Voices
Giving local leaders a platform for their views on all things Tees. Photo by Ian Robinson.
Winter Thrushes
As well as the three familiar thrushes that are with us all year round on Teesside - Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush and Blackbird - there are three others which are only ever here for part of the year. One of those, the Ring Ouzel, is a scarce summer visitor which breeds...
What it’s really like to live with Type 1 Diabetes
Prior to my type 1 diabetes diagnosis, when I was 6 years old, I was a healthy, happy child. I went to dance class, enjoyed school and was just like any other child. However, I started experiencing unexplained weight loss, tiredness and nausea. I constantly felt...
Small is beautiful – a Wildflower in January!
Common Whitlowgrass (Erophila verna) growing beside the River Tees, January 2021. The plants in this photo were no more than 5cm tall and about the size of a 5p piece from leaf-tip to leaf-tip. (photo © Colin Conroy) January is not normally month that people associate...
Small steps: living with a stroke during the pandemic
Yannis Henderson, 61, has two daughters and six grandchildren. From the age of 14 he worked full time and hardly had any days off sick. Then in July 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, his life changed. This is his story… Saturday 4th July started just like my normal...
Percentile – a personal story about anorexia
“I was one of the fortunate few who survived.” That was my reply to my friends who came to see me in my latest performance, before the country was plunged into a national lockdown. They could not believe I was the same person. When I was sixteen years old, I was...
Spotting the elusive Snow Bunting at South Gare
The summer plumage of the male Snow Bunting is the most distinctive, being all black and white, with a little black bill (leading to it being described once, by a non-birder, as “a penguin the size of a sparrow”) but in the winter they are still mostly whitish… This...