Nature Diaries

March 20, 2003 11:03 AM

Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary. 'My diary describes a year in the life of woodland, field, marsh, river, canal . . . and a fairly wild back garden . . . in the Calder valley in coal measures country near Wakefield.'
Richard Bell's nature diary has been online since 1998.
The site's links page leads to more nature diaries and related resources :
Ackworth School's natural history diary, Roseberry Topping, an environmentally friendly slug trap, Yorkshire dialect verse, wildscapes from Texas, Notes from Pure Land Mountain (a journal from countryside Japan), and more.
Although it's not linked, An English Country Garden, chronicling a garden in a small village in Dorset, would not be out of place here; neither would Blackberry Creek Journal, 'a country newsletter about the seasons, animals, gardens and people of a small Michigan farm'. There is a huge collection of gardening journals and homepages here. [more inside]
posted by plep (8 comments total)

When you tire of these, there are a number of interesting/historic garden sites worth visiting :-
The Desert de Retz, a romantic French folly garden.
Zen Gardens.
Mad Jack Fuller, eccentric squire and folly builder.
Monticello, a house and garden designed by Thomas Jefferson.
the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.
The Peace Garden in North Dakota.
The Museum of Garden History in London, which has an interesting history.
posted by plep at 11:11 AM on March 20, 2003

I love the homebrew animated sketches. Thank you, plep
posted by SealWyf at 11:57 AM on March 20, 2003

*me bursts into the discussion sobbing*

Damn you plep! It is at least another month and a half before I can begin working on my pond and my garden. You are cruel, cruel I say!

(This is one of the best researched, most human and cool-ass-lovely posts I've ever encountered on MetaFilter. Thank you. And I'll add a link to The Harland Hand Memorial Garden just for good measure. The guy was a genius.)
posted by Wulfgar! at 1:45 PM on March 20, 2003

Thanks for that link. :)
I'm thinking of doing something Zen with part of the garden for my new house at some stage, myself. I really enjoyed digging these sites out.
posted by plep at 1:56 PM on March 20, 2003

Beautiful post, plep, and I echo what Wulfgar! said about the "human and lovely" nature. The photos in Roseberry Topping are fabulous, and the photos in the linked Yorkshire=Dales brought me back to a wonderful vacation some years back - such charming, pretty and unspoiled countryside!

Thanks!
posted by madamjujujive at 10:12 PM on March 20, 2003

Juju - I think you will include Daelnet's features on Yorkshire heritage. Some good stuff here.
posted by plep at 12:11 AM on March 21, 2003

This is great, plep--but I can't say anything else, because I won't be able to leisurely appreciate it all till this weekend. Thanks!
posted by Shane at 7:51 AM on March 21, 2003

Here's another - Wild Skye, a group blog from Scotland.
posted by ceiriog at 8:36 AM on April 5, 2003