Bog Myrtle & Peat

In a bid to relieve some pressure and capture some more of  the summer while it is still with us, I headed out West for a run up the Merrick on Monday afternoon. Perhaps “run” is an exaggeration, but I am sufficiently enthused by the idea of fell-racing to up the tempo on my walks… Continue reading

Rifling through some old papers in the process of moving house, I was pleased to find a newspaper cutting from 2013 which contained a letter from Chris Land, who is a frequent commenter on this blog and has provided great support and help over the years. Chris ran black grouse surveys for the Southern Uplands… Continue reading

Couldn’t resist including this picture which came up on my trail camera when it was set on the moss behind our new house. A litter of cubs has been doing well over the past few weeks and can often be heard fighting and playing in the gloaming – these cubs are not on my ground… Continue reading

Worth reporting the successful arrival of five partridge chicks. As an indication of how this brood has worked out, I started with twenty four eggs. Six were discarded after a week in the incubator showed that they were either clear or had developed blood streaks – a sign of early chick death. Eighteen then proceeded… Continue reading

Summer is slipping away. The long evenings simply vanish into work, and somehow the fulcrum of midsummer is now just a matter of hours away. There is no longer any meaningful darkness – the day is briefly compressed into a smear of washed-out light on the far northern horizon. The effect will be ruined in… Continue reading

I am very bad at replying to comments and notes on this blog. I apologise for this – it’s not deliberate. Of course it’s great to hear feedback on this project, and be assured that even if your input seems to have vanished into a void, it has been read and registered. Blogs are used… Continue reading

Cattle gathered on the in-bye fields to lash their tails as the clouds piled up behind them. I had meant to look for a roe buck, but by eight o’clock the sky was setting into gel and the first flecks of rain were flying through the thistles. Hares took my lead and forged a path through the grass, cooking up… Continue reading

As much as I’d love to be telling triumphant tales of success with my grey partridges this year, the season has held more tragedy than progress so far. I certainly let enthusiasm get the better of me when I bought my first clutch of partridge eggs, then faced the consequences of a cold, backward spring with… Continue reading

I could write thousands of words on our new house and the plans we have to make it home. It has been a real pleasure to find my feet on a new piece of ground, which is a rough and ready blend of farmland, moorland, woodland and riverside. I was delighted to find barn owls and kestrels hunting on the… Continue reading

We had been shooting goats. I sat alone for a few minutes as the dust settled. My friend had begun the slow, abrupt descent back through the scree to fetch his vehicle, and the silence rushed up to smother the sound of his retreating footsteps. There are times when beauty collides with itself and becomes greater than the… Continue reading