Helen Baczkowska

Sadly it is Romain's memorial today, so mostly in church, but it St Gwendoline's, which was my grandmother's name, so feels welcoming. She was from a nearby valley, her voice had the rolling cadence of these hills.

Campaigners, overlooking Parliament in London, holding placards calling for an end to peat sales

Five people in front of No 10 Downing Street holding a petition box

Person in a bog costume with a box holding 16,742 signatures

Campaigners, overlooking Parliament in London, holding placards calling for an end to peat sales

We’re telling the Government to put an end to peat sales now! 📢

The destruction of peatlands has got to stop! We've handed in a petition with 16,000 signatures, calling for the government to ban peat sales in 2026.⚠️

Read more👇
https://loom.ly/KMRiz34

& email your MP to support

Careers | Wheatfen Nature Reserve | Broads National Park Discover careers and job opportunities working in the great outdoors at Wheatfen Nature Reserve.

Wheatfen reserve needs a new warden! Details of the job and how to apply can be found here: wheatfen.org/about-us/car...

No chiffchaffs here in Wales this morning, but woke up in my van in the hills, to ravens and dunnocks. Underrated song from dunnocks, I think. Ravens should be quiet at dawn I feel, let the others have a go for once.

That is awful. The need for surveys, specialists and understanding of sites and species is becoming devalued imho. Replacing us with AI and algorithms nonsense. And heather establishment a whole other discussion!!

Ohh, send your article over!

Increasingly feel that actual ecologists are often overlooked in so much decision making. Species rich grasslands are crucial for nature, and so rare now.

In celebration of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s centenary, our friends The Book Hive have curated 10 years of my Norfolk Magazine columns - & words from other Norfolk authors - into This Wild Dream.

Details of the book and events at www.thebookhive.co.uk/product/this...

ALL profits go to NWT & nature.

Years ago I wrote an action plan for this fickle fungus, nice to see it still popping up in odd spots!

As persecution of wildlife becomes increasingly culturally embedded, Contributing Editor Tallulah Brennan urges us to side with the newts and microscopic snails for a chance at a richer life 🐌 www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/02/shad...

A common land year, Exploring the many lives of Britain's common lands.

Escaped sheep, nuclear warheads, fractured memories of road protests and this year's damp February days.

Just part of the many lives of Britain's common lands

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

helenbaczkowska.com

‘It’s now or never’: Tunbridge Wells residents race to save commons from developers Campaign launched amid fears land in heart of Kent town that has been put up for sale could be turned into flats

'There's no common land left in England', someone told me once - there is and it is still being fought over.

@patrickbarkham.bsky.social shows how vulnerable commons can still be. Enclosure for development this time - always about profits from land.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

I have such fond memories of living by the Lambourn, following it upstream towards the hills, swimming in its always freezing chalk-born waters. I live by the Tas now, another chalk river, equally lovely.

FACT OF THE DAY. 21 February 1946. Aneurin Bevan announced the Labour Government’s proposals for a National Health Service. The service began on 5 July 1948. Its introduction represented one of the greatest social reforms in British History which helped every citizen.

Two partridges are visible on the rough hillside. Overhead a sparrow flies holding a feather to line its nest.

“After the snow has melted, western winds have brought mild weather, and when the sun shines many signs of springtime appear”

Writer: EL Grant Watson
Artist: CF Tunnicliffe
‘What to Look for in Winter, 1959’

Like the bright orange of witch's butter, scarlet elf cups draw the eye on a dreary winter's day and give a little moment of joy.

New post/ substack on missing the snow, the Bloomsbury lot at home, a doodlebug, a rallying winter ghost of 1947 (& when the snow buried a train & 1,000 people.) It took me an age to write, & is free. Tho' if you'd like to, there is a Ko-Fi button. Love & thanks x nicolachester.com/2026/02/21/g...

Honoured to be at the private view of Poppy Matthew's exhibition of flint today. Real flints, paintings of flints, words and photos of sea flints and church walls. At St Margaret's on St Benedicts Street for next week if you are in Norwich.

A dead Puffin lies on wet sand, its black and white feathers darkened and slick against the beach. The bird rests on its side, wings folded, with its distinctive orange bill clearly visible against the pale sand.

Heartbreaking: Right now, thousands of Puffins are washing up along our coasts and further afield.

It is devastating to see.

These birds are Red-listed in the UK and already under serious pressure.

Mass deaths like this, known as a “seabird wreck”, can take years for colonies to recover from...

Very much needed and welcomed.

Anti-nature policies are a dead end for Labour.

You don’t secure lasting growth by risking long-term harm to the ecosystems we rely on.

The public knows this.

There’s no need for the Government to pick a fight with voters on nature.

It’s bad policy and bad politics.

My local murmuration is back - was its two year absence due to a local bypass being built? Either way, glad to have the starlings back, dropping into the reeds in small groups, presumably to avoid air traffic collusions.

The Replacement Fallacy Personal Perspective: We cannot compute our way out of a planet we have consumed.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/harn...

Did anyone ask him to cite his evidence?

Photo showing a tall, jagged ice front of the Ronne Ice Shelf in West Antarctica rising above the calm surface of the Weddell Sea. Credit: Torsten Albrecht / PIK.

🔔🚨 New Publication Alert!

Research has shown that the Antarctic Ice Sheet is a climate tipping element.

We found: it’s not one — it’s many.

📄 Paper (open access): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📢 Press release: www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...

Tread below 🧵👇

Pristine chalk streams have crystal clear waters even when in flood. They are set in wet woods habitat, there are no floodbanks & they are full of wood which the river has to move around. Hard to cast a fly but full of fish.

February Filldyke, painted 1881 by BW Leader. There are ducks on the fields around here too, today and the ruts on the tracks are also full. The painting was not popular with Victorians - too realistic and unpicturesque I suspect.

Me too

Rain replaced with sleet here - a horrible neither one thing nor the other weather.

Fresh fears for South West's rail link in Dawlish after storms Taxpayer money has flowed into fixing the rail line connecting Cornwall with the rest of the UK - but the elements have other ideas.

Just mind-boggling that climate breakdown isn't even mentioned in this piece

Despite the fact that it is driving more powerful storms, higher sea level, bigger waves and more intense rainfall

People - apparently even the reporting journalist - still don't get it

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...