Golf courses providing wildlife habitat, bird photographer of the year, and a red silk dress that took 14 years to complete are a few of the interesting stories I’ve enjoyed in the past month.
I hope you enjoy them, too!
What I Found Interesting
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I know I’ve shared similar stories in the past, but this story takes a different approach: how two golf courses provide habitat for wildlife.
First, a golf course along England coastline is being converted to a wetland nature preserve. And birds can’t wait for the preserve to be officially opened; plovers, terns, avocets, and lapwings have already arrived.
A second golf course in Colorado is taking a “regenerative” approach, replacing existing plant species with native plants as well as using recycled treated wastewater (known as gray water) to irrigate the greens.
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Since 2008, the city of Heerlen in The Netherlands has been heating homes, shops, and office buildings with water from flooded underground mines.
Heerlen’s experience involved much more than finding warm water.
It required wells, a pipe network, suitable buildings, funding and years of adjustments.
In 2026, almost 20 years later, the system remains active and is expanding.
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According to a recent study, libraries play an important role in supporting communities, acting as trusted community spaces where people build connections, get access to learning opportunities, and receive support.
Research by Dr Katherine Champion, University of Glasgow, and Lindsay McKrell, Team Leader Libraries & Archives, Stirling Council for The Evidencing the Social Value of Public Libraries project explored how libraries provide value beyond statistics of how many books are borrowed and how many library patrons visit.
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Over 24,000 images were submitted to the 2026 Bird Photographer of the Year competition.
The overall winner, “Sunball Rocket” by Henley Spiers, shows a Northern gannet diving into the water with sunshine lighting up the surface of the water.
I’ve never seen a Northern gannet; the photo is stunning.
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The red silk dress took over 14 years to complete.
Worked on by 380 embroiderers from 51 countries who contributed an estimated billion and a half stitches.
They included female refugees from Palestine, Syria and Ukraine, women seeking asylum in the UK from Iran, Iraq, China, Nigeria and Namibia, survivors of war in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda and impoverished and disadvantaged women in South Africa, Mexico and Egypt.
What a gorgeous dress!
The Red Dress project was conceived by British artist Kirstie Macleod. Since 2009, pieces of The Red Dress and later the completed garment has traveled around the world, being worked on and shown at exhibits in museums.
