The Stubborn Light of Things

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I am a nature writer and novelist, and I’m lucky enough to be able to walk out of my cottage straight into Suffolk’s beautiful open countryside. For six months – as spring 2020 broke over the British Isles, and summer turned to autumn – I documented the wonder and richness of the natural world and the changing seasons and brought the outdoors into as many locked-down homes as I could.

Melissa Harrison


    • Oct 7, 2020 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 28m AVG DURATION
    • 28 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from The Stubborn Light of Things

    Episode Twenty-eight: Outtakes

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2020 3:50


    Making a nature podcast is harder than you think... Note: Contains bad words and loud noises! Listen →

    Episode Twenty-seven: Meaning

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 5, 2020 54:01


    Join Melissa for the last time on a longer walk than usual, taking in some familiar landmarks from earlier in the series. It’s a damp and misty autumn afternoon and the air smells of wet leaves and woodsmoke. Listen →

    Episode Twenty-six: Weather

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2020 33:54


    Join Melissa in her cosy cottage as wind and rain lash down outside. The autumn migration is underway, and billions of birds are on the move; indoors, it’s time to light the fire. Listen →

    Episode Twenty-five: Healing

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 21, 2020 31:49


    Join Melissa as she cycles to an abandoned World War II airbase and explores the old runways. A sharp breeze is plucking acorns from the trees, and skylarks are feeding in the brown stubble fields. Listen →

    Episode Twenty-four: Faltering

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2020 28:12


    Join Melissa and Scout as they walk down towards the village at sunset. The shadows of oaks stretch long over the stubble fields, the evening star comes out and pheasants fuss and cluck themselves to bed. Listen →

    Episode Twenty-three: Encounter

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2020 27:30


    Join Melissa as the sun rises on a crisp, cool autumn day; there are deer and hares in the dawn fields, and robins sing wistfully from the hedgerows. Listen →

    Episode Twenty-two: Inheritance

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2020 27:46


    Join Melissa as she walks Scout through the grounds of a stately home. The weather’s wet and it’s starting to feel like autumn; there are sloes in the hedgerows, and the first horse chestnut leaves are on the ground. Listen →

    Episode Twenty-one: Normal

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2020 27:22


    Join Melissa as she gets lost in a tangled wood on the edge of the village. It’s windy, and a robin sings from the understorey, while toadstools are sprouting underfoot. Listen →

    Episode Twenty: Hope

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2020 32:36


    Join Melissa as she scrambles down from her perch in an ancient oak and walks to a five-acre meadow managed for wildlife. Potatoes are being harvested, and buzzards wheel on thermals high overhead. Listen →

    Episode Nineteen: Ritual

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 10, 2020 26:04


    Join Melissa as she watches a huge combine harvester bringing in the golden wheat. The air is full of flying chaff, dragonflies, and the reedy sound of yellowhammers. Listen →

    Episode Eighteen: Continuity

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2020 28:23


    Join Melissa as she explores a nearby arable farm. It’s a scorcher of a day, the heat hammering down, and grey partridges take cover in the shadier hedgerows. Listen →

    Episode Seventeen: Knowing

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2020 32:06


    Join Melissa at dusk as she strolls around the peaceful village, looking for glow-worms. A tawny owl is calling from behind the church, and the hedgerows are full of crickets. Listen →

    Episode Sixteen: Identity

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2020 25:25


    Join Melissa and her dog Scout on a muggy walk among mudflats, creeks and saltmarsh where Phragmites reeds and sea lavender grow. Listen →

    phragmites
    Episode Fifteen: Names

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2020 23:13


    Join Melissa on a shingly Suffolk beach studded with sea kale, horned poppies and spiny blue eryngium. Listen →

    Episode Fourteen: Looking

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2020 32:40


    Join Melissa on a circular walk around the village’s sunny meadows. It’s haymaking time, and grasshoppers zither from the tall grass. Listen →

    Episode Thirteen: Listening

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2020 28:32


    Join Melissa as she listens for nightjars after dark. On Suffolk’s Sandlings the gorse smells of coconuts, while silver birches glimmer in the dusk. Listen →

    Episode Twelve: Home

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2020 33:05


    Join Melissa as she pays a visit to a nearby rabbit warren. It’s the longest day of the year, and the weather is sultry. Listen →

    Episode Eleven: Value

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2020 29:33


    Join Melissa as she looks for purring turtle doves. The tall June grass is thick with wildflowers, and songbirds are still in full and glorious voice. Listen →

    Episode Ten: Binaries

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2020 30:02


    Join Melissa at twilight – the ‘blue hour’ – in a tangled copse. The hedges are garlanded with dog roses, and ox-eye daisies glimmer beneath. Listen →

    Episode Nine: Memory

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2020 30:01


    Join Melissa as she follows the course of her local river. Elderflowers are taking over from cow parsley, and red damselflies throng the water. Listen →

    Episode Eight: Uncertainty

    Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2020 24:01


    Join Melissa as she cycles around Suffolk’s lanes in pursuit of a cuckoo. Scarlet poppies dot the hedgerows and billywitches (maybugs) are in flight. Listen →

    Episode Seven: Time

    Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2020 27:00


    Join Melissa as she explores a ruined cottage in the woods. The hawthorn hedges are in flower, and blackcaps are singing everywhere. Listen →

    Episode Six: Stillness

    Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2020 25:44


    Join Melissa in her garden as she waits to see swifts overhead. It’s warm and sunny; the birds are in full song, and mason bees are nesting in the back wall of the house. Listen →

    Episode Five: Change

    Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2020 25:28


    Join Melissa as she walks around the village, listening to the dawn chorus. May has come in bringing sunshine and showers; everywhere the woods smell of wild garlic, and the cow parsley is coming into bloom. Listen →

    Episode Four: Mystery

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2020 24:50


    Join Melissa as she listens for nightingales on a dark, moonless night. It’s the end of April, and in Suffolk the lilacs are in bloom. Listen →

    Episode Three: Care

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2020 30:43


    Join Melissa as she sets out at dusk in search of barn owls. It’s late April and the weather is a little chilly. Chaffinches and great tits sing from the hedges, and the fields of oilseed rape are bright yellow. Listen →

    Episode Two: Beginnings

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2020 27:09


    Join Melissa as she walks to the next village and back. It’s the middle of April and the weather is warm and dry. Butterflies are on the wing, and the lanes are hemmed with stitchwort. Listen →

    Episode One: Endurance

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2020 24:57


    Join Melissa on her daily walk through the beautiful Suffolk countryside. It’s the beginning of April and the fields are finally dry after a long, wet winter. In the woods, chiffchaffs are singing, there are buzzards wheeling over the oilseed rape, and the wildflowers sleeping in the village churchyard will soon burst back to life. Listen →

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