| Welcome to An Eclectic Journal of Curious Wonders I’ve always been curious. Not necessarily about any one particular thing, either. Wildlife, gardens, history, science, people, places, memories, films, forgotten things, peculiar things and occasionally things that probably shouldn’t happen at all have a habit of catching my attention. Sometimes it begins with something I notice while working. A plant flowering when it seemingly shouldn’t, an unfamiliar insect, a change in the weather, an old garden feature or something half-hidden beneath years of growth. At other times it might begin with a childhood memory, a photograph, a film I haven’t seen for forty years, something I once collected, somewhere I once lived, or simply a question that arrives from nowhere. And then there are the “what if?” questions. What if the world stopped working quite as we expected? What if something dismissed as myth turned out not to be? What if we looked again at something so familiar that we had stopped noticing it? And what happens when an apparently ordinary subject is followed just a little further than usual? That is what this Journal has gradually become. I am a working gardener, and gardening remains firmly among its roots. Plants, gardens, wildlife, insects, soil and the changing seasons are part of my everyday life, so naturally they appear frequently within these pages. But they now sit alongside history, memory, the natural world, curious discoveries, disappearing places, films, gaming, poetry, speculative ideas, strange stories and occasional journeys into considerably darker territory. There is no requirement for one subject to fit neatly beside the next. That is rather the point. This is An Eclectic Journal of Curious Wonders: a collection of things observed, remembered, questioned, investigated and occasionally imagined. Some articles are practical, some personal. Some look backwards, others look at the world around us now, and a few wander into worlds that never existed in the first place. The garden gate is still here. I simply stopped believing there was any particular reason to remain on one side of it. So, welcome to the Journal. Have a wander. You never quite know what we might find. |
Latest from the Journal …
What Does a Gardener Think About While Gardening?
What does a gardener think about while working? A personal look at how gardens leave room for curiosity, memories, questions and wandering thoughts.
The Soil Hub Revisited
The first physical works at the Soil Hub take shape, with composting bays, leaf kraals and receiving areas built from reclaimed materials as our year-long trial begins.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Personality Testing
A personal reflection on workplace personality tests, their useful insights, their limitations, and the danger of allowing a label to define the whole person.
Plants Worth Looking at Twice
A reflective look at Sanguisorba, the graceful late-season perennial whose floating flowers bring movement, restraint and a different rhythm to the garden.
The Little Worlds I Never Forgot
A personal walk back through time exploring a lifelong fascination with model villages, miniature worlds and the memories they still hold.
The Quiet Lives of Britain’s Birds
The Yellowhammer brings a flash of gold to British farmland, revealing how hedgerows, seeds, insects and untidy field margins support far more wildlife than we often realise.
The Edge of Discovery
The Yeti has haunted Himalayan legend for generations, but could the Abominable Snowman really exist? Case File 04 investigates footprints, eyewitnesses, DNA, bears and the extraordinary history behind the Ghost of the Himalayas.
The Films of My Lifetime
The Films of My Lifetime begins in 1963, exploring the films, actors and childhood discoveries that shaped a lifelong love of cinema.
Within Living Memory
Is the traditional gardening calendar becoming less reliable? A working gardener reflects on changing seasons, wetter winters, hotter summers and why observation increasingly matters more than the date.
Extraordinary Gardening Adventures
Rory and John finally return home, only to discover their client knows far more about the mysterious shed — and Sandwich’s other strange places — than she has ever revealed.
North American Insects
Explore North America’s beetles and ground insects, from nocturnal predators and ladybirds to the hidden recyclers working through soil, dung and dead wood.
When the Pacific Changes the Weather
El Niño begins thousands of miles from Britain, yet changes in the tropical Pacific can influence weather around the world. Discover the science behind El Niño and why it matters to gardeners.
When the Haunted House Followed Us Home
Why do haunted houses stay with us? From Amityville and Blair Witch to Hill House and Candyman, exploring how supernatural horror follows us home.
The Ground Beneath the Garden
Why bare soil is rarely the finished garden, and how ground-cover plants protect soil, suppress weeds and help borders become healthier and more resilient.
Extraordinary Gardening Adventures
Rory and John follow a strangely familiar path as fragments of the worlds they have crossed begin merging, leading them towards a garden that looks remarkably like home.
If Insects Stopped Asking Permission
What if insects stopped respecting the boundaries of our gardens? A speculative look at what might happen if insect pressure increased — and why gardeners might have to learn to share rather than fight.
Gertie, Jake and Mary
What happens when a familiar AI changes or disappears? Exploring attachment, continuity, loss and the strange new bonds developing between humans and AI.
The Hidden Craft of Gardening
Why do experienced gardeners often seem slower? A reflective conclusion to The Hidden Craft of Gardening, exploring judgement, patience and the quiet confidence that comes with experience.
Extraordinary Gardening Adventures
Rory and John enter a garden where everything has grown to impossible proportions, from towering plants and giant slugs to enormous insects, before a familiar sound offers hope of home.
Gertie, Jake and Mary
A coffee conversation about Gertie, Jake and Mary leads to a curious question: what develops when humans and AI regularly think and work together?
Why Did the 1970s Seem So Haunted?
Why did the 1970s seem so haunted? A personal journey through ghosts, Enfield, Amityville, UFOs and a childhood when mystery had room to survive.
North American Insects
Explore North America’s butterflies and moths, from monarch migrations and wandering painted ladies to luna and sphinx moths shaped by timing, plants and distance.
The Quiet Lives of Britain’s Birds
The returning Swallow is one of Britain’s great signs of summer, connecting our gardens and countryside with insects, migration and landscapes thousands of miles away.
Plants Worth Looking at Twice
A thoughtful look at Scabiosa, the airy, long-flowering pincushion flower that brings movement to borders while quietly providing valuable food for pollinators.
Extraordinary Gardening Adventures
Rory and John step into a garden in Britain’s distant future, where changed plants, climate and an old local mystery reveal what happened after they disappeared.
The Quiet Lives of Britain’s Birds
The Eurasian Skylark turns an ordinary British field into a stage in the sky, but its extraordinary song also tells a deeper story about farmland, habitat and how quietly landscapes can change.
The Hidden Craft of Gardening
A thoughtful reflection on why a garden tidy-up is rarely just about cutting back plants, but about restoring comfort, balance and a connection with the place we call home.
Plants Worth Looking at Twice
A closer look at the Japanese anemone, a beautiful late-flowering perennial with an unexpected history and a determined habit of spreading.
The World’s 50 Most Remarkable Tarantulas
A journey through 50 of the world’s most remarkable tarantulas, exploring their extraordinary diversity, behaviour, habitats, adaptations and natural history.
I Used to Go Looking for Ghosts
A personal journey from teenage ghost hunting to an unexpected fear of horror, exploring haunted houses, Candyman, Annabelle and why fear stays with us.
Extraordinary Gardening Adventures
Rory and John follow traces of human activity through the prehistoric landscape and discover an enormous abandoned garden — along with unsettling evidence that they may not be the first people to have found their way there.
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