The land is not simply where our stories happen. It has stories of its own.
I have often wondered what changes when we stop seeing nature as something around us and start understanding ourselves as part of it. It seems an obvious enough thought, but we humans have become rather good at forgetting it.
In Scottish folk tradition, the land was rarely an empty backdrop to human life. Trees offer protection, waters heal or harm, winds carry warnings, and the changing seasons have their own characters and customs. Plants are neighbours, teachers, medicines and occasionally troublesome companions. Our relationships with these places and beings are shaped by knowledge, experience, respect and sometimes a healthy measure of fear.
Here, I gather stories of plants, woods, weather, waters and the living landscape. Along the way, I explore animism, traditional knowledge, ecology, and the uncomfortable questions of ownership, exploitation, and our responsibilities to the places we call home.
These are not simply stories about what our ancestors believed. They invite us to think about how we live now, what we have lost, and what relationships might still be worth tending.
After all, belonging to a place ought to mean something more than owning a piece of it.
Before calendars fixed our months into neat boxes, people in Scotland watched the land, the animals, and the weather, especially our Scottish wind, to guide us to action. This relationship
Deforestation is a global problem. One caused by human action – a tiny fraction of our native forests remain in Scotland. Human connection to the history of deforestation in Scotland
I’ve been chatting about wormeries and worm farms on social media for a few days and folks have been asking how to make a wormery or a worm farm and
The below is the introduction for the event Dreaming Bread and Skyrie Stanes on the 11th of November 2018. I thought I’d share it on the website for folk who
There is nothing more ubiquitous as the Blackberry or Bramble. Sméar Dubh or Smearagan in Gaelic, meaning black berry. Dris, druis bramble. The bramble was much valued by the old Highlanders, and
The weather has been hot. Today is no exception. Hot, wet and humid with a wind coming from the south. The breeze brings the heady scent of hawthorn bloom through my
Unsurprisingly i’m a huge whisky fan and there is nothing like a Scottish hot toddy! Nothing warms you up and makes you feel better about just about anything really. Reputed
Midwinter, a time of the greatest darkness, with still a way till we get to midwinter at the end of January. The sun in Scotland barely rises over the horizon
Winter warmers are always a hit in our house but, Hmm smoked mulled apple cider? Mulled cider is delicious but im not sure about the addition of tea. Though I
