Nic has been a Country Diarist for The Guardian since 2020. She feels privileged to be able to write about the local landscape and wildlife that she loves.
Recent Country Diaries:
- Hitchin, Hertfordshire: A rare daytime attack on our chickens led to a standoff. But I could see this animal was suffering in the heatwave High-pitched shrieking shattered the mid-morning calm and I knew, immediately, that there was a killer on the […]
- Helpston, Cambridgeshire: I picture Henry as a young lad, hiding in flowerbeds, chasing butterflies, learning to love natureIf there’s one thing better than a gatekeeper butterfly, it’s wild marjoram playing host to a flurry of gatekeepers. Almost impossible to count for […]
- Hitchin, Hertfordshire: The broad-bodied chaser is often the first to arrive at a new pond, and sure enough, I spot an exuvia clinging to a leaf bladeThe hole in the nest box on our house wall is all mouth. A sparrow […]
- Strawberry Hill, Bedfordshire: After an evening round the campfire, we head into the wonderfully, chaotically alive scrub, to hear the headline act“Now I walk in beauty / Beauty is before me”. Earlier this evening we learned the simple melody to this […]
