Dear Reader,

you might have been wondering why there have been no new blogs since the 5th August. I have been on an unscheduled blog break – I may have Bloggers Block.

Work has intervened, in a good way – so I have had less time to write. But the main reason is  because my brother is very ill with terminal lung cancer, so we have been up to London to see him and he is very much on our minds every day. We have been trying very hard to get him out of hospital into a good care home, and I hope with all fingers crossed that he will be moved today or tomorrow. I may write about the experience, or I may not. It rather depends on what happens and how I feel about it afterwards.

I think I have also got a bit stuck with the blog and the main reason for that is that I feel an obligation to write a review of George Monbiot’s Feral, but I have no enthusiasm for finishing reading the book – which I need to do to write the review. This is no criticism of George, and I did read through and comment on a draft for him about this time last year. I think it’s partly because when something major happens in your personal life, it puts academic debates about the nature of conservation or rewilding into perspective – they all seem rather less important than they did.

Anyway at least I did manage to get out for a walk when we were up in London and was bowled over by the spectacular display of wild marjoran, clustered bellflower and a hundred other chalk downland plants on the Gallops at Box Hill Surrey, where I took the photo. Good work National Trust.