Rocks, Routes and Shoots go to Cyprus (2024)

04/11/2024

This has been a good week for getting out and about and enjoying some lovely autumn weather. We took our new students out in the field for the first time and were blessed with dry, reasonably sunny weather for all our trips to Bishop Middleham quarry, which has a big impact on how the students feel about the day! The practical is designed to get students thinking about natural selection and the factors which affect the colour and patterning of Brown-lipped snails, …...

This has been a good week for getting out and about and enjoying some lovely autumn weather. We took our new students out in the field for the first time and were blessed with dry, reasonably sunny…

22/10/2024

I’ve been busy with the start of term over these last couple of weeks and the weather has been very mixed, to put it mildly, so getting out and about has been challenging at times! Heavy rain in the early part of the month knocked most of the leaves off the Ash trees and many of the Sweet Chestnuts off the trees in the Botanical Gardens and on Cardiac Hill prematurely. ...

I’ve been busy with the start of term over these last couple of weeks and the weather has been very mixed, to put it mildly, so getting out and about has been challenging at times! Heavy rain in t…

11/10/2024

After lots of time to think and write on holiday, it was back to Earth and work with a bump on our return from Tunisia, so I’m cheating a bit and running together my nature noticing for the last couple of weeks. It feels like autumn arrived whilst we were away, with the leaves starting to change colour, berries ripening and the nights drawing in....

After lots of time to think and write on holiday, it was back to Earth and work with a bump on our return from Tunisia, so I’m cheating a bit and running together my nature noticing for the last co…

25/09/2024

One of the big appeals for us of Sidi Bou Saïd as a destination was its proximity to the ancient city of Carthage (from Qart Hadasht, or ‘new city’ in Phoenician). In fact, the clifftops of Sidi Bou Saïd were used to site first a Carthaginian, then Roman and Berber watchtowers. Coming originally from Tyre, in modern day Lebanon and…...

One of the big appeals for us of Sidi Bou Saïd as a destination was its proximity to the ancient city of Carthage (from Qart Hadasht, or ‘new city’ in Phoenician). In fact, the clifftops of Sidi B…

23/09/2024

Our final destination in Tunisia has been a bit of a shock to the system – the pretty cliff-top town of Sidi Bou Saïd, to the north of Tunis, is tourist central. It’s a beautiful village full of narrow lanes, whitewashed buildings with cobalt-blue doors and window grills and amazing views of the Gulf of Tunis from its situation, high on the headland. ...

Our final destination in Tunisia has been a bit of a shock to the system – the pretty cliff-top town of Sidi Bou Saïd, to the north of Tunis, is tourist central. It’s a beautiful village full of n…

21/09/2024

Our route from Le Kef to our final holiday destination here, at Sidi Bou Said, took us past the ancient Roman (and pre-Roman) city of Dougga, so it would have been rude not to stop! If we were impressed by Makthar, this was on a whole different level. Its UNESCO World Heritage Site citation says that Dougga represents, "the best-preserved Roman small town in North Africa". ...

Our route from Le Kef to our final holiday destination here, at Sidi Bou Said, took us past the ancient Roman (and pre-Roman) city of Dougga, so it would have been rude not to stop! If we were imp…

19/09/2024

The town of El Kef, in the Tell Atlas, where we’ve spent the last few days, is not somewhere which sees a lot of European tourists judging by the reaction we get from local school children! We've seen none at all. Our guest house here is in a beautiful spot above the medina, with great views over the mountains to the south and west, most of which are sadly no-go areas for us on the basis of FCO advice – they are too close to the Algerian border....

The town of El Kef, in the Tell Atlas, where we’ve spent the last few days, is not somewhere which sees a lot of European tourists judging by the reaction we get from local school children! We& #821…

18/09/2024

One thing you realise in this part of the world is just how widely Rome spread its influence in North Africa, after routing first the Phoenicians and then the Numidians, just before the birth of Christ. African resources were very important to Rome, with the Tell Mountains around Le Kef, where we are staying now, supposed to have supplied 60% of the Roman empire’s wheat requirements in the first Century AD, something which is hard to imagine looking at today’s semi-arid landscape....

One thing you realise in this part of the world is just how widely Rome spread its influence in North Africa, after routing first the Phoenicians and then the Numidians, just before the birth of Ch…

16/09/2024

Our third destination in Tunisia was Kairouan, Islam’s fourth holiest city and site of the oldest mosque in Africa. The drive north and west here from Chebba took us through miles and miles of olive plantations, much like we’d seen along the coast. Mostly the olive trees are widely spaced and sometimes the ground under them seems to have been deliberately cleared, which makes me wonder whether something which was growing beneath the trees has already been harvested....

Our third destination in Tunisia was Kairouan, Islam’s fourth holiest city and site of the oldest mosque in Africa. The drive north and west here from Chebba took us through miles and miles o…

14/09/2024

Our next two nights in Tunisia were spent in a delightful apartment built in the traditional style on the edge of Chebba forest, just north of the village of Chebba. The village was a bit of a disappointment, and the beach too, initially, but the beautiful, peaceful location of our studio apartment and the amazing breakfasts produced by Adem left us wishing we’d booked it for an additional night....

