Taexalia

wild.life

Recycling

Natural woodland needs dead wood as well as live. Dead trees provide food and shelter for many creatures, plants and fungi - who in turn provide food for other creatures.

A dead tree stump becomes a fanfare of colour as these Turkey Tails recycle the nutrients, they in turn migt feed a mouse or insect.

I think the Turkey Tail fungi echo the texture and pattern of ... read more

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery is a treasure trove of heritage. The displays are presented in an accessible and interesting way, which made us wish we had a little more time. I did have time to indulge in making colourful rubbings of the replicas of the Pictish Art which formed my favourite part of the exhibition. Above is the Wolf Stone which is an incised Class I Pictish Stone. This wonderful throwback to our ancestors of 2000 years ago was found embedded in a wall in 1903. It's hard ... read more

Sea Stag

Highland Spring

The days between Imbolc and Ostara are, for me, the time I feel the Quickening. Tempestuous and unpredictable weather matched by the rampant behaviour of animals and birds, and the persistent appearance of plants like the snowdrops and crocuses. Always, the long dark days of Winter ebb seemingly too slowly into the shorter days of Spring and we find ourselves always seeking definitive signs that Spring has arrived. This is something that has been with us for thousands of years and something ... read more

Moments of note 2009-03-17

Sunshine over Poolewe # Poops of Otter and pine marten so far... # Corrieshalloch Gorge is gorgeous ... read more

Moments of note 2009-03-14

Gran Torino excellent. Clint Eastwood a genius. But you knew that. # If everyone felt the same way about the same things what a boring world it would be. :) # Think sir fred needs to donate his pension ... read more

Moments of note 2009-03-13

One more sleep # Cripes managed to be ready in time to catch bus instead of taxi! # Change trains at Stirling. Smells funny. # Our reserved seats being hogged by weirdo with a loo roll. # Wildlife sightings - kestrel, geese and loo roll man. # Peaceful scenic journey being ruined by numbskull with leaky headphones. Grr. # Stags. Real ones. Not pre wedding booze tourists. # James Jauncey sitting nearby. Haven't read him so keeping schtum. Momentary missing of bookshop banter. # Anyway ... read more

Slioch

As we travelled towards home, hoping to reach Garve before the sun slipped below the horizon, we were caught by the beauty of this beast rising out of the waters. The Male Parental Unit interpreted my clicking camera followed by small sighs of exasperation as a tree would swing into my lens just at the point of capture... followed by the winding down of the window and the influx of freezing air to mean I needed a photo op stop. He obliged. High fences and decrepit signs warned against ... read more

A Goal in Gairloch

You may have noticed my Day Zero linky in the top bar - the page that lists my 101 in 1001. This is an experiment in goal setting, and also a bypass of New Year's Resolutions - instead giving myself 1001 days to complete the list and, quite probably, also embrace failure ;-) I found writing the list an interesting challenge - despite all the To Do lists floating around in my brain I had to really get creative to make it to 101. On Sunday I was taken on a surprise trip to Poolewe and ... read more