CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

  Chicken of the woods Laetiporus sulphureus , growing on a decaying oak trunk in Backstone bank wood in Weardale’s Tunstall valley. This is...

  One of a family of brown rats Rattus norvegicus living under a hen house at Home Farm in Beamish museum, entertaining visitors with their...

  Comma butterflies Polygonia c-album produce two generations per year, each with its own colours, shape and markings. When overwintering a...

  It’s the flowering season for fragrant meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria , the ‘Queen of the Meadows’, here in Durham - and bumblebees go wi...

  Sometimes, in the higgledy-piggledy chaos of charity shops overwhelmed with book donations from declutterers, I come across hidden gems. T...