Next time you walk amongst the purple heathers of Dartmoor with the gentle breeze delicately wafting amongst the gorse you may even find that the aroma is even headier than ever. For this you can thank good old Tony Blair and his bunch of clowns for once again they have …

Take a look at any hedgerow and this year in particular (2006) they are loaded with berries and no more so than the elder berry. The roots of the elder tree descends deep into the depths of time. Since the Christian era the tree has been regarded as something of …

I can honestly say that despite tramping over Dartmoor for a few decades I have never seen sight nor sound of the elusive Dunlin. The Dunlin or Calidris alpina if one wants to be official is a  small wading bird that tends to breed in upland bogs and then migrate …

The Dipper It was winter, near freezing, I’d walked through a forest of firs when I saw issue out of the waterfall. a solitary bird. It lit on a damp rock, and, as water swept stupidly on, w rung from its own throat. supple, undammable song. It isn’t mine to …

When on the moor, every now and again you can look down at your feet and see a cluster of small, red, delicate dots. A closer examination will reveal that they all belong to a growing colony of lichen called Cladonia Coccifera or more commonly known as Cup Lichen or …

Ah, the dear old dandelion, the dear old dandelion that as a youngster featured so heavily in the daily routine. Hardly a day went by when handfuls of dandelion leaves weren’t gathered for the pet rabbit. As the year progressed the foraging trips got longer and longer as the hedgerows …

There is not a finer sound than to be walking on the Dartmoor commons on a summer’s day and to hear the distinctive call of a cuckoo. I have heard hundreds of them but would estimate that I have actually seen about a dozen. This elusiveness is what adds to …

    The Crab Apple Tree (Malus sylvestris) is one of the original ancestors of today’s cultivated apple trees. The twigs of the tree sometimes develop little spines thus taking on a ‘crab-like’ appearance which has led to the idea that this is where its name came from. The Crab …

The Dartmoor Cowflop sounds as if it’s something whose location people bet on at a cow crapping contest, but no, nothing as repulsive. It is the old moor name for that magical plant that the piskies love so much – the foxglove. Don’t ask why it is called a cowflop …

Who has not at some time or other idly rummaged through a clover patch in search of the elusive four-leafed specimen? I have only ever found one example, and has it brought good luck? No, because after finding it I carefully wrapped the precious clover in my handkerchief and by …