I've begun work on a collaborative almanac: a seasonal record of natural signifiers that mark the turning year – when flora bloom, blossoms, migratory birds, etc.
This is a joint project shared between my work as artist in residence for Paths for All, and a new project, Living with Sad, led by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. For Paths for All there's the interest people have in the seasonal cycle as they walk locally, in parks or along riversides, through the year.
In terms of SAD the changing elements of the seasons can be fraught or hopeful.
Anyone can contribute a thing they see for the first time, along with their first name, the date, and the place. Feel free to send these to me at alecfinlay@yahoo.com. Of course. you can use the material you collect in any way that you wish.
The project has started with these sitings from old and new friends across the British Isles, from London to the Isle of Lewis.
An Anxiety Almanac
Tuesday 22 February, 2022
Hayden saw a skylark
on Kingswell Moss.
Wednesday 23 February, 2022
Jonathan saw the pigeons
examining snowdrops
in Leamington Spa.
Thursday 24 February, 2022
Rob saw a small tortoiseshell butterfly
at Hapton, near Burnley.
Saturday 26 February, 2022
Gill heard an oystercatcher
by the upper River Don, Glenkindie.
Saturday 26 February, 2022
Gerry saw scarlet elf cups
in the woods, Isle of Bute.
Sunday 27 February, 2022
Natalie saw crocuses and snowdrops
flowering at the same time
in East Kilbride.
Sunday 27 February, 2022
Gerry saw his rhubarb
just showing,
Isle of Bute.
Sunday 27 February, 2022
Linda saw her first daffodils
in Northumberland.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Rob saw a first unfurled rhubarb leaf
in Granton, Edinburgh.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Gerry saw butterbur buds showing
at Ascog, Isle of Bute.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Natalie noticed the fat, sticky buds
on the Camellia in the front garden
are almost ready to burst open
in East Kilbride.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Leonie saw grey herons in flight
getting their nests ready
in Assynt.
Monday 28 Feb, 2022
Sukema saw daisies
by Whatton Lodge, Gullane.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Leonie saw ravens courting,
turning somersaults in strong winds,
on Quinag.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Gill saw violets on a scrubby bank
in Regent's Park, nearly overlooked
due to the distant sight of two basking lions.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Jonathan first heard
song-thrushes singing
Newbold Terrace, Leamington Spa.
Monday 28 February, 2022
Tha na seileasdair a' dùsgadh
Bun an lot aig Tom
Baile 'ard Buirgh, Leòdhas
Monday 28 February, 2022
Maìri saw the yellow flag iris waking
at the bottom of Tom's Croft
High Borve, Isle of Lewis.
Tuesday 1 March, 2022
the herb robert is
starting to sprout
in Ken’s back garden,
Newhaven.
Tuesday 1 March, 2022
Guth na uiseig Leòdhas.
Maìri heard the
first skylark song,
Isle of Lewis.
Tuesday 1 March, 2022
Sukema saw seed potatoes
in a draw – chitting
nearly time to dig the trenches,
in Glasgow.
Tuesday 1 March, 2022
Gill heard the first curlew
on Tam Beith, Glenkindie.
Tuesday 1 March, 2022
Carl noticed green buds
on his crab apple
in Strathblane.
Wednesday 2 March, 2022
Natalie observed the first shoots
of broad beans sown on 22nd Feb
in the polytunnel, by an Afghani family
who were on the last plane out 6 months ago,
The Bowling Green, Pollokshields.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
Jonathan heard his first skylark
of the Spring in Hill Wootton.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
Larry noticed the grass at plot 60
is nearly long enough for a first mow
Kirklee, Glasgow.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
Jonathan saw a wagtail
hawking and gleaning
outside Bella Bistro & Café,
The Parade, Leamington Spa.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
Gill saw the first purple crocus
by the south facing compost bin,
Glenkindie.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
Sgeith-losgainn 'san dìg Leòdhas
Maìri spotted frogspawn
in the ditch, Isle of Lewis.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
Leonie saw a stag with one antler –
the shedding has started
in Elphin.
Thursday 3 March, 2022
David saw 13 magpies
on Hilly Fields –
the most he’s ever seen.
Friday 4 March√
Gill woke to a song-thrush
and the sound of the River Don
in spate with snow melt.
Friday 4 March, 2022
Gerry heard an owl
calling just before dawn,
Isle of Bute.
Friday 4 March, 2022
Rob saw dandelion seeds
paired at eye-height
on the breeze, in Granton.
Friday 4 March, 2022
Sukhema saw handsome ransoms
along the River Kelvin –
it's time to make pesto.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
after sowing two rows of fir apple potatoes
semi-snoozing supine on a bench
Sukhema woke up to a hail shower,
in Glasgow.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
Gerry smelled furze
in full bloom on the moor,
Isle of Bute.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
Gerry bit the first
wild garlic leaves
in Skeoch woods, Isle of Bute.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
Leonie saw the flag irisis
pushing up in the Cowpark,
Glen Lonan.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
David saw a pair of Egyptian Geese
checking out unsuitable nesting sites
in Greenwich Park.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
Gill went to the wild garlic woods
near Glenkindie Manse
and saw nothing but yellow matted grass.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
Natalie saw rowdy juvenile
greylag geese prospecting
for mates in East Kilbride.
Saturday 5 March, 2022
Jonathan heard “slurry plover”
in a poem by Dom Hale
at the first post-pandemic
reading of the Spring
at the ICA, London.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
Gerry saw the first Judas ears
this year, frozen to the elder,
Isle of Bute.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
Natalie had her first sighting
of inappropriately clothed Scots
on the beach at Troon.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
Linda saw a small hanami
under first sakura
in Newcastle.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
Jonathan saw the great blue heron
that’s been hunting
the slightly flooded meadow
has staked out the submerged footpath
Welches Meadow, Leamington Spa.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
near Partick Thistle football grounds
Larry saw a pair of swans
on the edge of the canal
build their nest.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
Rob saw snakes head fritillary
stalk sproutings, flowering pending
in Granton.
Sunday 6 March, 2022
Jonathan heard the Tawny Owl’s
quavering twoo in the trees
above the River Leam.
Monday 7 March, 2022
Gill saw a first yellow flower
on a primrose in the Primularium
destined to be planted in the north-facing
birchwoods of Glenkindie
on her Primrose Path.
Monday 7 March, 2022
Gill’s first sighting of coltsfoot,
hiding under spurge, in the rose garden,
Regent's Park.
Monday 7 March, 2022
Sukema saw a new moon
and star bright
in the arboretum,
Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
Tuesday 8 March, 2022
Gerry heard the owl calling at daybreak
coltsfoots appearing overnight,
Isle of Bute.
Tuesday 8 March, 2022
Gill saw the first fall of blossom
in Greenwich Park, blackthorn,
before the cherries have opened,
now we wait for sloes,
London.
Tuesday 8 March, 2022
Sukema loves the scent
of baking oakcakes
with finely chopped ramsons,
in Glasgow.
Tuesday 8 March, 2022
Gerry encountered the smell
of the first rain of spring in the night,
Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 9 March, 2022
Gill felt cold south-easterlies
in Glenkindie sterilising the land –
only her collie-mutt-friend Solas
can smell anything.
Wednesday 9 March, 2022
Natalie saw the first peep
of peach tree blossom,
in the big polytunnel,
The Bowling Green, Glasgow .
