Bog Myrtle & Peat

My enormous thanks to everybody who has been over to see Bog Myrtle & Peat’s sister blog at And the Yellow Ale – and my particular thanks to those who have chipped in to support this project.

Recent articles on Substack have included:

A Donkey – in which I try (and possibly fail) to explain the rationale behind my decision to get a little white donkey called “Elvis”.

Farewell to the Bulls – an encounter with bullfighting aficionados in the Spanish city of Toledo questions the future for this ancient, bloody sport.

Guard Dogs – the overbearing experience of being “protected” by dogs in the Nuratau Mountains of Uzbekistan.

A Cattle Drive – the ceremonial movement of cows onto their winter grazing in the roughest, wildest corners of County Clare.

The Ring in the Salmon’s Mouth – the discovery of a fish-head on the Rottal Burn in Angus triggers a wealth of overlapping Celtic tales from Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

As it stands, the current format of And The Yellow Ale is a new article every week, alternated with a redrafted reissue of an article published here from the archive of more than 2,000 articles I’ve put out since 2010. Paying subscribers get full access to everything on Substack, but guests can only see a limited amount of new content.

As recently discussed with one generous contributor, the paywall is not really about blocking access or restricting content to some above others. It would be very hard for me to explain how people who pay through this service are really “getting their money’s worth”. Instead, it’s really just a matter of enabling people who like my writing to contribute towards the time and work which goes into creating it. I do it because I love it, but I hope that doesn’t mean that it lacks value. I go back to this niggle quite often because it’s something I feel inherently squeamish about, but it does matter and I do appreciate that everybody has a different take on it.

In the midst of several new writing projects (and overdue on some long-promised ambitions), And The Yellow Ale is just one iron in the fire at the moment – but it’s fun to write and it’s definitely helping to focus my ideas on the kind of work I’d like to do in future. The fact that so many people have enjoyed and supported this work so far is a superb cherry on the cake – so thank you.

[The picture above is Elvis taken on a 1970s Zenit TTL film camera – the rationale is explained in The Return of the Dark Room…]