126
@RobGMacfarlane
The English Oak (Quercus robur) supports an astonishing 2300 species, of which 326 depend on it for survival.
716 lichens, 108 fungi, 1178 invertebrates, owls, bats, wood warblers, butterflies...
I hold in my hand not a single tree, but a community-to-be, a world-in-waiting.
127
@RobGMacfarlane
The symbiosis between Jay & Oak is in full swing right now.
One Jay can hoard/bury 5000+ acorns each autumn; those they forget become saplings by spring.
Garrulus glandarius = Chattering acorn-gatherer.
Yes, Jays are bright-backed, blue-winged forest-makers.
Photo: Andy Morfeww
128
@RobGMacfarlane
160,000 Woodcock are shot each year in the UK.
UK population is c. 130,000.
Shooting season opens now, meaning UK breeding pop gets shot through Oct.
Best of all: stop shooting Woodcock.
Second best: push start of season back to Dec 1.
Sign below, follow @WildJustice_org. twitter.com/WildJustice_or…
129
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello -- 5 years ago today, a book called The Lost Words by me & @JackieMorrisArt was published.
Here we are, nervous & young(er), on that day.
In our wildest dreams we couldn't have guessed what the planting of that acorn would cause to flourish.
Thread...🧵🪡
130
@RobGMacfarlane
This is extraordinary.
Stay the course.
Life! twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl…
131
@RobGMacfarlane
New gov't policy is an #AttackOnNature, in an already acutely nature-depleted country.
@nationaltrust @WildlifeTrusts & @Natures_Voice (total membership 8m) are mobilising in resistance.
Pls share to show @ranil the no. of votes & depth of feeling at stake bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
132
@RobGMacfarlane
“Certainly it is in October that one may see the skeins of geese arrowing their way south…Primeval forces are there, made for a moment visible.”
(Nan Shepherd)
It’s bird migration time of year again; the skies are on the move.
Who’s arriving & who’s leaving where you are? twitter.com/jake_fiennes/s…
133
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello -- some news!
I've adapted Susan Cooper's cult-classic novel, The Dark Is Rising, for a 12-part audio drama/podcast on @bbcworldservice.
Dir. & co-adapted by @SimonMcBurney.
Starring Toby Jones, Harriet Walter.
Music by @JohnnyFlynnHQ & more.
#TheDarkIsRising
Brief 🧵
134
@RobGMacfarlane
...The Dark Is Rising begins on Midwinter Eve, 20 December, and then unfolds over the following days, at roughly a chapter a day.
The first episode of our adaptation will be broadcast on 20 December, and go out for 12 days, so you'll listen in the 'real time' of the novel...
135
@RobGMacfarlane
"5 yrs later, the River Roding Trust has planted 100s of trees, removed 1000+ bags of rubbish & 75 shopping trolleys...the river's polluters are being exposed & challenged for the first time in decades."
This thread👇
So inspiring.
Real change on the ground, community-led.
YES! twitter.com/jm0ses/status/…
136
@RobGMacfarlane
Conservation good news: the collapse of California’s Mono Lake has been reversed.
How? Stream rehabilitation & limits on water diversions (cc @Feargal_Sharkey).
“The lake is now an inspiration for efforts to heal degraded ecosystems worldwide.”
💥 insideclimatenews.org/news/30102022/…
137
@RobGMacfarlane
This is “inosculation”, where two trees rub branches, roots or trunks together until they conjoin vascular systems, melting into one another.
Latin in+osculari, “to kiss inwards”
AKA: a long, slow, beautiful interspecies tree-snog, beech on birch & back again.
📷 @JohnnyFlynnHQ
138
@RobGMacfarlane
This is an excellent decision on mountain-naming, which will help the Welsh language thrive within & without Cymru/Wales.
Really well explained in Peter’s thread.
“Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.” (Wade Davis) twitter.com/GillibrandPete…
139
@RobGMacfarlane
A month now until our 12-part audio-drama adaptation of Susan Cooper’s great novel The Dark Is Rising begins on @bbcworldservice…
Short film & link to Ep 0 are out today 👇
Can you complete these lines from the novel?
“Tonight will be bad, and…”
“When the Dark comes rising…” twitter.com/bbcworldservic…
140
@RobGMacfarlane
The fight is gearing up against the Darwalls, the wealthy landowners who are, appallingly, trying to shut down the right to wild camp on Dartmoor.
The case goes to the Royal Courts of Justice on 12 Dec.
Come join the rally in support of @dartmoornpa & the right to wild camp.
⛺️ twitter.com/Right_2Roam/st…
141
@RobGMacfarlane
Wow. That red spike.
Huge auroral activity potentially visible rn *anywhere in the UK*.
If you can get anywhere highish & dark & away from artificial sky-glow, look north!
Thanks for the tip-off @robsaintjohn.
142
@RobGMacfarlane
"England is one of the few countries where water is fully owned by private companies, [who] answer to investors based 1000s of miles away from their customers."
Huge piece.
Ownership structures & fiduciary duty are at the heart of England's river-death.
theguardian.com/environment/ng…
143
@RobGMacfarlane
The fight hots up to prevent landowners the Darwalls from blocking the right to wild camp responsibly on parts of Dartmoor.
Case goes to the High Court on 12 Dec.
We'd love to gather more stories, photos etc of those who've camped out on Dartmoor.
Pls RT & add to thread below. 🙏 twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane…
144
@RobGMacfarlane
“When the Dark comes rising/Six shall turn it back…”
I wrote today about the Midwinter power of Susan Cooper’s great novel & the experience of adapting it over the last year with the great @SimonMcBurney & @Complicite.
Starts on @bbcworldservice 20/12
❄️
theguardian.com/books/2022/dec…
145
@RobGMacfarlane
Happy that our film River won Best Documentary at the Australian Academy Awards yesterday.
Such a joy to work on this with director Jen Peedom, Willem Dafoe, Jonny Greenwood, Joseph Nizeti & the astonishing @didgefusion.
Rivers are beings—and our fate flows with theirs.
146
@RobGMacfarlane
I met my own Brocken Spectre on the Fairfield Horseshoe today, haloed in concentric ice-refracted coronae.
An encounter I’ll never forget; a portal & a double that retreated in the measure I approached it.
147
@RobGMacfarlane
This icicle-hung cave is the site of a Neolithic stone axe “factory”, where fine-grained greenstone was—from c. 6000 yrs ago—used to make tools of great beauty &value
It was a moving place to reach; where ancestors had climbed & worked for centuries, in deep human time.
148
@RobGMacfarlane
Striding Edge on Helvellyn was a weather-blade today, dividing light & shadow, white & green, snow & grass.
Crossed it with my son.
Summit plateau was polar, with blue landskeins of receding ridge-lines out towards the Irish Sea.
149
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello—it’s Midwinter Eve & the 1st episode of our @bbcworldservice audio-drama adaptation of The Dark Is Rising is out today!
A year’s work.
An episode a day for 12 days.
Pls listen along, tell us how you’re finding it, tell others!
#TheDarkIsRising
Here: bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w… twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane…
150
@RobGMacfarlane
Number Crunching
@PrivateEyeNews
@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