Wednesday 9 March, 2022
Sukema saw the first pink
cherry blossom by the fountain,
Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow.
Thursday 10 March, 2022
Jonathan heard the first screech
of nesting peregrines
from the Town Hall Tower,
Leamington Spa.
Thursday 10 March, 2022
Sukhema sees taiji at plot 60 –
the bees are busy again
in Glasgow.
Friday 11 March, 2022
a bumble bee hovers
over the rising rhubarb
for Sukhema,
Plot 60, Kirklee Allotments.
Friday 11 March, 2022
Leonie saw a single daisy
flowering on the cow track,
Glen Lonan.
Saturday 12 March, 2022
on Bed 27 Greenwich Park flower garden
David saw huge bumble bees
all around the blooming heather –
shall we go, lassie, go?
Saturday 12 March, 2022
Gill saw first proper rains
on nasty south-easterlies
bringing the Don up
brown-opaque and rushing,
Glen Kindie.
Saturday 12 March, 2022
on today’s walk at Welches Meadow
(Leamington Spa), Jonathan saw
dunnocks in leaf-less branches
bright notes for such a brown bird
goldfinch rondelay doves stock
still in trunks
crow makes a dark sound
two magpies building a nest
orange-tipped blackbird rockets
over lawn
4 nests
pride at war with envy
an abandoned blue & white
umbrella upside
down beside new daffodils
woman with dogs
listening to the war
on her phone
intermittent sun
breaks through
clouds moving NE
pandemic declared
two years ago
today.
Saturday 12 March, 2022
Anna heard the sound of a bee
in the hedge along my street,
Norwich.
Saturday 12 March, 2022
Gill saw a swimmer in the sea
wearing only a swimsuit
near Dunstanburgh Castle,
Brrrrrr.
Saturday 12 March, 2022
Sukhema was on the bus
to Dundee seeing
rainbows over the Ochil Hills.
Monday 14 March, 2022
Deanntagan, ùr-fhàs,
Eilean Leòdhais
Nettles, new growth,
spotted by Maìri,
Isle of Lewis.
Monday 14 March, 2022
Leonie sees the ponies
have begun to moult,
Glen Lonan
Monday 14 March, 2022
Sukhema’s 7am taiji
in the arboretum
was joined by a pair of poodles,
Glasgow
Tuesday 15 March, 2022
Natalie sees first variegated tulips
are out in Bowling Green, Pollokshields,
and first wild carrot seedlings
have popped up
Tuesday 15 March, 2022
out for the first-time litter picking
on the canal by Maryhill Road
Sukhema picks out
eight empty bottles of Buckfast
Tuesday 15 March, 2022
Gill thinks that today
the north facing snowdrop slope
at the Manse on the bend
of the Don near Glenkindie
is at its best
Wednesday 16 March, 2022
Gerry sees the first pink flowers
on deciduous larch
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute
Wednesday 16 March, 2022
David wonders, have more than five blossoms
opened at the Yasukuni shrine?
His neighbours tree burst yesterday
and now the sun is inflating its universe
Wednesday 16 March, 2022
David’s today actually feels like spring
with two firsts – a brimstone
and a comma on the path
on the walk back from the park
to Friendly Street
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Gill sees the first bright green
stalks of wild garlic pushing up
in Glenkindie Garlic woods
waiting for a poem to go into
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Natalie sees the first camellia
bloom in her garden,
East Kilbride
Thursday 17 March, 2022
after Jonathan’s last
workshop of the year
the ecopoetics students disappear
into the woods
University of Warwick Campus
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Natalie sees the first forsythia flowers,
in the bowling green garden
Pollokshields
Thursday 17 March, 2022
after a day of persistent
Spring rains
water high—across the river
Jonathan hears the first
chiffchaff singing,
Leamington Spa
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Jonathan spots a bumblebee
gleaning the flowering blackthorn,
Leamington Spa
Thursday 17 March, 2022
in the construction site
Jonathan sees a blossoming magnolia,
Leamington Spa
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Jonathan sees new roses blooming
in the leeward corner
of Dr Who’s garden,
Leamington Spa
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Gerry sees the primroses
now in full flower,
Isle of Bute
Thursday 17 March, 2022
Natalie saw her first frogspawn,
East Kilbride
Friday 18 March, 2022
Natalie saw the pear
buds are opening,
East Kilbride
Friday 18 March, 2022
on a very early walk
Gill sees two small pink campions in flower
under a hedge of unofficial roses in leaf
on a path to High Newton from the beach
near Beadnell, Northumberland
Friday 18 March, 2022
Sukhema sees silver light
shimmer on new grass
daffodils all face south-west
Glasgow
Friday 18 March, 2022
Sukhema says The Kibble Scribblers
are not in the Kibble Palace
because of an invasion of stick insects
the palace must be fumigated
Saturday 19 March, 2022
David saw a bank of primroses
on the North Downs
& the crows showing off their moves
on Blackheath
Saturday 19 March, 2022
Sukhema sees a dandelion
growing from a crack in the curb
on Garrioch Drive
Glasgow
Saturday 19 March, 2022
Gerry saw the first borage leaves showing
and a raven scolding me
all the way through the woods
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute
Saturday 19 March, 2022
Natalie experienced her first
warm beach walk if the year,
Troon
Saturday 19 March, 2022
Gill smelt the first smell of dung
coming on a spring-cool south-westerly
from the stubble field,
Glenkindie
Saturday 19 March, 2022
Sukhema sees Gerry's words
"heart seeing eyes playing" carved in stone
in the Hidden Gardens
(he cleans the letters with a twig
making them visible again)
Saturday 19 March, 2022
Sukhema sees & hears Eleanor
playing the harp in the Medicine Courtyard
framed by bouncing white plum blossoms,
Glasgow
Sunday 20 March, 2022, 3.33pm
Gill likes the Spring Equinox
though behind in first growth
and blooms in northern Glenkindie
she will have more light hours
than the Southerners ‘til September!
(not that Gill is competitive!)
