Category: The Natural World
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A walk in the sunshine
We finally made a circuit of the dyke walk that extends through marshland in the Upper Ken, on the border of the Galloway Forest. There we watched a crow/jackdaw/raven dive-bombing a red kite, over and over again. Eventually, it seemed that the red kite agreed to divert its soaring flight away from the black bird’s…
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Unexpected joy on a frosty morning . . .
The world is a small place. I thought I’d take a quick snap of the lovely sparkling frost covering the garden this morning, and when I returned to the kitchen table to upload the image, my brother’s snap of his own frosty morning (yesterday’s) pinged into the laptop. Our mother related with great glee how…
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A moonlight experience on the high fells
I’m delighted to add a guest experience to the joyful collection today. Jeff Richardson writes about the midnight perambulation I alluded to a week or so ago: “Couldn’t sleep Saturday night so went for a walk — set out on my adventures about 12, into a night illuminated by a full moon. Walking down the…
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Reaching for the stars
We’re dazzled by the pictures from outer space that the gigantic telescopes reveal. Whenever we look up at the sky at night, however, it seems we’re as dependent on our natural eyesight as primitive humans were. Rarely do we bring out the binoculars, or the telescope to observe the stars more closely. Technology is, however,…
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That stinging sensation
After the bright morning, while it was still calm, I put my John Deere overalls on, my new Christmas wellies, my normal work gloves and then the long leather gauntlets to protect my wrists, and headed out for a bit of hedge trimming. I was happily snip-snipping along (I’ve eschewed the petrol strimmer for super-light…
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Sunshine on Sparty Lea
I don’t often concentrate on Poets’ Corner, when I think of the hamlet of Sparty Lea. The tiny village itself feels as if it’s centred around the sub-Post Office and the old Methodist chapel, but in fact the designation Sparty Lea always encompassed a much broader swathe of the East Allen valley. Never mind all…
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Harbinger of snow . . .
My brother wrote to me that Sunday morning had turned into a beautiful bright and dazzling snowfest, and also, incidentally, that inspired by my bird feeding musings, he seems to have got the new suet block feeder up just in time! The little birds are very keen already, as his photo shows. I’m wondering if…
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The painted lady
This month’s visual stimulus at VisualVerse.org (February 2022, or Volume 9 Chapter 4) was very confusing to me, and elicited no response at all from my poetic sensibility, until I remembered a feeling from only a week or so ago. ~So, this short poem is in a classic format: Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameter, alternate…
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If you plant it, they will come . . .
In the film ‘Field of Dreams‘ Kevin Costner, responding to some bidding voice — ‘If you build it, they will come’ — builds a baseball diamond out of a section of his corn field, and the iconic baseball players of the past, including and most especially his deceased father, appear to play an enchanted game.…
Roads to Joy 