Bog Myrtle & Peat

Home – Parish of Kirkgunzeon 28/3/20 The wind turned into the north when I was carting shit and ploughing. I would hardly have cared last year in the days when my tractor had a cab, but this year it is something new. There is no shelter for me me now in the high seat; nothing… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 27/3/20 Forty years without grazing has meant that Low Airie has become a jungle. Tussocks of grass have risen to waist height, and I recently discovered a myrtle stem which was taller than I am. In the creeping expansion of vegetation, it has become hard to read what this land used… Continue reading

Home, Parish of Kirkgunzeon – 15/3/20 The time came to fold in the turnips and start again. I reached for the plough and began the long reset process which has been repeated these last three years. My neighbours say that I would be better doing this job with disc harrows. Ploughing is a hard way… Continue reading

Home, Parish of Kirkgunzeon – 24/3/20 There is a scratchy little voice in the stillness before daylight. It’s a song of sorts, drier than most but happy in its way. I down tools and pick through memories of times when I have heard this before. The song is repeated as if to help me. There is… Continue reading

Courthill, Buittle – 24/3/20 In what seems to be a nasty parody of global events, it’s been unsettling to find a number of sick rabbits on the hill where my cattle have stood for the winter. I clocked the first few kits emerging from their holes last week and marked them down as a sign of… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 21st March Icy blue sunshine, fit to rasp the skin off your nose in burns or blistering. I break from dyking for half an hour at lunch to lie in the bracken with my head on a rolled-up jacket. A hundred whooper swans have passed in the time I have been… Continue reading

The last five years with cattle have been an eye-opener and a voyage of discovery that I would never regret. But I can only stand still with a “herd” of seven cattle (with followers) and a bull. In taking on new ground and looking to the future, it became clear that I have done the… Continue reading

Low Airie, Glenkens – 15/3/20 In dyking and repair, I have time to reflect on this new place and how it might figure for the future. I’m told that it used to be a fine place for wading birds like golden plover and redshank, and grouse came down from the hill to dine on the… Continue reading

Home, 14/3/20 A battle plays out each year for a prime nesting spot in a scots pine tree above the pig pen. Kestrels fight jackdaws, and carrion crows usually scoop the pool and build their raggedy bowl in the needletops. This year, the same old confrontation has been blown out of the water by the… Continue reading

Low Airie, Mossdale – 12/3/20 The main obstacle at the new place is a lack of hard boundaries. The two hundred acre moor lies in a thin, rectangular slice, bounded to the south by the old Dumfries to Stranraer railway line and to the north by a deep, treacherous coil of dark river. There are… Continue reading