Sunday 20 March, 2022
Gerry noticed the first leaves
on the sapling quince,
Isle of Bute
Sunday 20 March, 2022
Natalie saw first ladybird
in the front garden,
East Kilbride
Sunday 20 March, 2022
dock starting in Cailean's croft,
Leòdhas, Isle of Lewis
Monday 21 March, 2022
Sukhema hears the wren's fugue,
hears the wren's fugue again,
and again
plot 60, Kirklee, Glasgow
Monday 21 March, 2022
on the first day of Spring
David is delighted by the blossom opening
on his pear tree
Louise Bonne of Jersey,
London
Monday 21 March, 2022
Gerry enjoys the spring sun
casting moving shadows of leafed branches
through the windows into the house rooms,
Isle of Bute
Tuesday 22 March, 2022
Jonathan heard and then saw
at eye level, a nuthatch calling
Jephson Gardens, Leamington Spa
Tuesday 22 March, 2022
Gill noticed the first blue ensign
flowering on south facing pulmonaria,
Glenkindie
Tuesday 22 March, 2022
Natalie noted first batch of autumn down greens
ready to be hardened off for prepared beds
The Bowling Green, Pollokshields
Tuesday 22 March, 2022
Jonathan heard and then saw
at eye level, a nuthatch calling
Jephson Gardens, Leamington Spa
Wednesday 23 March, 2022
Gerry is pleased to see magpie
and jackdaw raiding the old ash tree
for nesting material,
Isle of Bute
Wednesday 23 March, 2022
Alec is glad for the memorial
planting of fritillaries
in Pollok Park, Glasgow
Thursday 24 March, 2022
Jonathan heard the downward slur
of greenfinches singing,
Welches Meadow, Leamington Spa
Thursday 24 March, 2022
Sukhema sees towels and sheets
flapping in the wind
Maryhill, Glasgow
Friday 25 March, 2022
Gerry noted fresh buds
all over the vine,
Studio Gadelica, Isle of Bute
Saturday 26 March, 2022
Jonathan saw a toad crawl out
of the remaining flooded patch,
Welches Meadow, Leamington Spa
Saturday 26 March, 2022
back home from holiday in Northumberland,
Gill saw snake's head fritillaries in full bloom,
Regent's Park
Sunday 27 March, 2022
Gill saw the first celandine
on the south facing bank
of the Don, Glenkindie
Sunday 27 March, 2022
David saw the first beech
shoots break into leaf,
Greenwich Park
Monday 28 March, 2022
Natalie saw blue tit and robin
sharing a bath in the garden pond
for first time,
East Kilbride
Monday 28 March, 2022
Natalie saw plum blossom
appear on plum tree in her garden
(weather forecast not looking so great),
East Kilbride
Monday 28 March, 2022
Natalie observed first marsh marigold
flowering in the garden pond,
East Kilbride
Monday 28 March, 2022
Natalie saw top branches of first Acer
coming into leaf in the garden,
East Kilbride
Tuesday 29 March, 2022
the first pied wagtail came visiting
Leonie in the pony field, Glen Lonan,
at feeding time
Tuesday 29 March, 2022
Gerry rescued the first
fallen fledgling of spring;
a chaffinch
Studio Gadelica, Isle of Bute
Tuesday 29 March, 2022
Gill saw plumes of muirburn smoke
rising from the Tillypronie killing fields
to meet the cold mist-drizzle,
Glenkindie
Wednesday 30 March, 2022
Gill photographed her primroses
in the Glenkindie Primularium
blooming under snow
Wednesday 30 March, 2022
Sneachd bheag nan uan
Baile Àrd Bhuirgh, Leòdhas
Maìri walked in the
little snow of the lambs
High Borve, Isle of Lewis.
Wednesday 30 March, 2022
Sukhema paddles in a lochan
but decides not to swim –
too cold or too old?
Craignish Penisula.
Wednesday 30 March, 2022
in Friendly St David does not
see his bees – below 8 degrees
they go inside and pretend
to be penguins.
Wednesday 30 March, 2022
Leonie heard snipe drumming
and calling in the triangle hill park,
Nant Glen.
Wednesday 30 March, 2022
Sukhema nibbles new hawthorn
and birch leaves, Ardfern,
Craignish Peninsula.
Thursday 31 March, 2022
Gill saw two large Merganser ducks
flying low over the River Don
in heavy windstill snow showers,
Glenkindie.
Thursday 31 March, 2022
Gerry notices lesser celandine
growing in a wall
Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
Thursday 31 March, 2022
the magnolia is in bloom
in Jenny’s back garden,
Ruchill, Glasgow.
Friday April 1, 2022
Gill saw her first
tiny Egyptian gosling,
in Regent's Park –
no joke.
Friday April 1, 2022
Alec performs his first
bumblebee rescue
of the year,
Newhaven.
Saturday 2 April, 2022
Gill saw first bluebells in Regent's Park,
near big patches of white violets
and a nesting heron in the distance.
Saturday 2 April, 2022
on the same Saturday,
in the mid-morning sunshine,
David noticed the first dark ant,
foraging amongst the uncleared
leaf-litter on the balcony,
and soon after, a second!
in Friendly Street, London.
Saturday 2 April, 2022
Sukhema is surprised to see
a budding marigold in his front garden,
Garrioch Drive, Maryhill, Glasgow.
Saturday 2 April, 2022
Sukhema dead-heads daffodils
and sees the first red tulips open
Plot 60, Kirklee, Glasgow.
Saturday 2 April, 2022
Sukhema harvests stems of rosemary
the scent left on his hands clears his head,
Plot 60, Kirklee, Glasgow.
Sunday April 3, 2022
Takaya says the season changes
from winter to spring –
now, it's a Daphne flower
whose incense will be over soon,
in Kyoto.
Sunday April 3, 2022
Gerry welcomes the first
willow catkins,
Old Academy, Isle of Bute.
Sunday April 3, 2022
Alec sees the ugly sycamore
by the cycle path
is in leaf again,
in Newhaven.
Monday 4 April, 2022
Gerry was woken in the night
by the sound of the first spring rain
Studio Gadelica, Isle of Bute.
Monday 4 April, 2022
Gill saw her first ladybird
but just its underside, as it clung
to the outside of the bedroom window,
10 storeys above Marylebone –
I hope it gets up one more floor
to our flowery balcony
Monday 4 April, 2022
Sukhema sees an old wasp nest
in the hut so he hangs
an empty brown paper bag
from the ceiling to prevent
another invasion,
Maryhill allotments, Glasgow.
Monday 4 April, 2022
Gerry noticed Honesty flowers
in a wee guerrilla garden,
Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
Monday 4 April, 2022
Gill woke to wet snow falling thickly
on safely closed daffodil buds
and a single unseen oystercatcher
peeping loudly through the mist
above Glenkindie.
Tuesday 5 April, 2022
Anna notices Magnolia stellata
in front gardens, all looking pinker
this year, in Norwich.
Wednesday 6 April, 2022
Alec is pleased to see
the hawthorn leaves unfurling
in Pollok Country Park,
despite the rain.
Wednesday 6 April, 2022
Sukhema sees the grass
in the back needs mowing,
Garrioch Drive, Glasgow.
Wednesday 6 April, 2022
Gerry spotted swathes of kingcups,
Kilchattan, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 6 April, 2022
Alec is surprised there are primroses
flowering on Maryhill Road,
Glasgow.
Wednesday 6 April, 2022
Alec is woken by a Long-tailed Tit
that raps on the glass
and takes the old webs
to hem her nest,
Ruchill, Glasgow.
Thursday April 7, 2022
sheltering in Tam Beith woods
from snow coming on
strong north westerlies,
Gill hears the crackle-rustle
of last year’s oak leaves
and sound of a distant curlew,
Glenkindie.
Friday 8th April, 2022
Gerry noticed the first violet flowers
of self heal at the foot
of a stone wall,
Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
Friday 8th April, 2022
Gill saw a single pink bud
on straggly larch,
high on Tam Beith Hill,
Glenkindie.
Friday 8th April, 2022
Anna is gladdened
by the scent of magnolia
as she walks along the platform
at Chartham.
Friday 8th April, 2022
Jonathan & Kat
awoke to the barrel
cactus’ yellow
flowering crown
in their window,
Leamington Spa.
Saturday 9 April, 2022
Anna finds a fallen twig of white willow
trailing long catkins
on the Green at Chartham.
Sunday 10 April, 2022
Anna discovers that the white
in the woods at Peasmarsh
is all wood anemones.
Monday 11 April, 2022
Anna notices among primroses,
violets, wood anemones
the first few celandines
(very small still), at Peasmarsh.
