Sometimes a common term can create very different images depending on how you view the world.So what picture does the term “pond skater” bring to mind?An iconic work of art or an aquatic insect? The serene figure of the Reverend Robert Walker, minister of the Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh Skating Society, […]
The elegant, soaring song flights of larks embellishing a summer morning are celebrated in the the glorious collective term an “elevation of larks”. Alas there is no such epithet for the Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis). The sound of a male pipit ascending to declare his territory is unlikely to send a poet into raptures, but
The arrival of the Gooseberry Sawfly in the garden is the stuff of nightmares. Do not be deceived by these comely creatures, their discovery is enought to strike terror into the heart of any gardener.
I like to think as insectivorous plants as a perverse, natural revenge by plants on the animal kingdom. The prey has become the predator as they have evolved the ability to lure, trap and digest insects. This facility to acquire additional nutrients enables them to grow in habitats with poor soils such as wetland heaths
According to the traditional English carol The Twelve Days of Christmas, on the seventh day we should look forward to the delivery of “seven swans a swimming” which would be a notable addition to any menagerie. It conjures an idyllic, pastoral vision of a septet (or should it be heptad) of swans serenely swimming around
Driving home from a trip to Argyll last week, I was captivated by the extensive blue haze on the hills above Loch Lomond which slowly transformed into masses of bluebells carpeting the woodland floor down to the loch shore. Spectacular displays of bluebells are one of the highlights of the spring; the swathes of bulbs
