Bog Myrtle & Peat

Home, Parish of Kirkgunzeon – 13/5/20 For the past three years, I have been included on a Schedule One licence which allows me to monitor barn owl nests. Having spent a good deal of time building owl boxes, it’s satisfying that this paperwork allows me to check in on the birds which benefit from that… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 12/5/20 The cows have now been out at Low Airie for five days, and it’s been fascinating to follow their progress using the satellite tags. I must admit that it’s extremely addictive to wait for each update and refresh the app to find out which beast has gone where. Within hours… Continue reading

Courthill, Buittle – 11/5/20 Frost and a bitter north wind. It takes me twenty minutes to cycle out and check the cows at sunrise, and that journey pulls me down the glen through oystercatcher territories and beneath the whirl of curlews. It’s fine to be out at first light, but the breeze sought to saw… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 10/05/20 Ravens have risen to a position of prominence in the last twenty years – here in Galloway, they are fast becoming common after decades of obscurity. This has had a strange knock-on effect on carrion crows; the raven’s smaller and more cosmopolitan cousin which occupies a similar niche. The two… Continue reading

Home, Parish of Kirkgunzeon – 9/5/20 I find foxes wherever I go. They’re feeding cubs, and the work is a weighty ask. Clusters of their dull-minded young hole-up and wait to be fed, and the trial is never-ending. It draws them beyond the cover of darkness until I find foxes working in broad daylight, mousing… Continue reading

I went to the cows under the moon, knowing that they were bound for the hill and would soon be gone. This group had lain around the house since the New Year, and in that time we became familiar. I could run my hands along their backs and feel their breath in the falling dew.… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 4/5/20 I took the hill on the condition that I would be responsible for making it stockproof. It seemed a small job at first, but soon it grew and expanded into a monster. I was faced with a mile and a half of fence to restore (including 947 posts), and almost… Continue reading

Beltane – Galloway Rain came to shove us forward, and there’s no going back now. There were two days of cold wind and battering showers, and the grass caught every drop, passing it from hand to hand like an old-time bucketchain. Everything drank, and the wild strawberries burst their buds and guzzled. Then there was… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 26/4/20 The fire destroyed everything south of the railway line. Miles of moor lay streaked in cinders, and the devastation was a sight to behold. But my new ground lies to the north of the old railway… Huge flames came down on the darkening, and I heard that fire was heading… Continue reading

Home, Parish of Kirkgunzeon – 25/4/20 A snake in the hayshed hunting, and the warm walls around him. This is no idle sunlounger, spooled out on a tump of grass to recharge and consider – here is the man at work – fifteen inches of silver and black chequering, and lips like a grinning skull.… Continue reading