“Time is but the stream I go fishing in” (Henry David Thoreau) My two stepsons, Joe and Sam, were keen boyhood fishermen and so naturally Yetholm loch was a favourite haunt. Tackling up, hooking up herring dead bait, untangling snags, tying on spinners, cultivating maggots: we did it all in pursuit of the pike and […] Continue reading → 
Yetholm Loch in winter February 10th 2016 As the ‘Birds’ homepage notes, one of my local bird habitats is Yetholm loch. Tucked away beneath the surrounding hills, between the farms of Lochside and Lochtower, the loch is just over half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. It is a beautiful place, […] Continue reading → 
“Wild spirit which art moving everywhere”. These words by Shelley from his ‘Ode to the West Wind’ surely sum up the weather over the past few weeks. Here we have been lucky, spared the impact of this “Destroyer….dirge Of the dying year……..from whose solid atmosphere Black rain.” Apart from venturing out to replace wind mangled […] Continue reading →