Monday 11 April, 2022
on the verge in Glenkindie
Gill sees the first red
of the secret rhubarb she planted
pushing through yellow-tangle grass.
Monday 11 April, 2022
Natalie observed first two wind-blown
arrivals to her garden:
a tiny bronze fennel & an aqueliga,
East Kilbride.
Tuesday 12th April, 2022
on the banks of the Dee
in woods between Ballater and Bridge of Gairn
David finds the woods suddenly filled
with harsh raucous screeching from a group of jays –
they’ve earned their name, Garrulus glandarius.
Despite their noisy presence they manage
to conceal themselves and were evident
only as flashes of rufous, black, white, and blue.
Wednesday 13th April, 2022
Gerry spots the first electric blue flowers
of the oddly named green alkanet
and the flash white of birch polypores
in the woodland gloom of Skeoch Wood,
Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 13th April, 2022
Gill noticed a swollen river Don
swirling as black as Guiness
from new snow melt,
dislodged the blue Gym ball
stuck in a flood-fallen tree
further downstream –
she will ask the ducks
where she can find it,
in Glenkindie.
Wednesday 13th April, 2022
Jonathan noticed
pink & white blossoms
of the crab apple
flowering at the back
of the old orchard,
Leamington Spa.
Wednesday 13th April, 2022
Jonathan observed
the gibbous pink moon
above the tall flowering pear
at the allotment, Leamington Spa.
Thursday 14 April, 2022
Gill saw first elderflower blossom,
Dame's Violet, nesting swan
and five tiny ducklings in Hyde Park –
felt we left home in April
and arrived at the park in May.
Thursday 14 April, 2022
Gerry was cheered at the year's
first sighting of the black rabbit clan
Tam's horse field, by the moor,
Isle of Bute.
Friday 15 April, 2022
Gill thought she saw the first buds
of yellow monkey flower
in the rather tall celandine
on the banks of the Don,
Glenkindie.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Gill is delighted to see sand martins
are back on the river Don, Glenkindie –
so suddenly.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Gerry is so pleased to see
pure white plum blossoms
Studio Gadelica garden,
Isle of Bute.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Gill saw lots of new lilac blossom,
some scented, some still furled;
and laburnum over the lake,
in The Regent's Park –
purples and yellow, happy Easter.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
David saw the spring full moon rise
this evening – a pink gin,
a banana milkshake,
Newcross.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Jenny saw the yellow gorse
on Arthur’s Seat,
Edinburgh.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Carl noticed the primroses are out
on the old railway path near our house
in Strathblane on his Saturday evening walk.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
unnoticed by Anna the last two years
the small paulownia opposite the Co-op
is full of purple blossom, in Norwich.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Jonathan & Kat
saw the Alps
still covered in snow
looking through
the airplane window
Manchester – Treviso.
Saturday 16 April, 2022
Jonathan & Kat
spotted dozens
of blue herons
stood fishing
in the lagoon
reflecting clouds
Ponte della Liberta, Venice.
East Sunday, April 17, 2022
Alec and Jenny want to have heard
the swifts are back in Newhaven
but maybe it was just the spuggies?
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
Kat noticed wedges of ibis
‘alien and invasive’
African sacred Ibis
patrolling the Giudecca Canal
Fondamenta Zattere ai Gesuati, Venice.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
David notices the beech buds
bursting in Greenwich Park
on Easter Sunday morning.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
David notices that even pink cherry blossom
is beautiful whilst the park is empty,
Greenwich 8 am, Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
David finds a shrine to hanami
in Greenwich park on Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
David saw the first 3 ducklings
in Greenwich Park on Easter Sunday.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
Gill loves that her birthday cherry tree
is blossoming on her birthday,
as in Glenkindie it's often much later –
sometimes in May.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
Chunnaic Màiri conasg fo bhlàth,
sòbhrag san dìg,
Lochcroistean, Leòdhas
Màiri saw gorse in flower,
primroses in the verge,
Loch Croistean, Isle of Lewis.
Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022
Anna sees the first leaves of copper beech
coral pink in the sunlight
on Edinburgh Road, Norwich.
Monday April 18, 2022
with pleasure, Gerry sees
the first bluebells (some white)
and winter purslane (aka spring beauty)
in Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Monday April 18, 2022
Alec and Jenny “borrow”
a few leaves of Lorna’s
resurgent Lemon Verbena
for enhanced yoghurt,
in Newhaven.
Monday April 18, 2022
David notices that judging
by the flowering of bluebells,
Spring is dawdling.
Far from the usual clip,
indexed on Gill’s blooms in the park
followed by Gerry’s, it’s mooching
along at 2 mph – good luck to it.
Tuesday 19 April, 2022
Gill was a bit spooked to notice
pointy black-evil ash buds in Glenkindie
breaking into melanoma-like growths
before leaf.
Tuesday 19 April, 2022
Anna had thought that the hawthorn
was all out already in Norwich,
but today she spotted some tight buds
still, in the shade.
Tuesday 19 April, 2022
David has a tall gean tree
in front of the house: a thrush
has taken up a perch
at the top and sings all day.
He does variations and seems
never to repeat a phrase.
He has a backing group of pheasants,
rooks, jackdaws, curlews, oyster-
catchers, and buzzards, in Tarland.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Gill has a nasturtium bud – light orange –
just about to open on her 10th floor balcony,
facing west, in Marylebone.
More garden centre than deep nature
but this is a well-established plant,
grown by us from seed, and might help
David plot the mph between here and Bute.
Will be able to add some first, I hope,
from Dorset in ten days.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Rob has seen the dropping
of snakeshead fritillary petals,
Granton.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Alec notes with interest
that of the nine nasturtium seeds
planted in the stairwell garden
only one ‘bears the gree’,
in Newhaven.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Gerry's delighted to see
at last the lesser celandine,
Wordsworth's favourite;
but how late . . .
Skeoch wood edge,
Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Rob spots the first wee tadpoles
in his garden pond,
Granton.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
The bats! The bats are awake.
Gerry says Pipistrelles.
Studio Gadelica, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
blue sky from horizon to horizon.
David walked up Glen Derry in the Cairngorms.
There are new trees everywhere –
even on the wee islands in the river.
The old great wood of Caledon
is coming back to life.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Purple sprouting broccoli –
Rob’s first harvest of 2022, one plate's worth.
Granton garden.
Wednesday 20 April, 2022
Cuthag!
Gug gùg!
Màiri just heard the first
cuckoo of Lochcroistean.
Ùig, Ìsle of Lewis.
Thursday 21 April, 2022
Gill was cheered to have rescued
a poorly bumble bee from the water-butt
in her garden. She left it recovering slowly,
warming on a yellow Primrose flower
in the full morning sunshine, Glenkindie.
Thursday 21 April, 2022
Rob sees the Marsh Marigolds flowering
aka May blob, kingcup, brave bassinets,
crazy Beth, horse blob, Molly-blob, mare blob,
water boots, meadow-bright, bullflower,
meadow buttercup, water buttercup,
soldier's buttons, meadow cowslip,
water cowslip, publican's cloak, crowfoot,
water dragon, drunkards, water goggles,
meadow gowan, water gowan, yellow gowan,
golds, goldings, gools, cow lily, marybuds,
publicans-and-sinners,
Edinburgh pond.
Thursday 21 April, 2022
Gerry saw that the sand martins
have returned,
Ambrisbeg sand pits,
Isle of Bute.
