Category Archives: wildlife

Beneath a Concrete Sky – to Gravelly Hill Interchange by canal

Posted on May 30, 2018 by

Where’s Birmingham river? Sunk. Which river was it? Two. More or Less.  Birmingham River Roy Fisher The idea was to follow the Birmingham canal system north to Spaghetti Junction. I had already traversed the city by means of the Grand … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities, Human Geography, Midlands, Walking, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Shores of Loch Bee

Posted on May 11, 2018 by

An island. A loch. An island — South Uist — that forms a link in an archipelago that lies off a much larger island, which in turn lies to the northwest of the world’s largest continental landmass. If the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Islands, Scotland, wildlife | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

The Tyranny of the Horizon by Laurence Mitchell

Posted on April 23, 2018 by

Originally posted on BURNING HOUSE PRESS:
“A frontier region… the resort of brigands and bandits” – Sir Clifford Darby, from The Medieval Fenland Two summers ago I walked coast to coast across England and Wales, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk…

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Landfall – absence and dislocation on the Forth shore

Posted on March 9, 2018 by

It began with a dislocation. A couple of weeks’ residence north of the border in the house of friends who had chosen to trade the Scottish late winter for the Antipodean summer. It was an opportunity for some writing time … Continue reading →

Posted in Scotland, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

The Shape on the Map — South Lochs, Isle of Lewis

Posted on October 2, 2017 by

Eleven miles east of the main road, six from the nearest shop (closed on the Sabbath), two miles from the open sea as the raven flies. Glen Gravir – a slender thread of houses stretching up a glen, just four … Continue reading →

Posted in Islands, Scotland, Travel, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Blyth Spirit

Posted on July 28, 2017 by

Back in April I took part in a writing workshop in Suffolk led by Ivor Murrell of Suffolk Poetry Society and Melinda Appleby of Waveney & Blyth Arts. The workshop encouraged the participants to immerse themselves in the sights, sounds … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Suffolk, Uncategorized, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

The Minster in The Saints

Posted on April 20, 2017 by

The Saints is a small, loosely defined area of northeast Suffolk just south of the River Waveney and the Norfolk border. Effectively it is a fairly unremarkable patch of arable countryside that contains within it a baker’s dozen of small … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Suffolk, Travel, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Skellig Michael – The Edge of the World

Posted on March 17, 2017 by

Today is St Patrick’s Day and March 17 is the supposed date of the 5th-century missionary’s death. Patrick was the forerunner of many early missionaries who came to Irish shores to preach Christianity, the island more receptive to new ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Islands, Travel, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Hethel Old Thorn

Posted on December 16, 2016 by

If trees could only speak. If they had some semblance of sentience and memory, and a means of communication, what would they tell us? Ancient trees – or at least those we suspect to be very old – are usually … Continue reading →

Posted in Folklore, History, Norfolk, wildlife | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Tara

Posted on November 3, 2016 by

A few days ago I visited the monastery of Rača close to the border town of Bajina Bašta in western Serbia. The monastery lies at the edge of the Tara National Park that stretches south west from just beyond the … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, Eastern Europe, Walking, wildlife | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment