I’m celebrating the seventh anniversary of this blog today. Whoop!
I actually started writing a blog nearly ten years ago, back in October 2010 when I was at The Grasslands Trust (you can still find them here ). After I left TGT there was a break while I was at Buglife before I started writing properly in May 2013.
Either way it all feels a very long time ago. 2013. There was that Tory/Libdem coalition Government – remember them? UKIP was still a fringe political party before that historic 2014 Euro election victory. In 2013, no-one was seriously talking about a Referendum to take us out of the EU. And who was thinking about pandemics? Well, quite a lot of people were, but that’s another story.
On a personal level, aside from being 7 years closer to being an old git, since I started writing I’ve lost my brother to cancer, and had a brush with death. But I also set up People Need Nature, which is coming up to five years old next week.
As a result of my blogging, I’ve had a foray into “professional” writing ie being paid to do it. As well as occasional articles for eg British Wildlife magazine, I spent a couple of years writing for Lush Times. I guess that started in Summer 2016 and finished last Summer. For a couple of years I was writing a weekly column, which was quite a challenge. Lush then decided to walk away from Social Media which meant that it was impossible for anyone to find what I’d written. So that was the end of that. It was fun while it lasted.
As regular readers might have spotted I have strong opinions (at least on some things) and I enjoy writing so this is a good outlet for all that pent up energy. I intend to carry on for the time being – after all, it’s not as though there’s nothing left to write about.
I am always happy to post guest blogs – indeed some of the most read blogs on here have been guest ones, so please feel free to get in touch (leave me a message in the comment box) if you would like to post one.
So thanks to everyone who reads these blogs and especially those that leave comments, either here or on social media (except the alt right trolls).
a new nature blog 
very glad you started this 7 years ago Miles. Really valuable to have a site that is not gate-
keepered by comms departments and yet which has a strong quality standard.
Thanks Vicki.
Well done, Miles – keep it up – writing is resistance!
And shall I ask at day’s end once more/ What beauty is, and what I can have meant/ By happiness?
(Edward Thomas, The Glory).
thanks Paul.
Writing really is resistance, you’re absolutely right. When I think how much of my life I wasted sitting in meetings with politicians and civil servants, when I could have been writing instead. Still, it’s never too late to start.
*The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common off the goose
Thanks for the last seven years and indeed for those which preceded this blog. We need people with strong opinions to present them in a reasoned way, as you do, it helps educate and inform the debate which one would hope then achieves a good outcome for conservation et. al.
*The verse is reputed to be 17th C protest against English enclosures.
thanks very much. More poetry please.
The law demands that we atone
When we take things that we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.
The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still lack a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.
We can but aspire to achieving the last sentence, although I think I’d prefer to reclaim rather than steal ….
Congratulations on the anniversary, Miles.
thanks Mick
I always read your blogs when they pop into my inbox. Entertaining and informative. Keep up the good work.
thanks Delia
Thank you, Miles, for writing. I’ve been a follower of yours, here and on Twitter, for a while now and am glad that I stumbled across you, although I can’t quite remember how I did. I like your trenchancy and insight very much, even when I don’t necessarily agree fully, you always give me something to think about, a new slant.
thanks Gail.
Thank-you and I wish you well in getting through your ‘seven year itch’! I always appreciate and enjoy your writing; finding it stimulating and, yes at times, provocative. But there would be no strength without challenge. Keep up the good work.
thanks Andrew.