Red Sky on the Black Isle: a short film about raptors by Alison Marley
From film maker Alison Marley, here’s a short film about raptor persecution – a visually beautiful look at a less than beautiful subject:
Tag: scotland
Extinct in Ireland, September 24th- Rannoch rush (Scheuchzeria pallustris) and the life of John Moore
From Wikipedia: Scheuchzeria palustris (Rannoch-rush,[2] or pod grass), is a flowering plant in the family Scheuchzeriaceae, in which there is only one species and Scheuchzeria is the only genus. In…
“The Forgotten Beasts in Medieval Britain: a study of extinct fauna in medieval sources” Ph.D thesis by Lee Raye
Over the course of my September posts on extinct species in Ireland, the importance of archaeology and literary scholarship in determining which species have been extant in Ireland is striking.…
“it is the August-blooming ling that covers the hills with amethyst”
from “The Living Mountain” by Nan Shepherd (previous Nan Shepherd posts here and here: Lower on the mountain, on all the slopes and shoulders and ridges and on the moors below, the…
A resting blessing from the Carmina Gadelica
From Alexander Carmichael’s collection of the Scottish oral tradition Carmina Gadelica , a resting blessing AN ainm an Tighearn Iosa, Agus Spiorad ìocshlain aigh, An ainm Athar Israil, Sinim sios…
Silence in the Cairngorms – from Nan Shepherd’s “The Living Mountain”
Having disciplined mind and body to quiescence, I must discipline them also to activity. The senses must be used. For the ear, the most vital thing that can be listened…
October in the Cairngorms – from Nan Shepherd, “The Heart of the Mountain”
Among drifts of these purple glowing birches, an occasional rowan looks dead; its naked boughs are a smooth white-grey, almost ghastly as the winter light runs over them. The rowan’s…
“it is very difficult not to anthropomorphise puffins” – Peter Reason on Puffins
I have been posting some thoughts inspired by Peter Reason’s book In Search of Grace. I am trying not to let this blog turn into nothing but a series of…
Séamus Sweeney 