Somewhere along the line the botanical purist meets the gardening hedonist and the ambivalent fundamentalist emerges. In the garden there is not too much of a conflict of interest as I am quite content to grow pure species, subspecies, hybrids, geographical and horticultural varieties, plants of doubtful parentage or even clones. The growing conditions in […]
Croft Gardener
Marine harvest
When descends on the AtlanticThe giganticStorm-wind of the equinox,Landward in his wrath he scourgesThe toiling surges,Laden with seaweed from the rocks:Seaweed, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Exactly a year ago, I wrote about the kelp forests which lie offshore to the west of the Outer Hebrides and are part of the complex marine ecosystem of the shallow […]
Time Travelling
Moving through the nightRunning from the grand ennui(Cole Porter 1934, Michael Nesmith 1971) The himalaya of ironing is behind closed doors, the spice jars are vibrating and chuntering with neglect, the soup pan is slumbering and the computer is consigned to the darkness for daring to suggest that I have writers’ block. Another wet and […]
Defending the Wild Lands
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” John Muir The Year of Natural Scotland included a celebration of the life of John Muir, the Scottish born explorer, conservationist, naturalist and writer. Born in 1838 in Dunbar in East Lothian he emigrated to the […]
Soup for Solace
The season of the great darkness is upon us and the time of great hunger approaches. Whether the hunger pangs are caused by an empty vegetable garden after the December storms or the mortification of the flesh (January diet) after the seasonal indulgence, I prescribe soup. For those who have stretched the family budget or […]