My father was a bibliophile. His passion for books started in his childhood, and I recall some of the early books he kept on his bookshelf: nearly complete works of Julius Verne, books by Jack London. Each of them neatly wrapped in either cream or blue packing paper, a handwritten label on the front, positioned with a millimetre precision, and inside an ex libris stamp in the shape of a pocket watch. »
Let’s be clear on one thing: in the good old USSR decent people didn’t rise through the Communist Party ranks to the Politburo, they were sent to the Siberian gulags. The Politburo was the cesspit of the Soviet system — this is the basic lens through which the Gorbachev legacy must be viewed. To remove it, as the various UK commentators are invariably doing just now, is to engage in gross revisionism of history. »
I see that Chris Packham and others are making waves about the amount of Sitka being planted in Scotland. Funny that. There is nothing new here. »
The Beeb has a photographic piece on cycling the NC500. Unfortunately, these serene images, featuring four cyclists riding quiet scenic roads, are completely misleading as to the reality of cycling on the NC500. »
The year has began splendidly: the sun is shinning, the sky is blue, the hills around caped in snow, the reservoir part frozen, and under my wheels the satisfying crunch of hard ice. I turn onto the minor single track road that takes me over the hills. Here in the shade of the frost decorated evergreens it’s noticeably colder. I leave behind a stuck 4x4, pedalling out of the trees into the sun, grinning. At this moment there is nowhere else I’d rather be, nothing else I’d rather be doing. »
This piece in the Atlantic is well worth a read, cutting right through the cosy myth of the 19th century conservationism. There are lessons there for
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I rarely enter photographic competitions, but the Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year is an important point in my photographic calendar: Scottish landscape is my primary photographic interest and it’s always worthwhile to be able to place my own work in the wider context of other people's imagery. »
It’s been an odd year, to say the least. A year that brought out a pinch of community spirit in all of us, and alongside it a large doze of selfishness. »
COVID has, so I hear, brought new levels of antisocial behaviour into the Outdoors: stories about irresponsible campers seem to appear daily in the news, and a petition asking for curbing of rights to camp has been lodged with the Scottish Parliament. »
How many phone calls does it take to organise a COVID-19 test for a ninety+ year old who needs an emergency admission to a care home? »