Arnfield Low Moor
I went for a walk yesterday, up Old Road, through the Quarry and up over Arnfield Low Moor. There was little birdlife to be seen, the spring seems to be lagging about 2 or 3 weeks behind an average year. A few meadow pipits a skylark or two...a solitary wheatear. But I only came across one red grouse and this moor used to be thick with them. I will come back in couple of weeks to see if things have picked up at all. I dropped own into Arnfield Valley hearing a Buzzard calling. I failed to locate it amongst the pine trees. It was the wrong time of day to catch a Buzzard soaring. Many years ago my tutor in the
WEA birdwatching group used to tell us that the best time of day to see birds of prey is 12 noon ...on the dot. This is because earlier than that they are out hunting and feeding, at noon they have time on their hands to loaf around in the thermals. As a theory it seems to work for me. Anyway after failing to see the Buzzard I walked down past the shooting butts and back along the lane to home.
A spot of reading later in the afternoon. I am absorbed in 'Findings' by Kathleen Jamie. You know they say you can't judge a book by it's cover. Well I can sometimes. I found this book in Borders and very nearly bought it because of its cover. I didn't though, I reserved it from our local library. It is a perfect blend of travel and nature writing. The author is a poet and writes about rural Scotland in a quiet poetic style. She writes about things that resonate with me personally, such as finding whales bones and bird skulls on remote beaches, on watching salmon leaping up a waterfall and listening to corncrakes in the Hebrides. Oh yes and she writes about J.A.Baker's book "The Peregrine" one of my all time favourite books. Kathleen Jamie should blog, she writes so effortlessly. Maybe she does but I cant find it. I can thoroughly recommend "Findings" you can read the publishers information about it here
posted by Bren @ 3:30 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Lovely post. I was wondering if it would be okay for me to put a permanent link to your sites because of their educational value? You also have a knack of finding some great links yourself that I've really enjoyed looking around. I'll check back here later this week to see if it's okay to link you..but I cannot resist putting a mention of you in one of my posts...(that isn't a permanent link;)
Hi Bren. This book is on my to be read list so it was interesting to read your thoughts on it. How are you geting on with the Annie Dillard? Pilgrim at Tinker creek is one of my favourites and one of the few books I've kept with me since first reading it in the late 70's.
Hi Susanne, thanks for your comment. My 'reading at present' and 'listening to' sections of the blog need updating. Blogger is none too friendly at doing tasks like that. Most of the books have been finished and the CDs have been put away and replaced by others. Teaching a Stone to Talk however is still on my bedside table and I pick it up now and then. The books of Annie Dillard mean a lot to me. My copies of her books date back to the early paperback releases and are looking very yellowed now. [I don't know if you have ever looked but there is serious amount of analysis of her books on the Internet. Her own 'official' site is, typically for her, very minimalist.] I hope you get to read Kathleen Jamie - Findings if you have the time. I have discovered that the publishers page I link to in my blog, actually includes the entire text for the book in the PDF file. regards, Bren.
Elder fairy, feel free to link to me. regards, Bren
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