¶ MARY'S NATURE BLOG IS BACK!
A fruitful West Country September sees strange fruit on the trees.
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¶ Bryn is learning about the varieties of stiles.
Find out what happens…

¶ Bryn can bring the ball back, but doesn’t always hand it over. It’s become much more fun to make me work for it.
Find out what happens…

¶ Bryn knows that he isn’t to go down a particular forbidden path that leads to a cottage just above the Helford shore. That's what makes it irresistible.
Find out what happens…

¶ Bryn admires the view from the ancient village of Chysauster, just as dogs have since the Roman era…
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¶ Mary visited the wonderful Bird Tunnel at Durrell again this spring, and found the residents preoccupied with mating.
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¶ Mary went shopping for Bryn's new bed, and he chose it straightaway. He's maturing fast and wants his own space now. Read more

¶ This spring's report on Jiwa, the young Orangutang with arrested development, who's harder to fit into the troop these days.
Find out how he's getting on

¶ For Bryn, Autumn is an exciting season. He knows who's there, and what they are up to, so he's continuously on high alert…
Find out what's lurking in the bushes

¶ Dagu, the dominant male in Durrell's Orangutang troop likes to take a sack everywhere with him – perhaps as a sunscreen, or to get a bit of privacy.
Read more about him

¶ Bryn, Mary's two-year-old Border collie loves rolling over and wriggling ecstatically. Why? There are three main reasons… Read about them

¶ A new episode in Durrell's Creatures: It's bedtime in the Orangutangs' indoor enclosure, and the youngsters want some more fun. Read on…

¶ All Mary's Border collies have been Beach Boys, but only Bryn has burst into song in his excitement at being near the beach.
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¶ The latest venue in Time for Tea is the Potager Garden Café – at a repurposed Cornish garden centre in Constantine: not only lots of Mary's favourite chocolate cakes … but deckchairs sitting waiting on one lawn for newspaper readers or general snoozers.

¶ The latest chapter in Bryn's story: An encounter with a foal after a long Dartmoor walk.

¶ A new episode in TIRN'S STORY. Mary remembers blackberrying with Tirn on the Downs: he was happy to accept the odd berry, and took to helping himself off the bushes, plucking the fruit…

¶ The latest TIME FOR TEA: Cadgwith …sitting at one of the tables in the courtyard I could watch all the action without any effort. All I had to do was order my tea and chose my cakes…

¶ Bryn found waiting for his ball to be thrown quite frustrating, but worth it in the end…

¶ Bryn was wildly excited to be back in the New Forest for his second birthday.

¶ Tirn's latest favourite walk took him along the Lizard coast path from Kennack Sands to Coverack – three sandy beaches perfectly spaced to his requirements.

¶ A great gluten-free selection and a warm welcome awaits you at the Beggars’ Banquet Café in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Before we knew it the cake had been eaten…

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¶ Beside the canal, what's Bryn pointing at with such great intent, one front paw raised, ready for action? The answer may surprise you.

¶ In her latest post from Durrell, Mary watches Chui, the Wildlife park's young Andean Bear, making himself comfortable – as only a bear can.

¶ Mary recalls Tirn's favourite hillfort walk in the snow, when they ‘joined the group of shades, who knew what it was to find our way over the ancient routes in silent blinding whiteness…’

¶ Mary looks at the fascinating family life of orangutangs in her latest contribution to the Durrell's Creatures page, on Jiwa, a fast maturing young adult male.

¶ Garden visiting is not Bryn’s most favourite thing. But there are compensations … see how they make it worthwhile for him.

¶ Mary has spent hours watching the Orangutang families playing at Durrell Wildlife Park on Jersey. In her latest instalment of Durrell's Creatures, she watches two mothers looking after their babies.

¶ A regular favourite walk in the younger days of Tirn – Mary's old Border Collie – was over the one of the many Iron Age hill forts, where we often picnicked. Read the latest episode in Tirn's life and times.

¶ Mary enjoys a warm welcome and a delicious flapjack in the Walnut Tree tearoom and shop in Sixpenny Handley (‘6d Handley’ on the sign!) in deepest Dorset.

