Simon Barnes Author and Journalist

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Soaring melodies…

7 August 2022 by Simon Barnes 9 Comments

One of the problems with concerts is that they don’t give you much opportunity for birdwatching. But all that can be put right at the Dome Stage at Snape. It’s an intimate open air arena next to Snape Maltings Concert Hall, the place founded by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. It stands hard by the… [Read More]

Posted in Myblog

Ars longa, vita brevis, Tyto alba

2 August 2022 by Simon Barnes 7 Comments

              Deadlines affect different people in different ways. Cindy’s response is total. She knows no other way. So with the deadline for the Raveningham Sculpture Trail ferociously close, she forgot about such fripperies as food and sleep and set herself to sculpt until it’s done.   In order to spend a little time… [Read More]

Posted in Myblog

How to find precious things in a quarry

25 July 2022 by Simon Barnes 8 Comments

                We stopped to ask a dog-walker about bee-eaters. With weary patience he told us all we needed to know, and so we drove round three sides of the quarry and parked after paying a fiver to the RSPB. Strolled down to the quarry edge and waited, chatting occasionally to others, also… [Read More]

Posted in Myblog

Happy birthday to me…

23 July 2022 by Simon Barnes 39 Comments

              I don’t think you ever really grow out of the idea that life needs to make a special effort on your birthday. It’s only right and proper that for 24 hours everything should be touched by magic. And it was my birthday yesterday, so we set out – me, wife Cindy, sons… [Read More]

Posted in Myblog

Just a little green…

21 July 2022 by Simon Barnes 12 Comments

              You never know what you’re going to get — and quite often you don’t know what you’re getting while you’re getting it. I was paddling my kayak on the local river in the Broads when two waders flew across just ahead of me, dipped towards the water and flew off. I had… [Read More]

Posted in Myblog

Weightless, suspended, unmoving…

11 July 2022 by Simon Barnes 16 Comments

              A hammock is one of the better places for tuning into nature. Admittedly your view tends be a little restricted, especially when you close your eyes, but as you lie suspended between heaven and earth, your altered sense of perspective takes you away from the humdrum.   And there above me, also… [Read More]

Posted in Myblog

A hummingbird in Norfolk…

10 July 2022 by Simon Barnes 23 Comments

Last year my neighbour planted a lavender hedge for three good reasons: it looks great, the deer don’t munch it and nectaring insects love it. It’s grown up a treat and is always worth a long look as you walk past. The more you look at wildlife the more its patterns get established in your… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

A Sunday celebration of the gloriously small

5 July 2022 by Simon Barnes 7 Comments

Last Sunday I was asked to speak at the 20th birthday party of the excellent and gloriously small wildlife charity the Little Ouse headwaters Project — https://www.lohp.org.uk/ Here’s a little of what I said.  “Nimbyism  — an acronym for Not In My Back Yard — is supposed to be a reprehensible thing: standing in the… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

On the whole, stoats are better than work

30 June 2022 by Simon Barnes 9 Comments

A flicker in my left eye. Movement, life, that sort of thing. I turned my head sharply, away from the screen, looked through the window alongside my desk and – well, sometimes it’s a blackbird or a robin, which is fine, certainly better than staring at my own words, sometimes it’s a pheasant, which is… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

Midsummer – it must be time for a swift drink

29 June 2022 by Simon Barnes 14 Comments

It was yesterday evening, the day after midsummer night, the sun not quite down and I was paddling my kayak along the local river on the Broads. There was purple loosestrife on the banks, a Cetti’s warbler called and the stinkboats had all gone to bed for the night. A few swifts were whizzing about… [Read More]

Posted in Wildblog

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