Friday 22, Earth Day, 2022
David sees the first flowers open
on the medlar in the garden,
long after all the pears have set.
Smaller fruit, but a much bigger flower,
like a dog-rose, Newcross, London.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
Sukhema on retreat in a bothy
at the top of Glen Crotha
sees the sun thru mist sink
below Stob Caol every day for a week.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
Sukhema hears a pine marten
scratching in the compost,
Glen Crotha.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
Sukhema walks barefoot
circling the wood pile
and avoiding sheep droppings,
Glen Crotha.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
Sukhema sees the almost full moon
rise above the Braes of Balquidder.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
lying on a wooden bridge,
Sukhema listens to Crotha burn
in its glen.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
in the church at Balquidder,
Sukhema listens to Rob Roy's bones
turn to dust.
Friday 8 to Friday 22 April, 2022
Sukhema is hypnotised
by the ripples fragmenting sky
on the plateau pond –
he considers a swim, Glen Crotha.
Friday 22, Earth Day, 2022
Anna sees the candles
of the chestnuts starting to show
through thick foliage that seems
to have sprung from nowhere
(She needs to check and see
where the medlar is at in Norwich).
Saturday 23 April, 2022
Anna notices the new leaves
on the lime trees in Norwich:
little bundles on bare branches.
Saturday 23 April, 2022
Gerry has a busy morning
broad beans emerging
apple blossom showing
gooseberry blossom forming
yaffle in the woods, hammering
and the first cuckoo calling
on the moor, Isle of Bute.
Saturday 23 April, 2022
Gill's plum blossom is opening
and there are bumblebees everywhere
in sunny Glenkindie.
Sunday 24 April, 2022
Kat spotted Hart's-tongue fern
still uncurling amidst the nettles
Jardin Albert Kahn, Boulogne-Billancourt.
Monday 25 April, 2022
Gerry notices the abundant flowering
of ivy-leaved toadflax,
Isle of Bute.
Tuesday April 26, 2022
David sees that the wand of spring
is being passed from the pink cherries
to the white horse chestnuts
on Hilly Fields under a cloudless sky.
Wednesday 27 April, 2022
Gerry is delighted by
the first flowering Welsh poppy,
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 27 April, 2022
Gill spotted a single forget-me-not flower
by the banks of the river Don, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 27 April, 2022
Tina has her first sight of Spring
Sakura Cherry Blossom trees,
Glasgow Green.
Thursday 28 April, 2022
Gerry welcomes back his old friends,
Shepherds Purse, now in tiny
but full spring flower
Everywhere, Isle of Bute.
Thursday 28 April, 2022
John seen this lovely wee snail
on our wee walk around the garden,
Auchterarder.
Thursday 28 April, 2022
Stewart saw whitebeam blossom
at midnight in the park
on my way home from
Linlithgow station.
Friday 29 April, 2022
Gill was ecstatic to see her first swallow
which, while it doth not a summer make,
certainly made her day. And lots of deep
blue chalk milkwort, all in Acton,
on Isle of Purbeck, not west London.
Friday 29 April, 2022
Jonathan
was delighted
by the sputter
of a Garden warbler
in the old orchard,
Leamington Spa, Welches Meadow.
Friday 29 April, 2022
last day in the bothy by Stobb Caol,
Sukhema feels a tickle from toe to head,
then sees a gold striped beetle
crawl over his bare foot,
Crotha Bothy, Loch Voil.
Saturday 30 April, 2022
David saw the first sunflower seedlings
where seeds were scattered last year –
a promise of summer sun to come,
Tarland.
Saturday 30 April, 2022
Gill saw Early Purple Orchids
above Old Harry Rocks,
near Studland, Dorset,
and, inland, one scarlet poppy.
On same walk, bumped into London friends,
not seen for over two years.
Happy May to all.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
after 24 hours of heavy rain,
Gerry discovers the woods smell of pepper
Perhaps something to do with
the wee flowers of wood sorrel
appearing over night
in Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
Gill is delighted to see the blue comfrey
flowering in the woods by the River Don,
Glenkindie on the first of May.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
Jonathan & Kat
watch their first live
feeding of the new eyases
on the Town Hall’s
Peregrine Cam, Leamington Spa.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
On the now closed Ruchill golf course,
Sukhema joins five other men dancing
on an old putting green,
Ruchill, Glasgow.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
Alec & Jenny get their noses
into the May blossom
Newhaven.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
Sukhema watches children play
in the back court hiding
in last year's hydrangeas,
and one wee boy tries to open
a yellow tulip pre-maturely.
Garrioch Drive, Glasgow.
Sunday May 1, May Day, 2022
Gill saw early spider-orchids,
virtually past flowering,
above Dancing Ledge, Dorset,
in the May Day rain.
Monday 2 May, 2022
Gill was excited to hear
the first cuckoo back
on Tam Beith, Glenkindie.
Monday 2 May, 2022
last year's leeks beginning to bolt
nettles look fresh –
Sukhema will make soup,
Plot 60, Kirklee, Glasgow.
Monday 2 May, 2022
David watches an unknown species
of bumble bee trying to force an entry
into the swelling peony flowers,
and remembers the tulip beds
in Regents Park – the huge deep red blooms
already going over during hanami:
hops and skips, fits and starts,
wabi sabi
Monday 2 May, 2022
Gerry is pleased to see
the very first droplet size fruits
on the gooseberry,
Studio Gadelica Garden,
Isle of Bute.
Monday 2 May, 2022
Sukhema sighs when he sees
ground elder and convolvulus
taking over the raspberries and currents,
Plot 60, Kirklee, Glasgow.
Tuesday May 3, 2022
on his third circuit of Hilly Fields
this third of May morning,
David notices that the individual flowers
on the horse chestnut candles look
a little like popcorn on close inspection.
By his fifth circuit he is sure that
they smell like popcorn too.
Tuesday May 3, 2022
Certainly a first sighting for Gill
of a naked rambler. Not, according
to Google, The Naked Rambler
but certainly a walker along the coastal path
between Dancing Ledge and Swanage
wearing nothing but boots.
Weather very pleasant.
Wednesday May 4, 2022
Sand martins darting above
their new flood-torn river bank
sand houses on the Don.
Secret willow I planted
has not yet been ripped out
by the fishing-gamekeeper-police.
Oystercatchers angrily swearing
at collie mutt, Glenkindie.
Wednesday May 4, 2022
Davit also heard the cuckoo
Near the Slacks of Glen Carvie.
This week. And today the swallows
are back nesting in our shed in Tarland –
more than two- so it must be summer.
Wednesday May 4, 2022
David finds the building plot
over the road in Deptford
making its bid to be called
Wisteria Cottage.
Wednesday May 4, 2022
Jonathan zooms
in on the blushing
Midland hawthorn's
(Crataegus laevigata)
red petals surprising
the white thicket,
Leamington Spa.
Thursday May 5, 2022
Gill sees the Sweet Cicely
by the river Don
is flowering pure white,
Glenkindie.
Thursday May 5, 2022
David reads that flying insect
numbers are tumbling, explaining
their uncanny dearth
on the jasmine outside
Kings College Hospital.
In the afternoon of the same day
David notes that whilst bird
numbers too are in worrying decline,
the swans on St Catherines Dock,
Deptford, are again doing their best
to hold the line.
