400 million years of separation
Glad to be alive? Thank a plant today. The oxygen you breathe, the food you eat and the fuel you burn all …
Waxcaps
On Fitty Hill I’m surprised to find a wonderful collection of Waxcaps. These fungi are classic inhabitants of poor, unimproved grassland and …
Primula scotica – tiny, delicate and beautiful
It’s a long climb up to the top of Fitty Hill. As we walk there are two fences where the ground changes …
Gone looking for the Scottish primrose. → 26 August, 2013
Pulling a Pollock
It’s a misty morning so our fishing trip gets delayed from its planned 7am start. By mid morning, though, it’s beautifully bright …
Waiting for flies
Unaware of the smartphone camera inches from their heads.
Westray and Papa Westray – the Movie
I never tire of hearing the narrator’s voice on this wonderful video
A Mermaid’s Purse
A stroll down the beach this morning and we find a Mermaid’s Purse; the egg capsule of a Dogfish. The tendrils are …
Waiting impatiently
This morning the young Swallows are huddling on the toilet window ledge. This time I try photographing them with a Nikon D300 …
Fish and chips and owls
We’re driving in the Land Rover to the village when the Short Eared Owl appears over the fields with its white wing …
Who’s the daddy?
It’s a shame for the house that the double glazed unit has failed, water has got in and mould has started to grow between the panes of glass. It’s brilliant for photography though.
Clinging on
Families of young swallows are fledging and cling to the window ledges of Einar in the strong winds.
Window ledge
Window ledge beachcombing finds
I’ve got a serious problem
Why do people not believe me when I tell them that I have a serious Woodlouse problem?
Twittering and chattering
It’s early in the morning and I can hear the sudden twittering and chattering of birds. It’s so loud it must be …
There was only one woodlouse on my face flannel this morning. My worry is that they’re all still alive inside the Hoover … → 18 August, 2013
Note to self: when arriving and cleaning the kitchen for first use, always empty the toaster crumb-tray of woodlice before warming pitta to avoid that toasted woodlouse smell.
Woodlice are nutritious but not mint flavoured, so always shake them off your toothbrush before brushing.
Coypuffin
My Coypuffin :) I really wish I could remember where I bought this and who made it. Did I get it at …
Not a single slug in the kitchen this time = result! Slugs → 16 August, 2013
Orkney sunshine
Orkney sunshine in the playground.
Real dedication
There’s a beautiful collection of desiccated woodlice in the upturned light shade. It shows real dedication that they crawled all the way across the floor, up the wall and along the ceiling before dying in my light shade.
Rainbows, Peregrine, Traybakes and Fancies, Moonlit Cycling
The 14 mile return cycle to The Wheeling Steen Gallery is either getting easier or I’m getting more blasé about it. So …
Look at the halteres on that!
Craneflies have such an unpredictable wobbly flight. Their flight would be a lot worse if they didn’t have such big halteres to …
Poppy
The last red poppy on wasteland at Rack Wick.
The Puffins are here!
The Puffins are here! I thought that I would have just missed them, but tonight, there they were, like flying boats at …
Pecking order
My first evening here and I’m desperate to get out and about on my bike. Starlings flutter and shuffle their elaborate pecking …
Mice nibble… #2
Slippers Just when I was thinking I’d like to get my cold feet into some snug slippers in this Orkney Summer I …
Sugar and spice and everything nice…
… that’s what Westray is made of. Slugs and snails. That’s what my house is made of. Here’s an adventurous slug who …
Is that on the inside or the outside?
Is that fly on the inside or the outside of the window? I really can’t tell. If it’s on the inside, then …