I live my life caught between conflicting impulses: on one hand, a wish to escape the shackles of human management; and, on the other, a reticence—out of ecological respect—to roam beyond its already-excessive bounds. Continue reading The lie of the beholder
When you have the privilege of quietly observing these cold-blooded miracles going about their lives—when you watch them exist—the need to find any other justification for their being starts to ebb away. Continue reading Love, existence, and the nature of picture postcards
Sated with nature’s wonders, I find an unwelcome thought returning, and I reluctantly begin to turn the focus-wheel clockwise as I lift my binoculars to the opposite shore. There it is: the ghastly sight of a recent hillside clear-cut. The devastation is obvious without the aid of magnification. Continue reading Bare-faced forestry
This is the first post in a category titled ‘Beneath the birch and pine’. The uniting theme for this series—beyond the writer’s nature-centred standpoint—will be the inspiration that each piece finds in some aspect of life in the Scottish Highlands. Continue reading Beneath the birch and pine: Prelude to a series
Earth Tongues 