Sawing for Scotland

Between 1960 and 2000, many hardworking,  poorly-paid people planted millions of trees across rural Scotland. In that short time, they increased the growing woodlands and forests in Scotland from 6% to 17%  of the land area – a phenomenal achievement considering the wet and windy weather, difficult peaty or rocky soils and the steep slopes

Wonderful Words

  I was thumbing through my worn Roget’s ‘Thesaurus’ book, looking for a better word than ‘group’ to describe multiples of ecologists or nature conservationists. I could not find a satisfactorily evocative word, even in the small-printed paragraph of ‘Some Less Common Group Nouns’. Despite the minute print size, this paragraph took my attention away

The Great Storm, October 16th 1987

In the darkness, windiness and noise of the night, we moved the big bed well away from the window and the whole family climbed into it, hoping that the windows would not blow in or the roof lift off. We had not experienced weather like this ever before, even during foreign travels; but the weather

Lammas – 1st August

“It happened on a Lammas nicht, As I gaed oot for a stroll, I hadnae gaun sae very faur, Tae I daunered doon by the toll” Robert Burns Lammas originated in Medieval England as a religious harvest festival, usually held on August 1st or soon after. The hay harvest would have finished, and the early

Austerity?

We had no fridge, let alone a freezer, washing machine or phone. Nor a car. Meat was kept in a gauze-covered cupboard and milk had to be boiled in the summer. Drinking water was provided at meals, except when friends came round in summer when you might get diluted juice. At school there was free

Soundboard Surprises

  I had never connected guitars, pianos, harps or violins with any particular tree or trees until I started on my book about Sitka spruce, a conifer tree which grows naturally for 3600 km along a narrow coastal corridor from California to Alaska. Since the mid-nineteenth century, when it journeyed as seeds from North America

Your Letters and Diaries are just as Valuable as Michael Palin’s Notebooks

Family history research is popular and enjoyable once you have got started and found your first ancestors. From historic records some people work out the age and history of their house or village, while others enthuse over old diaries or ships’ logs. Your children may use soldiers’ letters for a project on the First World

Gowans, summer flowers of the roadside.

My friend is in his 80s and extolls the floriferous days of his youth in the 1940s and 1950s. Gowan flowers are a memory he holds fondly. ‘Gowan’ is the Scots and northern dialect name for what the rest of us call ‘Moon Daisy’, ‘Dog Daisy’ or ‘Ox-eye Daisy’: like gigantic daisies on one-to-two foot

‘Escape To The Country’ – Here’s What You Might Find

              You imagine a house surrounded by woodlands and fields, a garden full of birdsong, hens in one corner and fresh eggs for breakfast, friendly neighbours and lovely places to walk the dogs without traffic. It sounds wonderful in comparison with city life. It is, but country life throws