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Diary - Spring 2007
Having completed the last part of Natures Calendar, which will be broadcast in the Summer, and another series of Inside Out, Chris has spent the Spring at his home in France. Tucked away in a remote and rural corner of Gascony he has been fighting a DIY war with a 900-year-old farmhouse. His two poodles, Mr Itchy and Mr Scratchy, have not proved to be the invaluable assistants he imagined when it has come to sanding, painting or paper hanging. However, they have proved adept at collecting very large and aggressive ticks from the local woodland and sharing them quite unselfishly with Chris. Normally during the night.
But it is not only parasites that Chris shares his space with as the house still plays host to a number of bats, to the noisiest frogs in Christendom, to a cantankerous pair of barn owls and a legion of black crickets. Nevertheless, it has now become habitable in human terms and forays into the local countryside have produced some great wildlife sightings.
The house bird list includes; Common Crane (2000 spiralling right over the roof), Hoopoe (six picking about on the lawn), Hen Harrier (from the kitchen window), Red Kite (displaying over the garden), Black Redstart (nesting on the porch), Cirl Bunting . . . Short Toed Tree Creeper . . . and on, and on, and on. Swallowtails flit over the garden, wild boar bellow in the woods and deer peer through the windows.
Thus he has been living in a peculiar mix of ancient French, funky 50s and 60s furniture and renovation rubble but it is, in his terms, an albeit unforgiving piece of paradise. He has put up no fewer than 44 nest boxes and can't wait to see a few occupied. The fuel for his endeavours has come from the local vines and a diet of bread and cheese has meant that he has not piled on any pounds. He is thinking of losing the dogs' pet passports when he returns in May to get on with some proper work. This Summer that means some regional presenting for the BBC on a new series entitled The Nature of Britain and two half-hour programmes for BBC Four about the origin, progress and state of conservation in the British countryside, something that is very close to Chris's heart and sure to lead to some expulsions of his pragmatic and pointed opinions. He has a number of overseas trips planned with Megan to focus their cameras in pursuit of photographic perfection and an exhibition of his photographs opens at Slimbridge in the Summer.
Chris is an enthusiastic reader with great passion for contemporary fiction, classic short stories and history textbooks. Recent reads include the latest Cormac McCarthy novel, an account of the battle at Thermopylae, a bit more about the recent archaeology of the Custer battlefield site, the Great Hedge of India, and a healthy re-read of Heart of Darkness after an equally healthy re-watch of Apocalypse Now.
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