Wildlife Artists on Massingham Heath

Massingham Heath is a privately owned estate whose owner, Olly Brickbeck, is committed to rewilding part of the farmland and restoring the flora and fauna of the original heathland. Last year, he started collaborating with The Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA) to document how the local biodiversity is coming back to the hills of West Norfolk, in what has been called the (SWLA) Massingham Heath Project. 

The BBC Radio 4 programme Open Country has recently broadcast the episode "Wildlife Artists on Massingham Heath" (23':40") with interviews to various artists and to Mr. Brickbeck. The podcast is quite clear and, although it has no transcript, you can find a written summary of the recording on SWLA Massingham Heath Project feature on Open Country Radio 4. 

The vocabulary in the podcast is very rich in wildlife and farming terms, so it can be recommended for C2 students, who can use the following word list as a listening guide: a heath, an attachment [to], otherworldly, eerie, the trappings, to take over the button, grassland, calcareous, chalk, soil, shallow, flora, precious, biodiverse, to outcompete, vigorous [grasses], clovers, fertile [land], a crop, to feed [ourselves], sugar beet, barley, a strand, to flog [it], marginal land, to yield [a crop], Natural England, to restore, [old] trace, to breathe in, a skylark, Bagot goats, Konic ponies, to [free] roam, a fence, seed [varieties], heathland, wildflower [seeds], a head torch, to blow away, up it came, oddly enough, poppies, [to be] carried away, unfathomable, on it went, a sweep [of wildflowers], a sculptor, a residency, to document [a year in the heath], an exhibition, an oil painter, a water colorist, mixed media, scrap [metal], [found] tools, a falcon, agile, dragonflies, a sickle, to edge [your lawns], pliers, a scissor, rusty, a glimpse, a kingfisher, a capercaillie, engaging, a handsaw, a treasure trove, on plein air, a [drawing] workshop, to dot [all around], an oil beetle, a dingy skipper [butterfly], [looking] intently, binoculars, a stonechat, a ring ouzel, a skylark, a long way off, the highlight, a negative, a shadow, to get there, in brush, dairy [pages], a naturalist, to be driven [to paint], the mist, a [bird] scare, the geese, my pad, a store, yellow ocher, delicacy, a cardoon, the coot, humming, a bumblebee, lush [green], overgrown, hawthorn, brambles, to kneel [down], a hedge, the dormant [period], to zoom in [the details], a ground ivy, a bee fly, a cirrus, crawly, a linnet, a whitethroat, scratchy, a daisy, a bud, a mining bee, to patrol, to lay [eggs], to connect [with the place], to deepen [knowledge]. This episode of Open Country will available for a year on the BBC website. 

Below you can watch a video where Zoology Professor Bill Sutherland had an informal chat to two artists from the SWLA, Bryn Edwards and Amie Haslam, about the Massingham Heath Project back in August, 2025:

Hope & Faith in Turmoil: the Negro Spiritual "Ain't Got Time to Die" at San Carlos de Borromeo

Sometimes life gets tough on you. You may have personal or family problems. You may suffer heartbreak, loneliness or alienation and when you listen to the news you only hear reports about war, massacres, polarization, political violence, climate apocalypse and, on top of that, your favourite football team has lost again, all the odds are stacked against it and it is doomed for relegation to the semi-professional league... When you are in deep emotional turmoil, it is always good to remember that your only enemy in life is Death, and that singing together can raise your spirits. 

Here you can listen to the Negro spiritual Ain't Got Time to Die, performed by The Chancel Choir of the Village Church from Rancho Santa Fe (Ca), and the local Zaragozan choir Hiberi Voces at the church of the Real Seminario San Carlos Borromeo (Zaragoza) as an encore of their concert last Thursday. You can do a fill-in-the gap listening exercise and check it with the key (if you prefer to use alternative versions of the hymn, you can use the Concordia Choir, or the Howard University Chamber Choir interpretations, but the Zaragoza live performance is really friendly and vibrant). B2 students can pick up some expressions like: to praise [my Jesus], it takes [all of my] time, to cry out, the Kingdom, to feed [the poor], to give my all, to get out of your way. 

Below, you can watch the encore of the concert by The Chancel Choir of the Village Church and Hiberi Voces last Thursday, April 30th, 2026: