an improbable One could not call it a certainty yet, but there's now a very good chance that the name of the culture secretary Tessa Jowell will enter the language.	Molten Icicle Despite the pain and sadness that comes with love found and lost, somehow, we as humans can't help but go back to that familiar scene, we all in some way are masochistic and sadistic...
Country Diary: South Yorkshire A recent report by the Wildlife trusts and Plantlife highlighted the dramatic decline of the number and quality of wildflower meadows throughout the country.	What a Shame! Our own shame for the things done in Washington DC, on September 11, 2001.
A Country Diary: N Pembrokeshire Thunder, blue sheets of lightning, and it continued all night. The next day, a farmer said to me, "If there's thunder and lightning in May, it'll be a bad summer." Audrey Insch	Brief Look at the Stream of Conscious of a Middle Aged Man "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," said Thoreau. In middle age, the quiet becomes comic as well.
A Rain Haiku It's just a haiku about rainy dayz, and the sadness behind them.	Christianity's Place in Society In our efforts to equalize the minorites, we forget about the majorities.
On Ice Cream Pome	What She Doesn't Know A poem that describes me and my neverending journey to find myself
Where Is Safety? From a speech given in 1984 which still has meaning now more than ever...	Sunshine Take a little time out and see what the world has to offer.
Running With Ambulances An unfinished story of a day in the life of an EMP.	Opportunists - an Unfinished Story I began this story to describe how often illness is used as a PR move, or "glam-fest". Who knows how it will end!
Reflections Reflections on losing youth and learning to live.	Bells, Bells Four friends struggle to become what they want to become without knowing what exactly that is.
Even When A poem that expresses that feeling about someone who touched one's heart.	Run of Luck A gambler steps into the Twilight Zone.
Adversity When a young girl is having troubles, her father helps her by telling a parable.	Vincent and Laura This story is a sweet vignette, a small sliver from the lives of Vincent and Laura, an unlikely couple who made it.
A Christmas Story: Seven Candy Canes A true Christmas miracle that happened in Vietnam, 1967. This story touches men, women and children. Many families read it aloud each year, as it is so inspiring.	Don’t Let Life Pass You By Grandpa always had a habit of falling asleep when he was bored-- in front of the tele, at church, at work, even at the bus stop...
Vampiric Love This is Part One of a love story. A vampire awakens after 100 years to search for his partner female vampire. This story isn't finished yet, watch here for further installments!