Sprouting plants seem fooled by seasons
ANYONE would think it was March or April. Even now, as we approach the coldest time of year, the darkest seedlings are sprouting in vast…
READ FULL STORYStories tagged with Tag: Jill Slee Blackadder
A close encounter of the s(urr)eal kind
HOW IS your window bird watching going? Bird tables make the easiest wildlife watching stations and with all the inventiveness of modern designers and modern…
READ FULL STORYTime for those peerie folk to venture indoors
THIS time of year brings the peerie four feet folk inby and there are already mice in the cellar. But apart from the tell tale…
READ FULL STORYRay’s bream may look miserable, but it is succulent with a marvellous flavour
FISH supper? Haddock, whiting, maybe plaice spring to mind. Thoughts of crisp chips and succulent fish flesh steam quietly into mental view, and with luck,…
READ FULL STORYA time for battening down the hatches and enjoying fruits of summer labour
GALES, storms, tempests, call them what you will, Shetland was battered, belted, thrashed and flayed by the winds, rain and hail just last week and…
READ FULL STORYTales of the great garden yukkiness that is actually quite nice to look at, honestly
HAS someone been very sick on your lawn lately? Well there was something messy and splatty yellowish and generally vomitious spread all over a lawn…
READ FULL STORYHow can you tell when a crab is awake and when it is asleep? It’s not so easy
AT ORKNEY Marine Aquarium in South Ronaldsay Alan Jackson is a man with a passion. Don’t let the jungle of huts, sheds and vehicles which…
READ FULL STORYPlenty of birds, but what’s under water?
SHETLAND Field Studies Group’s penultimate outing this year, the “migration” trip, saw the minibus attacked by savage squalls and violent blinding waterfalls of rain, but…
READ FULL STORYMulling over the fine texture of basalt
BASALT sand is wonderful stuff. Black, fine, rounded grains as even as over-toasted coarse oatmeal. In the isle of Mull there are whole beaches of…
READ FULL STORYSoapy water may kill off our unwanted wasps, but I actually feel sorry for them
A LITTLE interest is a dangerous thing. It can lead to complicated relationships with creatures which are completely oblivious of your attention and benign focus….
READ FULL STORYAn amazing perambulation round Strom
AT THIS time of year, despite the darkening onrush of autumn, the chill of early mornings and increasingly frequent showers, a final colour burst hits…
READ FULL STORYFound: a real favourite
GRASS of Parnassus! I can’t believe it. What on earth is it doing here, on a 45 degree north facing slope in thin, dry, soil,…
READ FULL STORYYou too can enjoy the geologist’s palette
WEST Sandwick beach in Yell used to run pink in waves and bands, spreading like blush trails out from the burn at the north end…
READ FULL STORYNo concoction can defeat the midge
DEMONS! Perishing peerie menaces! I am absolutely certain that this year’s midges have been genetically engineered by aliens, intent on depopulating the isles. We have…
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