Thursday May 5, 2022
Jonathan and Anne-Sophie
nearly lost the thread
of their conversation
amid a sea of bluebells,
Tocil Woods, Coventry.
Friday, 5 May, 2022
Judy watched rain
water pouring from her roof
during a cloudburst in Portland,
Oregon.
Friday May 6, 2022
Jonathan noticed a new
song, the raspy jolty
che-che-worra-che-wi
of the Greater whitethroat,
Leamington Spa.
Saturday 7 May, 2022
Judy saw buttercups
along the singing stream
for the first time in many years,
Raleigh Hills Park, Oregon.
Saturday 7 May, 2022
on the canal tow path Sukhema
spies two lighters, three tiny
silver pans, three little plastic bottle
for syringe water, foil wrapper
for alcohol wipes [....]
and on the water's edge he stares
and smiles at the bright yellow
marsh marigolds,
Maryhill canal, Glasgow.
Saturday 7 May, 2022
near the back gate of the Botanic gardens,
Sukhema watches and listens
to a walking guitar player
wearing a rainbow baseball cap
entertaining everyone he passes,
Glasgow
Saturday 7 May, 2022
at the Squinty Bridge
over the Glaaick Burn, near Tarland,
David hears the music of the burn
like a xylophone as it flows
under the geans decked
in a mass of pale pink blossom.
Sunday 8 May, 2022
Gerry is singing:
Yellow on the broom
and orange-tip butterflies
all suddenly hatched
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Monday 9 May, 2022
Sukhema sees his two-year old grandson
Arlo pointing at a wee bug and saying
"ladybird ladybird ladybird",
Battlefield Community Garden, Glasgow.
Monday 9 May, 2022
David sees how the warm evening air
is full of bats, jinking about like
Brownian movement, in Tarland.
Monday 9 May, 2022
Sukhema listens to his son
on the phone: "I'm now a mid-husband!,
your granddaughter was born 4.30am
this morning in the back seat of my car
on the M74 - mother and baby are fine –
I wrapped her in my work hoodie.
We had a police escort to Wishaw Hospital . . ."
near Glasgow.
Tuesday 10 May, 2022
Jonathan notes that
snowy boughs of eglantine
are general over the Midlands,
Leamington Spa.
Wednesday 11 May, 2022
Gerry's pleased to see
the first pignut flowers,
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 11 May, 2022
Gill is happy to see her primroses
in full flower on the Tam Beith
Primrose Path. She is surprised
to see so many she thought dead
from slug attacks last year have revived.
Wee violets, wood anemones
and sorrel are flowering too.
Swallows are back on the River Don,
Glenkindie.
Wednesday 11 May, 2022
Gerry delighted in the return
of the swallows,
Mt Stuart, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 11 May, 2022
Jonathan spots swifts,
swallows or martins
flight, box, or swoop?
too high to tell & still
don’t know their jizz
over the gardens
of Leamington Spa.
Wednesday 11 May, 2022
3 goslings eat grass
from the riverbank
watched closely
by dame and gander
Leamington Spa.
Wednesday 11 May, 2022
Jonathan confirms
the song on BirdNet:
hello, Blackcap!
Leamington Spa.
Thursday 12 May, 2022
David notices that the huge
and gnarly old campsis
in the garden is gently exuding
new and tender green shoots.
No longer Spring then,
with this sure sign of Summer
in Newcross, London.
Friday 13 May, 2022
Judy saw fresh sweet raindrops
soup on an unknown but healthy plant
where she lives at Courtyard Village,
Portland, Oregon.
Saturday 14 May, 2022
Gerry feels that the insects are back.
Midges and money spiders.
Studio garden, Isle of Bute.
Saturday 14 May, 2022
in the garden of the unfinished hut
Sukhema counts seven apple trees
all with pink/white blossoms –
the hut remains unfinished,
Carbeth.
Sunday 15 May, 2022
18 degrees in sunny Glenkindie.
Gill notices beech leaves are
a SHOUTING green –
more than a colour.
Sunday 15 May, 2022
Horsetails are sprouting
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Sunday 15 May, 2022
Chunnaic Màiri mogairle,
canach, eala-bhàn.
Màiri saw wild orchid,
bog cotton, whooper swan.
Loch Croistean, Ùig, Ìsle of Lewis.
Sunday 15 May, 2022
In the warm sun Sukhema sitz
half-asleep surrounded by buzzing(s)
12 Garrioch Drive, Glasgow.
Monday 16 May, 2022
in the hazy early morning light
the daisies David sees
in Greenwich Park
are having a lie-in.
Perhaps they had stayed up
for the blood moon.
The swifts that have just returned
would have seen it from
their sleeping altitude.
(Swifts can sleep on the wing
by resting half their brain.
Imagine dreaming like this.)
Monday 16 May, 2022
early morning in the arboretum,
Sukhema plays taiji under
the big sitka spruce
and smiles as rain drips
through the needles –
no watering today at plot 60,
Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
Tuesday May 17, 2022
Gerry thinks it fine
to see so many cinquefoils
in flower all across the island,
Isle of Bute.
Tuesday May 17, 2022
Gill is sad to hear the gamekeepers
shooting Corvids again across
the field from her house.
Every May they cull them.
Crow Wood, Glenkindie.
Tuesday May 17, 2022
In the community garden,
3-year old Arlo chases Sukhema
with hands full of sticky willy
Battlefield Avenue, Glasgow.
Wednesday 18 May, 2022
Gerry pleased to see
the very first flower
on the dog rose hedge
Studio Gadelica, Isle of Bute.
Thursday 19 May, 2022
David has to admit that
the pseudo acacia in his
neighbour’s garden redeems
itself with sprays of white flowers,
whilst he listens to the children
shouting in the playground.
All that energy released together!
London.
Friday 20 May, 2022
Gill is delighted to see masses
of yellow comfrey and pink-red campion
beginning to flower,
River Don, Glenkindie.
Saturday 21 May, 2022
Gerry is astonished to see
a perfect Satan's boletus,
very early in the year,
in Skeoch Wood
and masses of self-heal, Mt Stuart,
Isle of Bute.
Saturday 21 May, 2022
Sukhema didn't know
the bark of an alder
can shrink a tumour.
Aboretum, Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
Saturday 21 May, 2022
David notices that whilst the work of Satan
is everywhere, the universe is perfect
just as it is and the conflict between good
and evil is a sickness of the mind.
So he sits in meditation in the garden
of the Royal Observatory and contemplates
the timelessness of the present moment
whilst serenaded by a choir of robins,
London.
Saturday 21 May, 2022
The bitter buddhist walks in the park
and is set upon by the local Azof brigade
of exercising Surf Nazis, one of whom
was “disgusted” to be photographed,
London.
Saturday 21 May, 2022
Anna is delighted to see the dog-roses
out in the patch of rough hedge
along the Earlham Road, Norwich –
more and bigger sprays than
in previous years.
Sunday 22 May, 2022
Gill welcomed back a bumble bee
to nasturtium flowers on 10th floor
city centre balcony.
Felt like a blessing, London.
Monday 23 May, 2022
Gerry greets more old friends
in Skeoch Wood –
Tormentil, Isle of Bute.
Monday 23 May, 2022
David feels mixed emotions
on seeing that the Egyptian geese
in Greenwich Park have hatched
just one gosling. The geese themselves
are in a state of high anxiety
worthy of a dozen, in London.
