Bog Myrtle & Peat

Spring has stalled. We need the rain to come and take us on, but the clouds are high and the nights are parched with ice. I lug buckets of water to the beasts in the bog below the house because the drains are dry and there’s hardly a bead of sap to suck in the yellow… Continue reading

I was spoiled by three good springs. They came in a row when I was in my twenties, and I drank them up. I saw every turn and corner of the days which join March into May, and I found time for the smallest details. I discovered wheatear nests and slept in the reek of… Continue reading

The ploughed field is mouldering into crumbs and dust. Days of dry weather have turned the furrows into powder, and now my time is spent fussing over seeds and pH levels. For all I mourned the larks which left when the soil was turned, the fresh ground is drawing in new visitors. I still hold… Continue reading

Kestrels have come to breed in the scots pine which stands above the byre for three years. It’s fine to watch the birds turning in the early days of spring, and I’m given a front-row seat in the neat complexity of their routine. The pair flies in high parallel lines across the moor and by… Continue reading

It was bitter, ice-cold morning on the hill. I was in place before dawn to watch the day unfold across a broad expanse of white moorland and rough heather, and it wasn’t long before the joints in my fingers began to reel and sting at the caustic wind. And perhaps my enthusiasm was overdone, because… Continue reading

I spend a good deal of time trying to highlight the decline of curlews. Many people are unaware that these birds now stand on the brink of extinction, and public awareness is one of a few ways we can initiate change. But there are some people who treat curlew enthusiasts like me with grave suspicion. The… Continue reading

Then came clear skies and a cool easterly wind. It was time to plough, and I turned to the stubble field with mixed feelings. Last year’s oat crop has exceeded every hope and expectation I could’ve held for it. It’s impossible to overstate what a boon this field has been for wild birds, even since… Continue reading

It rained before the snow came. The place came up dank and scenty, and the ground was thick with dribbling water. I walked on the edge of darkness to see the cattle, and I shoved my way through a mass of livid smells. There was a din from the flowering currant in the yard, then… Continue reading

I’ve been looking and back and forth over agri-environment schemes over the last few days. Part of this is for work, but mainly it’s to get a broader understanding of how farmers are being rewarded for the conservation work they do. Under the agri-environment and climate change scheme (AECS), land managers are allowed to apply… Continue reading

After several weeks on a diet of oatmeal, hay and oat straw, the bull is beginning to take shape. I’ve heard people crooning over their livestock for years and always found it hard to fathom. But now I have a bull of my own and I’ve worked to feed him into fitness with the sweat… Continue reading