Whilst humans go about their daily lives, scurrying in and out of their big brick buildings, here, amongst this delicious leaf litter, there is a whole community of little animals living where these large and unexpected mushrooms have burst forth. Snails, woodlice, earwigs, millipedes, beetle larvae, fully-fledged beetles, slugs, earthworms…all manner of minibeasts abide here. [...]
Glowing copper in the late afternoon sunlight, the crown of this enormous, beautiful, leafless tree makes me want to stand on my head, and imagine it as a clump of earthy roots just pulled from the ground.
What is it that this inviting mound of soft, fresh moss could possibly have in common with a bulgy-eyed, bouncing frog? Well, most importantly, both mosses and frogs are dependent on an external water supply for that elemental necessity: reproduction. Frogs need shallow water in which to lay their frogspawn, so the emerging tadpoles can [...]
