It's a warm day in August and I'm underwater in Port Erin Bay. Snorkelling round the kelp-fringed edges, I drift above wary ballan wrasse and grapefruit-sized urchins and watch a school of pale mullet loom out of the blue.
I pop my head up and scan around. My son is playing with his friends in the shallows. They've been in and out of the water all day, swimming, rockpooling, and exploring on the beach. Nearby on his paddleboard, my husband can survey the seabed mapped out below him through gin-clear waters. Out in the middle of the bay a tall ship has been anchored for a few days, giving a pirate backdrop to all our adventures. It has been a magical week of holiday - and all the better because our staycation has been less than an hour away from home.
For the past three years, lockdowns and travel restrictions have meant that we've rarely ventured off the Isle of Man, which has given us an opportunity to rediscover our home as a nature holiday destination.
ALL ABOUT THE ISLE
In case you didn't know, the Isle of Man (or Mann) is a small island right in the middle of the Irish Sea. Some 50km long and 20km wide, it's just over half the size of the Isle of Wight. As a Crown Dependency of the UK, it has its own government and laws, but it also has a close relationship with the UK.
It is often said that the Isle of Man is the British Isles in miniature, and one of the best things about the island as a wildlife destination is the diversity of landscapes, above and below water. Wherever you stay, you're never far from high slate cliffs, sandy beaches, upland heath, sheltered glens, estuaries, saltmarsh and grasslands. There are rich marine habitats offshore, protected in 10 Marine Nature Reserves, and the shores are rockpooling heaven, with cushion star starfish, shore crabs and jewel anemones easily accessible to young explorers.
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Guilt-Free Meat? - Should the world stop eating meat to tackle the climate crisis? Chris Baraniuk meets an experimental farmer who says we don't all have to become vegetarians
Should the world stop eating meat to tackle the climate crisis? Chris Baraniuk meets an experimental farmer who says we don't all have to become vegetarians. Livestock farming around the world is facing scrutiny because of its greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, the sector contributes somewhere between 11.1% and 19.6% of total emissions. Meat production is roughly twice as bad as the production of plant-based food, according to some analyses. And beef is the worst of all. Study after study has suggested that, in order to curtail the devastating effects of climate change, we ought to shift to a diet containing less meat - or even go vegetarian or vegan.
Discover Cider Country - Explore mellow golden countryside, pedalling between medieval villages, historic inns and fruitful orchards, on a delightful Herefordshire Cider Circuit adventure with Julie Brominicks
Explore mellow golden countryside, pedalling between medieval villages, historic inns and fruitful orchards, on a delightful Herefordshire Cider Circuit adventure with Julie Brominicks. I'm cycling Porter's Perfection, one of three cider circuits developed for Visit Herefordshire over the past few years. Each showcases a section of this bucolic county's loveliest villages, pubs, orchards and cidermakers via lanes suited to bicycles - e-bikes for hill-averse cyclists like me. The idea is to allow you to appreciate the sights, sounds and smells of cider country while traversing roads never meant for modern cars. If you have dodgy knees, or are keen to indulge in the local adult apple juice as you go (remember, it's illegal to cycle while under the influence), Visit Herefordshire also promotes cider bus routes.
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For farmers out in their fields in all seasons, worried about the future as dramatic levels of rainfall blamed on climate change damage their crops, inflation and uncertainty push up their costs and what they see as unfair imports threaten their livelihoods, here's a spot of unexpectedly good news: the rest of us think you are doing a good job.
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