1
@RobGMacfarlane
Word of the Day: "thole" -- as a noun, the ability to bear hardship. As a verb, to endure patiently, to slog through tough times; "to thole on" (Scots).
Compare "sisu" (Finnish) & "ganbaru/gambaru (頑張る)" (Japanese, lit. "stand firm").
📷 Ron Porter
2
@RobGMacfarlane
Word of the #MayDay: "Maienschein" -- lit. "May-light", "May-shine"; the green glow of sunlight through spring leaves (also "Mayenschein"; German, poetic-archaic).
cf Japanese 木漏れ日, komorebi (lit. tree-passed-through-by-sunlight).
Send Maienschein...
📷Couleur
3
@RobGMacfarlane
Un-Innocent
Current @PrivateEyeNews on sanctimonious otters, @innocent smoothies & green-washing.
4
@RobGMacfarlane
"Books are tool kits: the things we learn from them can change our own lives, as well as the world."
Great @M_Z_Harrison piece on how childhood reading can shape a lifelong love of the living world.
Which books "awakened" yr "interest in nature" & how/why?
theguardian.com/books/2021/jun…
5
@RobGMacfarlane
In today's Guardian, new research finds water companies are dumping sewage illegally into rivers at 10x the levels in official data.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
And in today's River Roding, gross proof of the charges 👇👇
When will @EnvAgency hold @thameswater etc. fully to account? twitter.com/riverroding/st…
6
@RobGMacfarlane
"Jay, Jay, plant me an acorn.
I will plant you a thousand acorns."
Jays have planted half the trees in two new English woodlands!
theguardian.com/environment/20…
Here's a spell from The Lost Spells by me & @jackiemorris celebrating the "bright-backed, blue-winged, forest-making Jay."
7
@RobGMacfarlane
"In the English language alone, more than 7,000 names have been recorded for some 150 bird species in the British Isles."
Andy Gosler on how ethno-ornithology salvages & celebrates "the cherished, ancient relationships with nature that lie behind...names."
theconversation.com/there-are-over…
8
@RobGMacfarlane
A heads-up that, to my delight, Barry Lopez's masterpiece Arctic Dreams (1986) will be Book of the Week on @BBCRadio4 this week, starting 09.45am today.
The book––and the writer––that made me a writer.
Barry passed away in December this year.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
9
@RobGMacfarlane
Teachers, parents, #edutwitter: a free 23pp "Summer Explorer's Guide" to The Lost Spells is out today, by @JohnEvajohn59.
Lesson plans, writing/art challenges,
outdoor learning, nature-literacy...
All with a glowing @jackiemorris Solstice daisy-sun!
Here: thelostwords.org/resources/
10
@RobGMacfarlane
Planning consent granted for the destruction of a tunnel of elms, at St Marks on the Isle of Man.
Elms are nationally scarce, elm tunnels drastically scarce across UK & Europe.
Does anyone know why this is happening, & whether anything can still be done? twitter.com/manxnature/sta…
11
@RobGMacfarlane
For those following this issue 👇 re. the planned destruction of a rare 'tunnel' of elms, to allow access to farmland: a petition has been launched against the planning decision–and it's flying.
8200 signatures & counting.
Please sign/share if so minded.
change.org/p/deparment-of… twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane…
12
@RobGMacfarlane
Reasons not to mow verges unnecessarily No. 451:
Jaw-dropped, thrilled & astonished this evening to discover…a Bee orchid (Ophrys apifera) flowering on the verge of the street I live on, a few doors up from me.
Just look at the mimicry of the flower that gives it its name!
13
@RobGMacfarlane
The oldest story in world literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, tells of a ruler felling a sacred cedar wood.
Chaos follows.
4000 yrs on, @jjhorgan pursues the cutting of #FairyCreek's old-growth cedars.
Some of those trees are half as old as Gilgamesh.
Here: theguardian.com/environment/20…
14
@RobGMacfarlane
“I don’t think the average consumer knows that half the stuff they buy at the supermarket contains palm oil, & most palm oil is from illegally deforested land…”: on crucial new international efforts to curb the abuses of the palm oil industry.
e360.yale.edu/features/the-t…
15
@RobGMacfarlane
"More money is being spent destroying the UK environment than protecting it."
* UK most wildlife-depleted of G7 nations
* 25yr Environment Plan lacks robust monitoring/enforcement
* Public sector investment in conservation down 33% in 5 years.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
16
@RobGMacfarlane
.@Kings_College has decided to ban swimming & water access at Grantchester Meadow on the River Cam & enforce with patrols.
Terrible decision.
The river here has been used by the community for centuries.
There has to be a better solution.
Petition 👇
change.org/p/king-s-colle…
17
@RobGMacfarlane
Moved by this discovery of 100s of skeletons in dunes of Whitesands Beach, dating back to 6thC.
Early Christian burials on this then-remote bay.
Buried w/ heads to the west.
And—the detail that pierces—white quartz pebbles placed on the graves of children. independent.co.uk/news/uk/skelet…
18
@RobGMacfarlane
On street trees & climate crisis:
"Trees are, simply, the most effective technology we have to guard against heat in cities."
& so good to hear a city tree manager say this:
"our default position is, you don't take out big trees to put in small trees."
nytimes.com/2021/07/02/cli…
19
@RobGMacfarlane
Very cool news: first baby beaver (“kit”) born in Exmoor since…a few years after Shakespeare died.
Now around six weeks old.
If it gets a name, I hope it’s better than his mother’s, “named ‘Grylls’ for her survival instincts.” bbc.com/news/uk-englan…
20
@RobGMacfarlane
“Rivers are our life support system but we are literally pouring shit into them...you’d think keeping water clean would be job number one? But this government can’t even do that.”
@GeorgeMonbiot & @FrannyArmstrong’s must-watch Rivercide screens tonight. 👇
theguardian.com/environment/20…
21
@RobGMacfarlane
Mesmerised to watch this female golden-ringed dragonfly—longest of UK’s dragonflies; lover of moorlands & peat-bogs—laying her eggs, one by one, in this delicate dipping dance.
Stained-glass lacing of her wings, beautiful banding of her body.
A perfectly engineered micro-craft.
22
@RobGMacfarlane
“The future is not in oil,” Greenland’s government said, “The future belongs to renewable energy.”
Courageous & exemplary decision, just out, by GL’s government to abandon all future oil exploration (despite c. 18bn barrels of oil under west coast alone). bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
23
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello -- just to say that, in case you'd be interested to listen in, I'll be the castaway on Desert Island Discs this coming Sunday.
Guesses at the 8 tracks, book & luxury welcome (but I can neither confirm nor deny, etc...).
@laurenlaverne was the best!
bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…
24
@RobGMacfarlane
Hot weather makes open water even more appealing, but swimming comes with risks.
The @outdoorswimming has put together a vital list of ten top tips for safe summer swimming.
Please do read & share if so inclined.
#BEWATERAWARE
outdoorswimmingsociety.com/10-tips-for-su…
25
@RobGMacfarlane
Superb essay dismantling the “biological deserts fallacy”; the perception that cities are barren of wildlife/nature.
I’ve spent years arguing against this idea.
Tell me the wildlife of your city/town.
Mine, Cambridge: peregrines, bee orchids, grass snakes…e360.yale.edu/features/urban…
@RobGMacfarlane
Books: Is A River Alive? (WIP) Underland, The Lost Words, The Old Ways, etc. | Films: River, Mountain, Upstream | Nature, climate, people | Prof @Cambridge_uni