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The 100 Plants Challenge (Not another checklist!)

So. I'm collecting cathedrals and minsters, checking off chapters of the Bible, and now I've found another ticklist to complete. The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) has organised a 100 Plants in 2026 Challenge , which I found out about some months after it actually started, and I decided to join in. Poppies, cornflowers and wall barley At least I'm not as mad as Mike Dilger , who went looking for ten times as many plants in 2021. A read through his book, One Thousand Shades of Green , made it clear that both the person and the challenge were very different. Unlike me, Mike Dilger was already an accomplished naturalist. He had a day job presenting about wildlife on The One Show. He had a book called Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland by Blamey, Fitter, and Fitter, which he refers to as his BFF. He had a magnifying lens and an understanding of taxonomy. I, on the other hand, had a phone with the Seek app on it, and an ability to recognise things like dai...
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Rotherham Minster

I read another blog post which started, "There comes a time in everyone's life, when one simply must go to Rotherham." And I thought that was such a good first line that I've nicked it. I had not, it is true, previously given much consideration to going to Rotherham. Then I worked out that Sheffield Cathedral and Rotherham Minster were not far apart, and the train ride from Derby was reasonably cheap. Moreover, my cousin Vicky lives in the area and I could pay her a long-overdue visit. Great, I thought, I'll schedule a trip in a few weeks' time. On Friday morning I looked at Rotherham Minster website and discovered that the church isn't usually open on Saturdays, but there was a Community Day the very next day. A bit of hasty texting later, and I had a plan: Rotherham Minster in the morning, Sheffield Cathedral in the afternoon, and Vicky would meet me in Sheffield city centre after that. Rotherham Minster The train to Sheffield was busy but uneventful. A...
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Bradford Cathedral: A marvel in miniature

My family think it's hilarious. I seem to have a gift for finding people who are doing weird and wonderful things. Cycling across all the OS maps in the UK ( Mark Wedgwood ). Going to Rome on a 50cc moped called Rocinante ( Chris Webb) . Walking 3700 miles in Wales to raise awareness of ovarian cancer ( Ursula Martin )  And building a scale model of Bradford Cathedral ( Michael Scott ). Michael Scott's main hobby is constructing an N-scale railway layout of a fictional West Yorkshire town called Chandwell. I forget how I first found his YouTube channel; I think it was shortly before Bradford Cathedral asked if he would turn his talents to producing a model of the building, as part of Bradford's year as City of Culture. He said yes, thinking it would take about nine months. Two years and many fascinating videos later, he finally unveiled the finished artwork at the cathedral. I had to be there. It helped that Graham's sister and brother-in-law live just outside Bradford...
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Cathedrals and Minsters

Cathedrals have always been in the business of getting people to visit them. Back in the Middle Ages, saints' relics were a big draw, as was having the very latest in pointy Gothic architecture. These days, they host concerts, invite you to experience the sun or moon , and have cafes in the cloisters. moon at Lichfield Cathedral One of the latest wheezes from the Association of English Cathedrals is the Pilgrim Passport . This neat blue booklet enables you to collect stamps from each cathedral you visit. Sucked in by the idea of pilgrimage and the prospect of yet another tick-list to complete, I purchased a passport and set out. My first job was to review the list. There are 42 English cathedrals, not including Westminster Abbey (which is a Royal Peculiar) and Peel Cathedral on the Isle of Man. Wales has six, and Scotland technically has none, as its church has no bishops.  For some reason I was also interested in minsters, which is a more nebulous category. Originally the word mea...
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