Monday 23 May, 2022
This morning Sukhema
released a sleepy ladybird from the hut,
Carbeth.
Monday 23 May, 2022
Ahhh, the song thrush at dusk
Glenkindie, 10.20pm.
Tuesday 24 May, 2022
Ahh, the songthrush at dawn
4.10am, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 25 May, 2022
Gerry scents the first rowan blossoms
in Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 25 May, 2022
Sukhema introduces Fiadh –
his ten year granddaughter –
to Matilda (Tilda) her two-week
old cousin. No need for words,
just gurgles and smiles,
Battlefield Avenue, Glasgow.
Thursday 26 May, 2022
Gill is astounded by curly gnarled
wee oak trees on the airy top of the Torr –
a vitrified fort at Sheilfoot.
Hazel rowan holly saplings, primroses,
bracken, moss. Kentra bog glinting –
puddles below. Fairies.
on Donside.
Friday 27 May, 2022
Sukhema sniffs and picks
his first elder blossoms
to soak in water
Dorsten, Germany.
Friday 27 May, 2022
Anna is delighted
by the scent of jasmine
on Norwich streets.
Friday 27 May, 2022
During the current spell
of cordial weather David
notices the elder, duly flowering,
on Hilly Fields, London.
Saturday 28 May, 2022
By the Lippe-seitenkanal Sukhema's
wife's sister Hannah
picks Grundelrebe (tiny blue flowers)
and we eat some – delicious!
Dorsten, Germany.
Wednesday June1, 2022
Gill saw a tree creeper skimming up
a sitkus spruce by the river Don,
Glenkindie.
Wednesday June 1, 2022
Anna glimpsed medlar blooms
through a window at Kettle’s Yard,
Cambridge; in St Peter’s Churchyard
next door, field garlic: beady bulbils
in the long grass.
Thursday June 2, 2022
Rowan, Hawthorn and Laburnum
in flower, everywhere, Glendindie.
Sunday 5 June, 2022
While reading Barry Lopez's
account of his time at the South Pole
Sukhema glances up to greet dog roses
wide-open in the sun,
front garden, Garrioch Drive, Glasgow.
Monday 6 June, 2022
Greater stichwort blooming everywhere,
Glenkindie and beyond.
Monday 6 June, 2022
Gill planted 3 primroses
in dappled shade
on the Primrose Path,
while the sound of multiple strimmers
on the River Don fishing path
below harmonised with
a distant chain saw, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 8 June, 2022
Gill startled a goosander family
from under long grasses beneath
the river bank. She swam off
downstream, four chicks in a neat
V-shape behind... and much noisy
chatter, River Don, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 8 June, 2022
Gerry surprised by a Melanoleuca mushroom
(not sure which species), up a season early,
and a stinkhorn, in the middle of Skeoch Wood,
Isle of Bute.
Thursday 9 June, 2022
Gerry is delighted to see a singleton
Bay polypore., though inedible,
it's a sign of things to come,
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Thursday 9 June, 2022
after a night of coughing,
today Sukhema moves slowly
and arrives early to everything,
and now gazes at the jiggling
white foxgloves and does nothing.
Plot 60, Kirklee, Glasgow.
Friday 10 June, 2022
Gill was happy to see a chaotic clutch
of newly hatched Mallard ducklings
learning to swim upstream,
River Don, Glenkindie.
Friday 10 June, 2022
Sukhema's stops to enjoy five goosanders
dipping, diving and shuggling wings.
River Kelvin, by Dawsolm Park, Glasgow.
Friday 10 June, 2022
David almost cries watching
the cygnets on Greenland dock
flap their tiny little wings.
Saturday 11 June, 2022
Anna turns to find a Red Admiral
has landed on the handle of her bag
as she sits in the garden in Norwich.
Both of us startle, one in delight.
Tuesday 14 June, 2022
Gerry is pleased to see thrift
and blue iris growing together,
Rhubodach, Isle of Bute
Tuesday 14 June, 2022
Gill loves the purple of wood cranesbill
among pink white lilacs of sweet rocket
growing between tall grasses
by the River Don, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 15 June, 2022
and all at once early purple orchids
the abandoned Academy,
Rothesay, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 15 June, 2022
Gill’s first sighting of flower meadows
in full glory in Wensleydale,
especially at Muker where we walked
the same fields on Christmas Day.
We went back to celebrate
my mother's 97th birthday
in beautiful warm weather.
Dozens of nesting curlews
and grazing oystercatchers.
Also first hedgehog wandering by,
not seen for many years.
Tiny local show where women's
fell running record not beaten for 40 years.
Local ukele band played Ukrainian
folk songs and the Blaydon Races.
Thursday 16 June, (Bloomsday), 2022
Gerry's pleased to see St John's wort
in full bloom. Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Thursday 16 June, (Bloomsday), 2022
Gill was delighted to see so many bees
on her Russian Comfrey blooming
pink- purple-blue blooms for Bloomsday,
Glenkindie.
Friday 17 June, 2022
Sukhema gazes at a gaggle of toddlers
laughing, jumping, splashing, squealing
in a big puddle under the bridge
over Kirklee Road, Glasgow.
Tuesday 21 June, Solstice, 2022
Gerry is delighted
by bramble blossom and foxgloves
appearing everywhere,
Isle of Bute.
Tuesday 21 June, Solstice, 2022
Sukhema picks & eats his first
home-grown raspberries this year. Delicious,
Kirklee, Glasgow, Plot 60.
Tuesday 21 June, Solstice, 2022
Gill enjoys purple clover, orchids,
silverleaf and kelp on the shore,
Isle of Coll.
Tuesday 21 June, Solstice, 2022
David slept through the solstice dawn
but was blessed with the prettiest pink clouds
just after the sun set on Hilly Fields, London.
Wednesday 22 June, 2022
Gerry is astonished by water beetles
in the tiny moon pond,
Studio Gadelica, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 22 June, 2022
while sniffing a sweet white rose,
Sukhema listens to the blackbird's
evening song, Garrioch Drive, Glasgow.
Wednesday 22 June, 2022
Gill’s first visit to Hoppings on Newcastle Town Moor
for about 40 years: fewer fortune tellers
and no wall of death. We were only brave enough
for an old-fashioned carousel.
No beer, no rain. Not what I remember.
Thursday 23 June, 2022
Gerry's pleased to see summer moving along
cuckoo flowers and vetches
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Thursday 23 June, 2022
after taiji Sukhema inhales deeply
the scent of freshly mown grass,
Arboretum, Glasgow.
Tuesday 28 June, 2022
Gill came home from Barra
to gentler weather –
elderflowers in full bloom
and masses of strawberries
in the fruit cage. As this year’s
blackcurrants slowly ripen,
she ate the last of the ones
in the freezer, and set about
a day of weeding, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 29 June, 2022
Alec & Jenny bow down
before her purple passion flowers,
Ruchill, Glasgow.
Thursday 30 June, 2022
Himalayan Balsam in flower
all along the River Irwell –
Sukhema looks forward to
eating the seed pods,
Kersal Dale, Salford.
Thursday 30 June, 2022
Anna is delighted to see field roses
(Rosa arvensis, yellow petals and stamens
fading to stark white and black)
in the hedgerow on the way to Great Dixter.
Friday 1 July, 2022
Jenny points out the Alchemilla
in the border and the cracks of the path
Ruchill, Glasgow.
