Few landscapes in Britain feel as deeply enchanted as North Wales. With its mist-shrouded hills and mountains, ancient woodlands, and windswept coastline, it is a place where the boundary between the everyday and the otherworldly has always seemed thin. It should come as no surprise … Continue readingRooted in Magic: The Plants and Folklore of North Wales
The Theatre of Lightning We had been making our way to bed when the first flash of lightning stopped us. Arriving on the back of a yellow weather warning for a heatwave in May, the storm swept in late on an airless Wednesday night, tearing … Continue readingTHUNDER, LIGHTNING, AND THE BLOOD OF IMMORTALS
Our frosted hills and fields, for so long hushed in a quiet stillness of waiting, now sound with the tremulous bleating of new born lambs and the answering calls of their attentive mothers. Snowdrops have given way to bright drifts of daffodils, daylight stretches into … Continue readingLAMB TALES
I reach for her hand. Shell-bone. Feather. I tell her: I am Caladrius. I will carry you to the sun. I say it like a spell, like a prayer. Like a lie. But Rhiannon’s birds lose their music in my mouth. The Mabinogion breaks in … Continue readingWELSH LULLABY
Amid rolling pastureland in the Denbighshire countryside lies a modest, whitewashed church, its walls greened with age and weather. A simple wheel-type bell hangs silent above the west gable. Surrounded by ancient yew trees and gnarled blackthorn bushes, the church is approached through a heavy … Continue readingMOSS AND STONE
The Clwydian Range is a line of heather-clad hills rising above the verdant Vale of Clwyd. Though modest in comparison with the lofty heights of Eryri (Snowdonia), these hills have a presence entirely their own, shaped by wind, weather, and the steady rhythms of rural … Continue readingBETWEEN EARTH & SKY
The scream comes before the bird: a sudden, searing note overhead that stops me in my tracks, leaving me scanning the North Wales skies for the longed-for rush of dark, scythe-shaped wings. They are back! My heart soars. Common swifts normally arrive here during late … Continue readingTHE AERIALIST
Written one humid afternoon in August 2025, when we were all desperate for a storm!
For many reasons, I haven’t written for a while, but a beautiful photograph by my dear friend, Angus Ferguson, taken in the North East of England, inspired me to put pen to paper again late last night. His images – all straight lines, vanishing points, and … Continue readingAT THE RUSTED GATE