¶ Bryn, Mary's young border collie was immensely excited by his first experience of snow – a reminder of how much we all depend on our dogs' sense of direction to find the way in bad conditions…

¶ Mary has been watching the contrasting styles of Durrell's two Orang mothers in their wonderful enclosure.

¶ From his first experience as a six-months-old puppy Tirn – Mary's old Border Collie – loved the snow: whenever it fell, he would be panting and quivering with excitement.

¶ Mary was totally engrossed by Val McDermid's retelling of Northanger Abbey - fascinated at how she has transmuted both the characters and the plots into a modern setting.

¶ Mary first took Tirn, her old Border Collie, to Goonhilly Down on the Lizard at a year old. When she let him off the lead he seemed to vanish, instantly. Read more…

¶ Mary watches the lemurs at Durrell break out screaming and screeching when they are disturbed – the eery sound of the deep forest.

¶ Mary takes tea at the delightful Rock Pool Café on her visit to Mousehole to see the famous Christmas lights.

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¶ Bryn enjoys a seaside Christmas – racing about on the beach tires him out for an hour or two.

¶ The Jersey meerkat families star in a Christmas feature on Durrell's creatures.

¶ Christmas with a puppy recalls for Mary her last collie’s first Christmas, when Tirn calmly accepted the tree, the ubiquitous treats and his titbits. It was an exhilarating and tiring day for the young puppy.

¶ Mary was very impressed by the first of veteran crime writer James Anderson’s Burford family mysteries, The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy – ‘I had no idea of the treat in store’, she writes in her latest library note.

¶ NATURE BLOG Thursday 27 November 2014: The beech cathedral at Selborne has gone…

¶ Mary aims to stay one step ahead of Bryn, her young Border collie, up on the Downs – his eyes are focused on middle distance when the scents don't keep his nose to the ground.

¶ The acrobatic otter babies feature in the latest addition to Mary's account of the inhabitants of Durrell's ark in Jersey.

¶ Tirn, Mary's collie who died a year ago, was always sensitive to people who had an unusual outline – the Shape-changers. He learnt to live with them, but was never reconciled one-man bands.

¶ The fate of her favourite Totnes bookshop – Belle, Book and Castle – hangs in the balance, as its founder has died; on a recent visit, Mary found it just as interesting as ever.

¶ Bryn finds the squirrels' autumn busyness almost too much to bear in the latest instalment of his chronicle in Mary Tant and her border collies.

¶ The close view Durrell provides of their fascinating fruit bats gives Mary an insight into their ingenuity and intelligence.

¶ Tirn's penchant for the adventurous alternative route emerges in the latest instalment of his story, which takes the Lizard Point to Church Cove section of the SW Coastal Path.

¶ Mary recalls a private moment with Gina, Durrell's orangutan matriarch, who died in August aged 51 and who will be much missed.

¶ After a game with Bryn on the beach, what could be better than excellent tea and cake in the late autumn sun at Blue Bay Cafe, the surfers' café on Phillack Towans.

¶ Bryn, Mary's Border Collie puppy, has discovered the joys of Cornish beaches – sand, shingle and rocks – and playing in the sea. Read more on his page.

¶ Tirn, Mary's old Border Collie, merely tolerated her enjoyment of garden-visiting – until he spotted the fish in the lakes.
Read more…

¶ Mary enjoys a classic farmhouse tea at Higher Venton Farm, Widecombe a real find at Beatrice Chase's Dartmoor home.

¶ Bryn's been to Dartmoor; sitting on Hameldown Beacon, Mary muses on previous residents and the marks they left behind.

¶ Mary is finds that the brilliant plumage and varied songs of the inhabitants of Durrell Wildlife's bird tunnel richly deserve their name – Jewels of the Forest.

¶ Tirn's fresh exploit on Mary's Border Collies page is his 'brilliant' clifftop walking on the Lizard.

¶ In a quiet north Hampshire valley, Mary finds The Tea Cosy, a refreshing new tea room at Hurstbourne Tarrant, just right after a hot summer walk.