Our next two nights in Tunisia were spent in a delightful apartment built in the traditional style on the edge of Chebba forest, just north of the village of Chebba. The village was a bit of a dis…

13/09/2024

I think it’s time to break the nature-focussed pattern for now as we’ve just started a fortnight’s holiday in Tunisia – partly chosen to give me a chance to practice the Arabic I’ve been learning, slowly, over the last four years. It’s not that simple, though, as most people’s first response on seeing a European is to speak French to them and, obviously, to address the man… Our first couple of nights were spent in the sleepy seaside village of Hergla (هرقلة in Arabic) and the confusion starts here – there is no letter ‘G’ in Arabic, where the name would be pronounced Harqala, so I have no idea how this became the transliteration!...

I think it’s time to break the nature-focussed pattern for now as we’ve just started a fortnight’s holiday in Tunisia – partly chosen to give me a chance to practice the Arabic I’ve been learning, …

10/09/2024

This has been a funny sort of week, putting away all the toddler toys and kit for another year and catching up with work jobs before our holiday. The week started with the funeral of a very elderly friend, the lovely Joyce Bott. She first crossed my radar many years ago, when I was a first year undergraduate, and she helped run some of our practical classes....

This has been a funny sort of week, putting away all the toddler toys and kit for another year and catching up with work jobs before our holiday. The week started with the funeral of a very e…

08/09/2024

As this week saw the end of ‘meteorological summer’ I perhaps shouldn’t be surprised to find it a time of change. Autumn colours are appearing already, particularly along the riverbanks in Durham. Ed and family returning to China ready for the new academic year is one of the least welcome changes but it did provide an opportunity to visit some more surprising nature sanctuaries…...

As this week saw the end of ‘meteorological summer’ I perhaps shouldn’t be surprised to find it a time of change. Autumn colours are appearing already, particularly along the riverbanks in Du…

01/09/2024

We’ve had a lovely family week, despite foul weather, staying in an apartment on the lovely Pennighame Estate near Newton Stewart. The atrocious weather was particularly disappointing given the sunny weather being had in Durham but staying in such beautiful grounds meant we could be outside enjoying any breaks in the rain quickly. We got to see the River Cree, which borders the east side of the estate, in all its moods – spreading out over the flood plain upstream of Newton Stewart, as rivers are supposed to do, and giving the town itself some protection from flooding. ...

We’ve had a lovely family week, despite foul weather, staying in an apartment on the lovely Pennighame Estate near Newton Stewart. The atrocious weather was particularly disappointing given the s…

23/08/2024

This week’s nature highlights were closer to home and involved lots of fruit picking (raspberries and blackberries, both of which Casper calls ‘bluebererries’). Casper was also lucky enough to find an egg in the nesting box in our friends’ chicken enclosure and to be given it to take home for his tea. This week was the first time this year I’ve seen butterflies in any number in the allotment, though it’s hard to be excited about Large white butterflies, whose caterpillars are steadily munching their way through the Brassicas which survived the slugs! ...

This week’s nature highlights were closer to home and involved lots of fruit picking (raspberries and blackberries, both of which Casper calls ‘bluebererries’). Casper was also lucky enough to find…

18/08/2024

In this part of the world at least (the Campbeltown peninsula, in western Scotland), last week’s heatwave is but a distant memory! Monday’s wet weather activity was a ferry ride from Tarbert to the hotel at Portavadie, on the East shore of Loch Fyne, with an outdoor swimming pool (to get wet again!) Kate spotted the lichen Nephroma laevigatum, growing on a wall– it is unusual in having reddish-brown apothecia (cup-like fruiting bodies) attached to the under surface of its thallus, which makes it relatively easy to identify....

In this part of the world at least (the Campbeltown peninsula, in western Scotland), last week’s heatwave is but a distant memory! Monday’s wet weather activity was a ferry ride from Tarbert to th…

07/08/2024

This was our first really hot week of the summer, with temperatures climbing into the mid 20s most afternoons, though I realise this in not hot compared to what others, further south, are having to put up with! I’ve squeezed in a couple of early morning runs before my babysitting duties have kicked in and am noticing how strongly scented plants are after a heavy dew – aniseed-scented Sweet Cicely is an obvious one but I noticed the honeyed scent of Creeping Thistles growing…...

This was our first really hot week of the summer, with temperatures climbing into the mid 20s most afternoons, though I realise this in not hot compared to what others, further south, are having to…

29/07/2024

I’m glad to say that, after a few very disappointing nights with the moth trap, I finally got a couple of good hauls this week, both in terms of numbers of individuals and species caught. On Tuesday morning I caught around 20 species of moth and micro-moth, including some new to me. Common Emerald, Hemithea aestivaria, was a lovely surprise. Though not uncommon, I’ve not seen it before; the photo doesn’t do its vivid colour justice....

I’m glad to say that, after a few very disappointing nights with the moth trap, I finally got a couple of good hauls this week, both in terms of numbers of individuals and species caught. On Tuesd…

Rocks, Routes and Shoots go to Cyprus