As one who added the study of astronomy to my natural philosophy repertoire rather late in life, I found it a bit challenging to get the gist of just what I was looking at whenever I cast my eyes skyward (and if I’m honest, I very often still do). Not that there aren’t a number […]
You generally don’t see very many novels written up in The Well-read Naturalist. Part of this is due to the fact that after a uni degree in English literature, I went a bit off fiction, and when I returned some years later, most of the novels I read tend to be a century or two old and are not particularly applicable to the purpose of this publication. Part is also due to the fact that of those that I see that do take some manner of natural history as their theme, well… my primary editorial rule applies: if I don’t think it’s worthy of recommendation, I simply won’t write about it at all.
One of the most persistent challenges I’ve faced as a naturalist is in how to pursue my field interests while also fulfilling all my responsibilities as a husband, father, and most recently care-giving child to an elderly, dementia-afflicted parent. Then, of course, to all these as also daily added the constant and seemingly ever-increasing demands […]
Let’s face it: children ask an astonishing number of questions, and children exposed to even a tiny bit of nature ask an exponentially larger number. Parents – or for that matter, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers and anyone else with an interest in a child’s overall education and well-being – naturally want to be able to […]