industry – Pickingupducks

White gold

I am born in water. I live in water and I die when water touches me. What am I? The answer to this old riddle has been adding flavour to our days and dishes, fascinating, exfoliating and also relaxing us these past weeks. It is the mineral once known as white gold and in CheshireContinue reading “White gold”

Nature thrives in the industrial heartland

Birmingham is underlining to us the importance of canals that are navigable. These were once the highways of industry as boats plied back and forth with coal and wood, iron and chemicals, pottery and products of all sorts. Now they are ribbons of nature, wending their way through the the Black Country, unexpected but genuineContinue reading “Nature thrives in the industrial heartland”

Soar-ing deep, high and demanding

In one of his 43 poems – yes, 43 – about the life of a river, Ted Hughes observes: The winter floods have ruined her. She squats between draggled banks, fingering her rags and rubbish.” And so it is as the flood waters drop on a river leaving debris hanging from overhanging branches andContinue reading “Soar-ing deep, high and demanding”