¶ Mary's Border collies now have a page each to themselves. This week Bryn visits the New Forest for the first time, in last month's heatwave.

¶ The acrobatic Ring-tailed Lemurs are the latest species from Durrell Wildlife Park to join Mary's Durrell's Creatures page.

¶ In the new entry in her Plots page, Mary delves into the origins of her latest mystery – The Witness – an unexpected visitor and the difference in the way women think to men.

¶ Bryn comes home and shows that characteristically Collie combination of curiosity, confidence and caution for which we love them in Mary's latest addition to her Border collie page.

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¶ Mary vividly evokes the otter community 'swimming up as a compact fleet to inspect their visitors or moving in line about their own business' in her latest section on Jersey's Durrell Wildlife Park.

¶ For Tirn, as Mary recalls in the latest chapter of her Border Collies page, ‘a walk was always so much more than a trip from one point to another. It was an exploration, a recapping, an adventure, a pleasure to be enjoyed at every moment…’ Savour the moment with them.

¶ Mary enjoys the lush setting of the tearoom at The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum, on the western edge of Dartmoor. The cakes are tempting and a hummingbird hawkmoth rounds off the summer's afternoon.

¶ After Tirn's death in October, Mary hadn’t intended to get another collie, but in the Brecon Beacons she found Bryn, whose story is just beginning on Mary Tant and her border collies.

¶ Mary meets Bahia and Quechua, young Andean bears at Durrell Wildlife Park on Jersey, who have taken over the Living Rainforest enclosure from Barbara and Wolfgang, who died last year within a few weeks of each other.

¶ Chasing a cat out of the garden, Tirn has a lucky escape in the latest episode of Mary Tant and her Border Collie

¶ Bryn, Mary's nine-month-old Border Collie puppy, adds the Lizard to his list of exciting places to visit.

¶ Mary finds the welcome at the Porthmellin Tearoom in Mullion Cove on the Lizard is just as friendly as ever.

¶ Mary meets the new Andean Bears in the Cloud Forest enclosure at Jersey's Durrell Wildlife Park – they have filled the gap left by her favourites, Barbara and Wolfgang.

¶ Mary introduces John Bude – a reprinted classic author with a West Country setting from the mystery novel's golden age – in a new section of her library.

¶ Tirn, the writer’s muse is the latest chapter of Mary Tant and her Border Collie, bringing together Mary's work and her love for her Border collies.

¶ In the latest addition to her library, Mary enjoys the mysteries of G M Malliet whose plots and characters will be savoured by aficionados of crime.

¶ The new piece in Mary Tant and her Border Collie is Tirn's enthusiasm
as a watchdog putting his acute hearing to use and greeting friends and guests.

¶ The latest in Mary's Library is an appreciation of A A Milne's sole 1920s detective story, written before his attention turned to Winnie the Pooh. Mary would like to have met his hero again, with his period catch-phrases: ‘I say, what fun’.

¶ The Border Collie Mary lost last autumn was addicted to soft toys. Mary tells the whole story in Tirn and his toys, the latest chapter of Mary Tant and her border collie.

¶ Mary Tant enjoys David Suchet's autobiography/biography of Poirot and salutes the work that went into his painstaking recreation of Agatha Christie's detective.

¶ Tirn's enthusiasm for gardening is the subject of the latest chapter in Mary Tant and her border collie.

¶ Mary Tant and her border collie's latest chapter tells how keen Tirn was to help in the office.

¶ A further chapter in Mary Tant and her border collie tells how Tirn used to help at home.

¶ The Silver Deer with the Golden Nose – Mary Tant's magical Christmas story – is available on Kindle and also on iTunes. See this link for more details.

¶ In her latest addition to Mary’s Plots, Mary explains how the plot of her latest classic crime novel, The Gathering Storm, developed.

¶ The latest chapter in Mary Tant and her border collie describes the visit of the Black Labrador.

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¶ A new chapter in Mary Tant and her border collie tells the story of Tirn's fostering work with rescue dogs.

¶ Mary enjoys tea at Lilly's in Wickham and the comfort of Winstone's bookshop in Sherborne.

