Thrift is a member of the Plumbaginaceae (aka Leadwort) tribe, a small and tough family that specialises in harsh habitats, having evolved ‘chalk glands’ that excrete salts, allowing it to flourish in places where weaker plants fear to venture, like our storm-lashed, salt-sprayed coastlines.
Tag Archives: #Northwestnatureandhistory
Ichneumon sarcitorius, the White-Striped Darwin Wasp
Ichneumon sarcitorius is a common and strikingly patterned parasitic wasp belonging to the vast Ichneumonidae family.
Often referred to as a ‘Darwin wasp’ this species is a vital component of its ecosystem, serving as a specialised natural predator that helps manage moth populations in a wide variety of habitats throughout the British Isles.
Easter
By Gerard Manley Hopkins Break the box and shed the nard;Stop not now to count the cost;Hither bring pearl, opal, sard;Reck not what the poor have lost;Upon Christ throw all away:Know ye, this is Easter Day. Build His church and deck His shrine,empty though it be on earth;Ye have kept your choicest wine—Let it flowContinue reading “Easter”
The Bowland Nature Recovery Plan: A Vision for a Wilder Landscape, with a Blind Spot for Those Who Keep it Alive
In December 2023, the Forest of Bowland National Landscape (formerly the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) published its Nature Recovery Plan, a 71-page roadmap with the stated aims of reversing biodiversity declines and building climate resilience across 310 square miles of Lancashire and Yorkshire uplands.
Searching for Stonechat on Pendle
In spring the hill becomes alive with birdsong as smaller birds come into their own, high above, unseen in Pendle’s famous mists, Skylark and Meadow Pipit trill, from a lone Rowan an Ouzel whistles and from the Gorse you may hear the unusual yet unmistakeable call of the Stonechat.
The Black Seam
On the 22nd of March, 1962, the tight-knit mining community of Hapton in Lancashire was shaken by catastrophe when an underground explosion ripped through Hapton Valley Colliery, the town’s main employer, claiming the lives of 19 men and injuring many others.
Springtime Lepidoptera on the Fylde Coast Dunes
Lancashire’s Fylde Coast features one of the finest stretches of sand dunes anywhere in England. From St Annes to Starr Gate these dynamic dune-systems, remnants of a once vast realm of sandy hills which stretched along this entire coast, are home to a myriad of flora and fauna, many of which have nowhere else to live.
Hymn to Spring, by Lancastrian Poet Samuel Bamford
Sweet bringer of new life, welcome thou hither! Though with thee comes the strife of changeful weather. Oh! young and coldly fair, come with thy storm-blown hair. Down casting snow-pearls fair, for earth to gather!
Northwest Nature and History 