I made a weekend trip to the Isle of Arran. It was cold, and the tourists had all gone home. So I found myself alone with the Neolithic standing stones at Machrie Moor: And almost alone on the Lochranza golf course.
Monthly Archives: October 2008
Old Caledonian Forest
Remnants of the old Caledonian forest, the oak trees at Dalkeith Country Park are 700 years old. They were coppiced and pollarded hundreds of years ago, and they’ve grown back stunted, gall-stricken, and twisted. Some resemble giant hydras. Like the Ents presiding over Fangorn, they’ve witnessed the rise of machines and the fall of kings. […]
Poetry Fix: Hugh MacDiarmid
The shifting voice, along with MacDiarmid’s use of “Lallans” Scots, makes this a magical and moving poem. “The Bonnie Broukit Bairn” Mars is braw in crammasy, Venus in a green silk goun, The auld mune shaks her gowden feathers, Their starry talk’s a wheen o blethers, Nane for thee a thochtie sparin’ Earth, thou bonnie […]
Cute but deadly
The Highland cattle at Dalkeith would almost be cuddle-worthy, were it not for those horns.