¶ Mary recalls Tirn's dog friends in the latest episode on her Border Collie page.

¶ Players and Betrayers is now available on iTunes. Find out more about iTunes here.

¶ Mary discusses her favourite Ngaio Marsh mysteries in the latest addition to her library.

¶ Mary visits Oliver's for coffee in Sherborne, Dorset.

¶ Now on the Border Collie page – Tirn and his toys.

¶ † 13 October 2013. Goodbye dear Tirn.

¶ The third Rossington novel Friends. . . and a Foe is now available on iTunes. Find out more about iTunes here.

¶ Tirn, her Border Collie, puts Mary through her paces and stimulates the other dogs when he goes to intermediate dog training.

¶ Mary visits Holne Community Tearooms in the heart of Dartmoor.

¶ Mary's Border Collie, Tirn, attends his first puppy-training class.

¶ Death at the Priory, the second mystery in the Rossington series really is now available on iTunes. Find out more about iTunes here.

¶ Mary's Time for Tea enjoys the luxury of tea at Lainston House Hotel, Sparsholt, Hampshire.

¶ Mary reviews James Runcie's first Grantchester mystery, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death.

¶ In the latest instalment of his story, Tirn – Mary Tant's border collie – explores his new home.

¶ Mary says goodbye to Barbara Mertz, American Grand Master of Crime, lover of Egypt and Britain, gardens and cats.

¶ The sixth Rossington series mystery – Don't Come Back – is now available as a Kindle ebook.

¶ Mary Tant's border collie comes home in the latest stage of her border collie saga.

¶ Mary reviews the historical detective stories of Ellis Peters in Mary Tant's library.

¶ The fifth Rossington series mystery – The Watcher on the Cliff is now available as a Kindle ebook.

¶ The latest Rossington novel – The Gathering Storm –
has now been published and is available from your local independent bookshop.

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¶ Tirn, Mary Tant's tricolour border collie, has just turned sixteen. In Mary Tant and her border collie, she tells his story.

¶ In her current nature blog, Mary visits the New Forest, photographs foals and flowers and visits Burley-licious.

¶ Mary visits The Rectory Farm Tea Rooms at Morwenstow in north Cornwall and Gilbert White's Tea Parlour in Selbourne.

¶ Mary visits Agatha Christie's Greenway and starts a new section on her favourite authors' places.

¶ Wolfgang – Durrell's male Andean bear – has died. Memories of Wolfie start Mary Tant's new section on Durrell's Creatures.

¶ Players and Betrayers is now available as a Kindle ebook.

¶ Time for Tea visits The Courtyard Café in Alresford, Hampshire.

¶ Mary Tant's Library – Margery Allingham and Patricia Wentworth.

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¶ Mary Tant's Library – review of Gladys Mitchell's books.

¶ Mary Tant's Christmas Page starts with West Green Christmas Fayre, Hartley Wintney. Features 25 entries…

¶ Time for Tea – Willow café, Lyndhurst, Hampshire.

¶ Mary Tant's third Rossington classic crime mystery – Friends… and a Foe – is available as a Kindle.

¶ Mary Tant's Plots – a discussion of the background to Don’t Come Back.

¶ Mary Tant's Library now carries a review of the reissued titles by The Detection Club, classic mysteries written collectively by the greats of the 1930s.

¶ Mary Tant's second Rossington mystery – Death at the Priory – is now on sale as a Kindle. It joins the first in the series, The Rossington Inheritance, the first to go onto Amazon.

¶ In Mary's Library, a fresh feature on Agatha Christie.

¶ Mary Tant's The Rossington Inheritance is now available on Apple iTunes. Get iTunes here.

¶ See Mary Tant's Time for Tea for a review of the Primrose Tearooms, Lustleigh, Devon. They're an ideal place to aim for when out walking. Actually, an ideal place to aim for when out driving too… Read more

¶ In April 2012 Threshold published the latest mystery in the Rossington series Don’t Come Back, set in a remote moorland hamlet over the New Year. Lucy and her friends find themselves enmeshed in a conflict between tradition, family loyalties and new ways of thinking, in which the unpredictable weather plays a significant part.