The Cuckoo Calls the Year wombat

The Cuckoo Calls the Year wombatAfter working as a botanist and natural historian for more than 25 years, walking the countryside had almost imperceptibly turned into a disheartening endeavour for Pete Stroh. He found himself resting at viewpoints and contemplating how much better it would be if a pasture had not been drenched with herbicide, if a woodland had not been planted up with regimented lines of conifer crops, if an arable field could every so often not be ploughed right up

Weeds are amazing beings that we have failed to see and failed to eat

local quarrels and the ructions of the Civil War

Much Wenlock

the weather

• What's a hogget

* why catching two trout each time matters so much to him

No fish escaped his interest

fields and hills to deliver the mail to his appreciative rural customers

whose tireless efforts earned him a Purdey award

Wilfred Owen and Percy Thrower

He observes that these working dogs never played

Chef José’s combined love of fieldsports and cuisine gives him an insight into the best way to harvest