My common always seems a week behind everywhere else - lady's smock only came out a few days ago!

The running man and the pony. At New Year, I took on the care of two ponies.

Dusk, bird song and a touching encounter with a rescued pony....
open.substack.com/pub/commonpl...

No sign of the green wingeds near me in Norfolk yet!

I don't know where the ravens near me are nesting, but just pass dawn they fly over, croaking a bass note to the treble of the song thrush.

Find out more and buy tickets here and please share: www.tickettailor.com/events/joele...

@sarahsteinlubrano.bsky.social

It seems to be having a good year!

I noticed the early budding lilac last week too.

It interests me that people say 'oh it is cold', as if surprised. March is a cold old month in my view, but we are losing that perspective.

Thank you

A common land year, March At Swaddy Well

The latest instalment of my year looking at Britain's common lands; this time a March trip across the Fens, and nature lost and found at John Clare's Swaddy Well.

#commonland
#JohnClare
#TheFens

substack.com/@commonplace...

Really loving today's glut of flower photos - all that spring life and colour!

Just opening their pale yellow loveliness on my local common too.

A patch of low-growing wildflowers in a grassy field: four dandelions, red dead-nettle, speedwell, shepherd’s purse, common chickweed and hairy bittercress.

A whole frame full of wildflowers for #wildflowerhour: dandelions, red dead-nettle, speedwell, shepherd’s purse, common chickweed and hairy bittercress. Yesterday in a Gloucestershire field.

DucklingWatch poster. The information displayed on the poster can be found at citsci.org/projects/ducklingwatch

DucklingWatch

The DucklingWatch citizen science project, led by Hannah Coburn at the University of Essex, returns for its second year. Submitting your records of Mallard ducklings will help improve understanding of duckling survival rates and drivers of population trends.

Just announced: our annual Day Out in Sussex, taking place on 2nd May.

Now in its 5th year, it is a unique day of talks, music, food and beer spread across the Downland village of Kingston, a few miles from both Lewes and Brighton. Full details and tickets: www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/03/caug...

Fabulously well done Tir Natur, spreading nature far and wide 👏👏👏

Been away from social media awhile, travelling Welsh lanes the slow, old way.

Sunshine and wind, kite call and raven, gorse flowers and the first white flowers of greater stitchwort in the clawdd (banks).

The horses are Roger on the right and Gwen of the fine backside on the left.

And breathe.

The landmark IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report found that global economic growth occurs at the expense of biodiversity, the loss of which poses a critical, systemic risk to the economy & human wellbeing.

🎥 Watch this short video to learn more.
🔗 https://www.ipbes.net/bba-report/media-release

The nature of war Saturday was one of those spring days when the sunshine is warm, but the shadows are still winter cold.

Yesterday, I stood silently with Norwich Women in Black - part of a global movement opposing war and promoting justice.

I was distracted by goldfinches singing in a city centre tree, prompting me to write about the ecological impacts of war.

open.substack.com/pub/commonpl...

#WomenInBlack

They were certain that the presence of standing stones showed that the land had been held more sacred than others - now, this might be true, who knows after 5000 years? But they sadly knew nothing about Seahenge or Flag Fen. I can see their viewpoint, just think there is so much we don't know.

Yes - this was my point exactly, there were other signs long ago, just lost if not cast in stone. And in places that were lived in, but were more water than land, only fragments like Flag Fen linger on.

Good to find this on my thread....my 2 years of fatigue after a fairly mild bout of covid are easing. But still no real sense of smell or of taste, which is more distressing that it sounds! It has robbed me of much interest in food and changing gas bottles is more dangerous than ever!

We must protect our natural habitats before they disappear | Letters Letters: Readers respond to Sam Dumitriu’s article on protecting Britain’s environment

My letter in the Guardian countering an article by a pro-growth lobbyist from Britain Remade attacking environmental legislation

“Ecologists & conservationists would be surprised by his claim that the UK doesn’t & never will build enough to drive nature loss”
1/2
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I am interested in creating a genetically engineered mammoth - I just want us to spend our efforts on a world where the primrose and cowslip can thrive; where bats are cherished and safe, where toads call from their ancestral ponds and old woods slumber on without threat.

Exactly

A great but undervalued collection of nature poems by Ted Hughes was reissued by Faber this week (illustrated by Leonard Baskin). Tim Dee thinks it contains some of the best of Hughes 🦗 www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/03/flow...

Image: Leonard Baskin, Grasshopper © Leonard Baskin Art Trust, 1985

Thanks for noticing and reminding us - so important in a time of war and hate and so little sense. The humble chiffchaff seems so significant now.

Same here with USAF Mildehall and Lakenheath - a constant rumble, the dark night busy with the bright lights of aircraft, yesterday a helicopter low over the common, rattling old windows. Reminds me of the first Iraq war, when I was living in Wales and the valleys were full of screaming jets.

Bats play vital roles in the ecosystem we all rely on, beyond that it's worth remembering Sir David Attenborough's powerful words about the natural world: "It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.”

www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/w...

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wild mums out there! 💚🙌 ~ Jack

📷 Jo Hackman Photography