My cycle ride to the Thomson monument, recorded in my previous post, wasn’t the only excursion of recent weeks which triggered a journey into the past. Beth was home and keen to visit her friends from University days, one of whom was living in Lanark. When Lanark was mentioned I suggested that I come along […] Continue reading → 
Way back in time we swam in the Evenlode river beneath Gritney Hill. Today it was the Shereburgh and Staerough hills which overlooked our late summer bathe in the Bowmont river. Towards Clifton it had cut into its bank and scooped out a twenty yard deep stretch of the river bed. For this fast flowing […] Continue reading → 
William Blake, painter, poet, craftsman and engraver, was a Londoner.; the “supreme poet of his native city.” (1) How fitting then that a massive mural incorporating one of his poems adorns the end of a building in Peckham. The words ring out: “The sun does arise, And make happy the skies; The merry bells ring […] Continue reading → 
MAY DAY(S) “Generations have trod, have trod; And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell; the soil Is bare now, nor foot can feel, being shod.”(1) These words by G. M Hopkins were written between 1876 and 1889. Perhaps he had been dipping into his […] Continue reading → 
April 2nd saw the first swallow arrive: early. Too early for its own good in fact as it was greeted the following day by an inch of snow. By the 5th, however, there had been a melt and a bright and breezy day appeared which was just right for a cycle run over to Hethpool […] Continue reading → 
MOMENTS IN TIME COME TOGETHER She doesn’t know it but I have a lot to thank Alys Fowler for. Regular readers of this site will recognise her as the gardening writer for the Guardian who inspired my recent garden makeover. It was her description of wild flower meadows in Romania and her tips on how […] Continue reading → 
CUTHBERT’S WAY and BEYOND Beth was home for a few days in November. Unbelievable weather, still and sunny, saw us out walking along the ridge to Wideopen and Grubbit. The rolling hills stretched away to the horizon left and right. Below, the Bowmont and Kale valleys slowly filled with mist. A kestrel flew by and […] Continue reading → 
SYNCHRONICITY It was to be a week of physical endeavour with all the old tools, the mattock, peck, shovel and bushman saw, to be deployed. To what end? The removal of previous garden making, a willow pergola along with its associated planting, a golden spruce. After twenty years this grouping had outgrown its space and […] Continue reading → 
After last week’s re-launch of birdsbikesbuttercups, I discovered a missing link: an article from November 2016. It is posted up today with a post script at the end FOREWORD Globalization promised much and yet has ultimately delivered its antithesis. Its new internationalism could and should have brought peoples together by harnessing and nurturing the bounties […] Continue reading → 
COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN “Communication breakdown It’s always the same I’m having a nervous breakdown Drives me insane..” (1) How many of us of ‘certain age’ have called on Led Zeppelin’s lyric, manic vocals and pounding guitar for succour following a computer/internet meltdown? I certainly did when birdsbikesbuttercups.co.uk crashed in mid May with a deletion of two […] Continue reading →