London

An image of the spherical seedhead (also known as a blowball or clock) of a dandelion (Taraxacum), which has been blown by a gust of wind, allowing the achenes to take off and float into the sky thanks to the pappus of fine hair the allows for wind dispersal. Illustration by Nicholas Blackmore.

The Infinite Dandelion Probability Generator

My garden had become an embarrassment. But nature still offered up a perfect summer moment, filling the sky with clouds of dancing seeds… It was a late July day and it was blissful, even for a shade-grown hayfever sufferer like me. Patches of mellow sunlight ebbed across our neglected garden in a lazy-river procession and […]

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An illustration of a dead rook found on a lawn during a hot British summer, which failed to help me in teaching my daughter about mortality. Illustration by Nicholas Blackmore.

Apex Predators in High Summer

Personal history

During a season of stifling heat and animal mortality, I tried in vain to teach my daughter about the Circle of Life… A friend of mine once asked why it was rare to see a dead animal on the streets of London, given the teeming population of creatures with whom we share the city. The

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