On dark autumn mornings when the wind is thumping along the roof and the rain is hammering against the window I know that it is going to be an “inside day”. Resolutely delusional and optimistic, I still believe that if I tackle the mountain of paperwork on my desk or discipline myself to doing some
We have come a long way from a run-down croft house in a tussocky field to a refurbished cottage with a working vegetable garden, fruit cages and a polytunnel. However, the dream of spending my winters by the fireside with bulb and seed catalogues remains ephemeral, as once again I’ll be out and about in
or in my case 9 cows and their calves…..The Ladies are back! These are my contract mowers who arrive every year for 4-6 weeks in October to graze the grass on our headland. The grassland on our croft is managed to produce suitable breeding habitat for corncrakes, breeding waders such as lapwings, oystercatchers, redshank and
Waiting for the Tide of Inspiration syllables dancing in the spray,words rolling in grains of sand,antonyms hiding in fronds of kelp,synonyms twisted in shining alginates,will the wind release the rhymes,sonnets to soar above the waves,or leave them tangled in flotsampoetic debris, drowned doggerel?
Pinkgills, Earthtongues, Fairy-clubs and Parrots In these islands there are no hedgerows adorned with hips and haws, orchards laded with apples or woodland walks full of glowing leaves and the chance discovery of spiky, sweet chestnuts, milky hazel nuts or golden chanterelles. Our native woodlands are confined to deep ravines where the rowans, birches and