Hi! I’m Peter Mayhew and I live in Bishopthorpe, a village near York in the UK. I’ve always loved nature and wildlife, and I also like stargazing! In this blog I’m going to to tell you about the things, terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, you can see in and around Bishopthorpe. I hope you enjoy it!

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I already keep diaries of the wildlife and astronomical objects I see, but have wanted to share them with other people. Nature blogs seem a great way of sharing information about what you can see in the world around you, and that can help to increase appreciation of what’s there. Without a love for what’s out there, how will we ever bring ourselves to look after it?  Bishopthorpe has some great wildlife and has some wonderful astronomical targets on show, but that might not always be true. I hope this blog will help you to enjoy and appreciate what’s out there as much as I do.

Living in Bishopthorpe means that you can’t ignore religion: we have two churches and an Archbishop, the local primary school is a Church of England school, and the church is heavily involved in the local community, indeed it would see that as its primary role. The church is about as prominent as it is possible to be in England in a village of this size. The institutions and people involved are all well-meaning and pretty benign. I think a lot of what these organizations and people do is wonderful and laudable, but I have a big problem with the assumption of God and some of the consequences of that assumption. I have often found myself wishing to hear a different side to a point of view expressed by the Archbishop, or the church, or the school. I know there are many secularists, humanists, or atheists (however they wish to be known) in Bishopthorpe, and they deserve a voice too. So, I’ve added a section to my blog to raise consciousness about the big and little questions in life.

Please post a comment to let me know what you think.

If you’re a local, you might also be interested to visit the Nature notes page on the local community website, which you can find here.

All images on this site are copyright of PJ Mayhew.