All posts by Mike Howe

I am an ecologist and a composer of guitar based instrumental melodies signed to the Real Music label in California. I like to write about my work, music and nature conservation and how it all comes together. I try not to write about things I don't know much about.

When is a field not just a field?

October 4, 2013 Mike Howe 4 Comments

It’s great when the work you do for somebody else turns out to be useful! Here’s a blog from The National Trust Bodnant Garden that I was privileged to work for earlier this summer.

Bodnant Garden Blog

The grass cutting season is coming to an end, to the delight of many! But grass is not all about creating the perfect turf – at Bodnant Garden we’ve been doing a bit more than striping the lawns this year.

We are developing a Grassland Management Plan to take care of all of our 80 acres, from the formal areas of the Italianate Terraces to the meadows of the Shrub Borders and even areas of rough grass in the car park. It’s part of our long term aim to protect the wildlife so dependent on grasslands and so under threat from their decline in recent years…and also to enable more visitors to enjoy them.

Environmental consultant Mike Howe has produced as report for us, looking at the garden’s grasslands and at ways to look after them.

Put simply, there are two types of grass at Bodnant Garden; the…

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Chill, chill, chill….

October 4, 2013 Mike Howe 8 Comments

Goodbye until next spring…

October 3, 2013 Mike Howe 11 Comments

The sea cliff flowers have all but gone for another year, but there will always be colour around us…

Back In The Mountains

September 29, 2013 Mike Howe 21 Comments

This week I have been back in the mountains of the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales working, although it didn’t feel like work, on an upland farm. I was there to help advise on management and to survey the magnificent heathland that has developed on the mountain in the last 30 years.

There are some rare and unique plant communities growing up there now because the traditional farming practice of burning and grazing by sheep has been absent for all that time.

On the valley floor is the beautiful lake (Llyn Dinas)….

I only have a very small, cheap digital camera, but it’s a times like these that I wish I’d made that upgrade! Here’s one from someone who has…

Ramsey Sound

September 24, 2013 Mike Howe 2 Comments

Hope

September 23, 2013 Mike Howe 9 Comments

A New Tune For a New Adventure

September 17, 2013 Mike Howe 16 Comments

Alejandro Clavijo, who is the editor of the Reviews New Age website and a really nice guy, asked me if I’d like to compose a new song for an upcoming compilation album he was planning on releasing , this following his hugely successful release “The Piano”, which featured pianists from all over the world and which regularly appears in the itunes new age top 10. This time the guitar is to be the focus, and of course I was very flattered to be asked to participate amongst some of the worlds most popular new age guitarists.

Alejandro asked me to compose and record a ‘happy uptempo’ tune for the compilation and I thought Mmmm….well I could try! So this is what I came up with….it’s called “Lucky Day”, what with it being all happy and uptempo and everything….

The album is due for release sometime soon. I’ll let you know when its out just in case you fancy being relaxed away by a plethora of tunes from some of the worlds best (not me obviously) axe men 🙂

Nice Day In The Gardens of Erddig

September 16, 2013 Mike Howe 16 Comments

This week we are management planning for the National Trust at the wonderful landscape and gardens of Erddig in North Wales….here are some nice photos courtesy of the other Mike.

Thinking Like A Mountain

September 8, 2013 Mike Howe 6 Comments

This is one my personal favourite tunes that I have written. My first arrangement of the melody was grandiose and elaborate. But then I just sat down and played it on the acoustic guitar and it’s simplicity spoke far more clearly and purposefully to me, so that was it!

It’s a song dedicated to the amazing thoughts and writings of the great Aldo Leopold, who forever changed our thinking about our impact on the environment around us.