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All in the month of August Atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki Whatever happened to Christopher Robin? 125 years of the Proms in London The stately Rosebay Willowherb Support your local charity shops Good news about potholes Watch out for this predator Concern for the children Please, please, stop buying compost with peat in it ...

It was: 250 years ago, on 22nd August 1770 that British explorer Captain James Cook discovered eastern Australia, named it New South Wales, and claimed it for Britain. 150 years ago, on 4th August 1870 that the British Red Cross Society was founded. 125 years ago, on 10th August 1895 that the Proms (Promenade Concerts)...

Atomic bombs were dropped over two Japanese cities 75 years ago. This first was at Hiroshima, on 6th August 1945, when the centre of the city was totally destroyed, and 80,000 people were killed immediately.  A further 60,000 died by the end of the year.  It was the first city in history to be hit...

One hundred years ago this month, on 21st August 1920, Christopher Robin Milne was born. He was the only son of the author A. A. Milne and appeared as a character in his father’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories and verses – a role he enjoyed at first but later found difficult to handle. The characters in Winnie...

It was 125 years ago this month, on 10th August 1895, that the Proms (Promenade Concerts) began in London. In fact, the idea of promenade concerts went back to 1838, referring to outside concerts during which the audience could walk about – but in the form introduced by Robert Newman at Queen’s Hall in Langham...

If wildflowers were to compete in terms of height, rosebay willowherb would have to be one of the contenders for first prize. By mid- to late-summer its height can reach four feet or so [120cm] with pyramids of pinkish-purple flowers cheering up the most unlikely places, for it is happy to grow on railway cuttings...

Are you feeling the financial squeeze just now, but still enjoy shopping? Why not visit some of your local charity shops? Never have charity shops needed you so much. Coronavirus has meant a huge drop in donations, and many charities face huge financial shortfalls. The good news is that charity shops are well worth visiting...

One good thing about lockdown has been quieter roads. Quieter roads are good because councils can then repair the potholes more quickly. This has included: Shropshire, where pothole gangs filled in more than 2000 during lockdown; Derbyshire, where more than 28,000 were filled; Suffolk, where 6,300 were filled, and Bury, where more than 1700 potholes...

If you like bees, then keep an eye out this summer for a dangerous invader from the Continent – the Asian hornet. A single Asian hornet can consume 50 honeybees in one day. In recent years the Asian hornet has spread across Europe, devouring honeybees by the tens of thousands. They are most likely to...

During lockdown this Spring, the NSPCC was receiving a call every hour about children who were at risk from domestic violence. Reports to its helplines about children caught up in abuse had risen by 32 per cent, from 140 a week before the pandemic to 185 a week during lockdown. Child abuse concerns have been...

So says the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). The large-scale removal of peat from bog “is destroying one of our most precious wildlife habitats. It takes centuries for a peat bog to form with its special wildlife – modern machinery destroys it in days.”

All in the month of July The NHS – bearing one another’s burdens The crash that killed off Concorde The man who created Sherlock Holmes When the Pope was declared to be infallible Remembering the man who founded Barnardo’s Buttercups – treasure in our countryside Does the fruit you buy look a bit wonky? ‘Safe...