Welcome to the Unlocking Landscapes podcast with me, Daniel Greenwood!

Oli Steadman is a founding member of the indie folk pop band Stornoway. Inspired by their music’s deep connection to biodiversity conservation, he has been obsessed for some years with the quest to #FreeTheBatteryHuman, by connecting people to the great outdoors.

This is the mission behind all of the band’s songs (most of which reference specific wild habitats), and behind Oli‘s fundraising hike taking place next month in aid of the Fourth Reserve Foundation who are doing a fantastic job of maintaining Buckthorne Cutting as a nature reserve. It is part of what was once the Great North Wood, a vital part of London’s commercial and folkloric history.

Here are the links to everything we cover in the conversation.

• Walking 48km (30 miles) around the historic Great North Wood
• Fundraiser for Buckthorne Cutting
• Fourth Reserve Foundation
• Conservation Conversations - Oli’s podcast
• Mischief Acts (the Great North Wood novel) by Zoe Gilbert
• Woodland inspiration with Zoe Gilbert - my recording with Zoe in 2022
• The Great North Wood project podcast with Chantelle Lindsay and Sam Bentley-Toon
• Stornoway performing for stranded Eurostar passengers
• Stornoway on YouTube
• Stornoway’s Linktree
• Stornoway's upcoming concert at the Royal Albert Hall in late March
• Unlocking Landscapes podcast website

Thanks for listening!

In mid-September 2025 I went for a fungi walk in an area of ancient woodland in the western reaches of the High Weald National Landscape.

I had to search but found some interesting mushrooms. Here's what I found:

• Deer shield
• Slime mould (slime mould's memory)
• Birch polypore
• Birch bolete
• Hairy curtain crust
• Splitgill fungus
• Shaggy scalycap
• Cep/porcini/pennybun (Boletus edulis)

If you want to see more of my fungi photography I publish every Friday in the autumn on Fungi Friday

Thanks for listening.

In mid-July 2025 I went for a short walk around part of the Sussex Weald, an area of ancient woodland in south-east England to see if any mushrooms had popped up. We've experienced one of the driest springs on record and the warmest June for England, as well as three heatwaves already! Me and mushrooms don't need three heatwaves, thanks.

Mushrooms need rain, warmth and moisture to thrive, and after a downpour earlier in the day I thought it might be worth having a look. Here's what happened:

• At the beginning you can hear my water bottle in my bag and a great spotted woodpecker 'kicking'
• I began in the presence of Bambi, or a fallow deer
• It was one of the driest springs on record in the UK
• Fungi need water to allow the mycelium to produce the fruiting body (mushroom)
• The first fungus I found was a very dry community of turkeytail
• Summer is a time to look for boletes and russulas
• The main fungus I found was a Ganoderma bracket
• Here's the video of the spore cloud I filmed nearby

You can see more of my fungi blogs on Fungi Friday

Support my work here if you like :)