Category: The Natural World
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The yellow water lilies are getting ready to bloom
Although there were some stiff breezes when we set out for a late-morning walk, the ambience was tranquil as we moved deeper into the marshland. Our eyes were caught by the plentiful buds of water lillies, which should open soon to provide a splash of vibrant yellow across the murky marsh water. I recall presenting…
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BREAKING: Sunlight and rain create rainbow fragment
No matter that it’s a very common occurrence here, the appearance of a rainbow is always cause for delight. I must say, however, that it’s a rare happenstance to be able to record the appropriate juxtaposition of raindrops and sunlight in a single photograph. I feel as if I can reach out and touch those…
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Petal confetti, horse-tail alley and a flight of swans
We must be getting fitter; we traversed the circular route around the marsh dyke to the River Ken, and back through the fields to home, in just about an hour of ambling, looking and listening. Along the way we invented descriptive words for the natural sights: a tapestry of stichwort; a serried rank of Jacob’s…
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Blowing the cobwebs out . . .
Our coastal adventure was an easy reconnoitre, for sure. Just along the road beyond Gatehouse of Fleet, at the protected bay, deep in the recesses of the Solway Firth, we stopped at the tiny public car park and walked through the gorse bushes to the beach. It was so bracing to enjoy the fresh air…
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Adventures near and far . . .
I asked my beloved, why is this flowering tree used in May Day festivals when as we see it’s only in full bloom two weeks into May? Because we’re farther north than you might have realised, she replied. And of course I had to agree. So that was our little near-to-us adventure, and another fillip…
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Rewards of a hillside amble
I was beginning to think that it was nearly impossible to capture, succinctly, something of the intense purplish-blue of the bluebell woods in full bloom. But then the sun, dappling out between huge puffy white clouds, created a sensational spotlight, leaving the bank of bluebells before us in immediate shade. So it was worth the…
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Willow warbling
But we only caught a brief glance of one little bird through our ageing binoculars before it flew off to another more distant tree. Meanwhile, our walk along the marsh dyke beside the River Ken was like entering an echo chamber of warbles. Every quaking aspen and willow tree seemed to have its own occupier,…
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Delights of the bluebell woods
We walked up out of the little burgh, past the Golf Club and on into the woods. The trails in these woods are, as I discovered in one of my Googling researches, maintained by the Local Initiative New Galloway group, LING for short. Anyway, we were on a mission to check out the bluebells, which…
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Well hello there!
We’re just casual observers of things, as we amble along. I’m not sophisticated enough in the natural history side of things to even begin to attempt a Guardian Country Diary piece. As we walked beside the River Ken in the direction of the Ken Bridge, and the Ken Bridge Hotel where we started our reconnoitring…
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Earth Day assessment . . .
Yesterday, the 22nd of April, was Earth Day, and I was intrigued to revisit a poem I’d written a couple of years ago about tree planting and recycling. It might be worthwhile to assess just how well these projects are going, but first, the recycled poem: Stewardship in a Smallholding Surrounded by grazed fellsides, meadows…
Roads to Joy 