This is my first venture into book publishing other than on a one-off basis. Field Studies is my tribute to our farmers and their influence on the landscape. Taking photos of arable and grassland fields was a project I started more than 20 years ago, and which still…
Category: farming
On a rather overcast spring day, I went with a friend to a place on Dartmoor I hadn’t been before – the Emsworthy Mire nature reserve. We timed it perfectly – the variety of pale bluebells growing in lawns were at their peak of perfection (woodland ones near…
It’s a whole decade since I first had the idea of posting an image a day from 1st-24th December – so, welcome to my 10th advent calendar. I decided that it was a while since I’d featured any landscapes, and I had quite a lot assembled into a…
For the first time in 3 years, the Melplash Show was held today. This one-day agricultural show held at West Bay in Dorset is always a crowd-pleaser, especially this year with warm sunny weather and huge numbers of people eager to enjoy some rural fun. My favourite part…
Every time we drive to Bath, I spot an old rust-stained fingerpost pointing down a country lane to White Ox Mead. One of those white cast iron signs with raised black capital lettering. And I muse on the fact that once upon a time in the dim and…
The scene above is, on the face of it, quite timeless, and was taken just a few steps from home. There are several well-known 20th century paintings of sheep in turnip fields – I remember one from a visit to the art gallery in Glasgow many years ago,…
I’ve just discovered a wonderful private nature reserve almost on my doorstep – I only managed to visit on the last open day but am looking forward to next year already. England has lost over 95% of its traditional hay meadows since the war, so sights like these…
If you live in grass-growing country (as I do here in the southwest of England), one of the most elusive and evocative scents of summer is the smell of the sweet vernal grass – as charming in its name as in its perfume. It flowers from spring onwards,…