Sidelines

136 snail shells & a pint of shorts

As life events go, Shetland 1985 turned out to be right up there.
How to digitise photos from slides or negatives without a scanner

I digitised some 30-year-old Kodachrome slides this week. Some notes to remind myself what I did.
Bloodless grouse-shoot

After 20 years walking on the Moor, I finally bag a brace of decent grouse photos.
Getting jittery about swallows

It’s getting to that time of year again. Swallows are on their way.
My bat-shit crazy hypothesis about rooks

A ridiculous observation concerning rooks, which can’t possibly be right.
Putting the wet in wetland

Our moorlands are—or should be—important wetland habitats.
Grouse in winter

How red grouse change their habits in cold weather.
Tales of derring-don’t

I’m beginning to wonder whether I might inadvertently have begun to invent a new sub-genre of ‘nature writing’.
Primroses v Wurlitzers

George Orwell on the simpler pleasures.
Prize-winning author lost on Moor

When your instincts and your compass disagree, trust your instincts. I mean your compass.
Sebald’s TV listing

When you enter into Sebald’s universe, it seems to me, you have to play along.
What I read in 2014

I read 36 books in 2014. This shows an uncharacteristic degree of consistency on my behalf.