Bog Myrtle & Peat

Life and Work in Galloway

  • Making friends

    I have now owned my ferrets for around five days. Each time I get them out of their box for a ramble, they appear to have become more nimble, speedy and fun. When I first bought them, they were just fluffy maggots, writhing around in an insensible mess. Now that they have had their first… Continue reading

  • A sculpture

    I don’t remember any details about who made this or where it came from. All I know is that I saw it at the CLA game fair and that it cost £3,950-00. It’s extremely nice, but if whoever buys it spends that money on trees or larsen traps instead, they might have one or two… Continue reading

  • A trip to Wales

    Returning from the CLA game fair on Saturday, I noticed a sign to North Wales above the motorway. Having heard that a few black grouse still survive in the Vale of Clwyd and feeling flush enough  to afford the petrol, I decided to stop in and have a visit. Around half of Wales’s surviving black… Continue reading

  • The unnecessary addition of ferrets

    I have been working towards getting a pointer puppy. My entire life on the hill would be a hundred times easier if I had access to a pointer, particularly since the red grouse are so sparsely scattered across the farm that it’s now been some months since I’ve seen any of my birds at all.… Continue reading

  • Another post about blaeberry

    I have become slightly obsessed with blaeberry. It grows in such incredible quantities on the verge of the woodcock strip that I had to take a photograph of it. There is blaeberry all across the entire farm, but in the areas where it hasn’t been grazed, it has grown into fantastic proportions. Someday, the entire… Continue reading

  • Alchemy

    I have created heather! Well, I didn’t exactly do it from scratch. Four months ago, I planted a packet of “Speyside Heather Seed” in a tray under my window. After a fortnight, something emerged. I watched its progress avidly, but it soon emerged that it was some weed or other. A slug ate it and… Continue reading

  • Saving the blaeberry

    It has now been six months since I started thinning out the woodcock strip and the effect that that work has had on the blaeberry has been really fantastic. As I brashed  the trees, strained stalks emerged from the needles underneath the bottom branches. Most of the blaeberry appeared to have died away, but there… Continue reading

  • Friends or foes?

    I have been doing some research into the relationship between pheasants and black grouse. Many Victorian sporting commentators held serious reservations about  the increased number of wild pheasants in traditional black grouse habitats, and some went as far as to suggest that the imported pheasant was actually ousting the native black game from their traditional… Continue reading

  • Blackcock’s feather

    Walking over the hill the other week, I found one of the blackcock’s feathers lying in the grass. My immediate reaction was one of gloomy resignation. Nobody has seen him now for more than three weeks, so it is now widely assumed that he has been killed and eaten by some no-good prowler. Finding a… Continue reading

  • A little more encouraging

    While the first batch of oats I planted have come to nothing at all, the second experimental strips seem to be flourishing. I was starting to worry over the past few days that it had been too dry for the young plants, but now the rain has finally come, they are looking quite promising again.… Continue reading

About

“Shout on, Morgan. You’ll be nothing tomorrow”

Swn y galon fach yn torri, 1952

Also at: https://andtheyellowale.substack.com

Recent Posts