Friday 1 July, 2022
Jenny is pleased to note
the second coming
of the yellow flags
in their corner of colour,
Ruchill, Glasgow.
Friday 1 July, 2022
Gill is transfixed by heavy afternoon
summer showers, shaking dog roses
and soaking long thick green grasses
by the river Don, Glenkindie.
Friday 1 July, 2022
for the first time this year
Gerry is happy to note frogspawn
in Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Friday 1 July, 2022
Gill is delighted by clover
bumblebee clover buttercup
buttercup honeybee bumble bee
clover clover clover bee buttercup
honeybee bumblebee clover clover
buttercup clover, in her Glenkindie lawn.
Saturday 2 July, 2022
on the morning of 2nd July David
is emboldened to enact the customary
protocols having inspected the newly set
trusses on his tomatoes in the corner
of the balcony of 4 Friendly Street,
Newcross.
Saturday 2 July, 2022
(a bit late, since I was off-grid for a few days)
Gerry treads carefully:
every step along the deer path
raises untold numbers of small white moths,
brown moths & assorted butterflies
in the old uncut pasture
above the unfinished hut, Carbeth.
Saturday 2 July, 2022
Gill is happy to have gathered
Elderflowers before the rain this morning,
and is making industrial quantities of cordial
while the showers spatter hard
on the velux upstairs, Glenkindie.
Sunday 3 July, 2022
David picks up the first cob nuts
in Friendly Gardens. The year is rushing past.
Even the little swans at Tideway
are growing their wings, but not fledged yet,
in Newcross, London.
Tuesday 5 July, 2022
A' chiad tarbh-nartharach
Abhainn mhòr a’ Ghlinne Ruaidh, Ùig, Leòdhas
Maìri spots the first dragonfly
Loch Croistean, Uig, Isle of Lewis.
8.30pm, Sunday 10 July, 2022
Gill is feeling midsummer
with warm evening sun
illuminating insects and white foxgloves
by the River Don, Glenkindie.
Tuesday 12 July, 2022
Gill is happy to see flowering Meadowsweet
by the River Don. In the woods above
cuckoo spit is everywhere on lush grasses
along the Primrose Path, Glenkindie.
Tuesday 12 July, 2022
Gerry spots panther caps and charcoal burners
& delights in the folk names
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Tuesday 12 July, 2022
Sukhema picks enough raspberries
and black currents for making jam
and to sprinkle a handful on muesli
tomorrow morning, Plot 60, Kirklee,
Glasgow.
Tuesday 12 July, 2022
Gill swims in the River Don with friends
floating downstream in an Edin Blyton
kind of day, Glenkindie.
Wednesday 13th July, 2022
while reading Frank O'Hara's essays
'Standing Still and Walking in New York",
Sukhema enjoys the warmth of a fire
on his back under a new roof
of The Unfinished Hut, Carbeth.
Thursday 14th July, 2022
the bees are loving the borage –
Sukhema wants to eat a few
and pick a few for salad, but doesn't.
Botanic Gardens, Glasgow.
Thursday 14th July, 2022
Anna is intrigued by a rattling sound
coming from what looks like a lime tree.
Turns out it’s a small-leaved lime,
Tilia cordata -- young tree and very graceful,
moving around in the breeze.
(She’ll recognise those heart-shaped leaves
when she sees them next in Norwich,
Botanic Garden, Cambridge.
Friday 15th July, 2022
Gerry is pleased by Tam's old style
hay windrows but fears for them
after last night's heavy rains,
north edge of the moor, Isle of Bute.
Friday 15th July, 2022
Beyond the laptop screen out the window,
Sukhema smiles at the hedgehog waddling
along a brick wall, backcourt garden,
Maryhill, Glasgow.
Sunday 17 July, 2022
Gill enjoys a slow wander
with her ageing collie mutt
up the River Don in the first
light rain for a while
(before the much forecasted
Great Heat). She feels uneasy
the river is so low that the rocks
are showing at the Kindie burn
confluence. The rain is not
the sort that makes a difference.
Saturday 16th July, 2022
Gerry's happy to see swallows
skimming up midges
all across the sheepdog trials
Ardross Farm, Isle of Bute.
Saturday 16th July, 2022
David sees the garden’s first
white Japanese anemone opening
in the cool of the morning,
on the hottest day of the year so far,
Friendly Street, London.
Sunday 17 July, 2022
Gill sees 3 large toads
rain-bathing on the River Don Path,
Glenkindie.
Sunday 17 July, 2022
seeing dozens of tiny toads
crossing the path, Sukhema steps
mindfully along the West Highland Way,
near Carbeth.
Thursday 21 July, 2022
Willowherb everywhere by the River Don,
Glenkindie, and beyond.
Saturday 23 July, 2022
In dappled shade, Gill eats delicious
sweet wild cherries that have fallen
on the lower Tam Beith path,
Glenkindie.
Tuesday 26 July, 2022
Gill is happy to walk in cool drizzle
and a westerly breeze by white and pink
foxgloves in Tam Beith woods.
A weird huge plate like mushroom protrudes
from a rotting tree trunk.
Gerry will know what it is –
Gerry says it looks like
a very old Dryad's Saddle.
Edible when very young. Delicious.
This size is like wood.
Tuesday 26 July, 2022
from the kitchen window in Friendly Street
David notices that there’s a peregrine
back on the tower of St John’s church.
The local crows are lined up
on the roof opposite, looking sullen,
Newcross, London.
Wednesday 27th July, 2022
Gill is happy to be reaching the end
of relentless blackcurrant picking.
The strawberries are also dwindling
and only rasps are left to pick,
but they are easy. Her big chest freezer
is filling up with a taste of summer
to remember in winter, Glenkindie.
10.15pm Thursday August 11, 2022
Big orange moon rising south/ south east
just now. Ash tree seed pods popping
and pinging at midday, Glenkindie.
Thursday August 11, 2022
Gerry is falling asleep
to the call of the owl,
Isle of Bute.
Friday 12 August, 2022
In Norwich, Anna notices that the heat
has pushed magnolias into a second flush:
pink blooms barely showing
through summer leaves.
A door or two further down, rowan berries
bright and ripe already, cobwebs in the hedge.
Friday 12 August, 2022
Gill has one glorious deep blue
Morning Glory flower this morning
and four butterfly chrysalis – all ten floors
above hot hot Marylebone. Another caterpillar
looked as if it was climbing even higher
up the concrete wall but hasn't moved for days.
Saturday 13 August, 2022
Gill is waiting to see the Persieds tonight
but the sky is balmy hazy, just like last night,
and the moon will rise before it gets
properly dark here – anyhow, she is happy
knowing they are there, Glenkindie.
Monday 15 August, 2022
Gill is happy to see rain persistently falling
on parched grass and notices the river
slowly filling up, colouring deep red brown
with foam flecks and swirling currents,
River Don, Glenkindie.
Saturday 27 August, 2022
Anna is delighted to see old friends
and new at Thorpe Marshes, Norwich:
orange balsam, gypsywort, water-mint
and corn mint (the latter smelling
so much sweeter than the former).
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Gill is delighted to see her cooking apple tree
weighed down creaking with large fruits
and a heavy crop of plums ripening
on the big tree by the polytunnel,
Glenkindie.
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Gill is happy knowing that the black
wizened pods of broom have popped
and emptied next summer’s store
of yellow safely locked in seed,
River Don, Glenkindie.
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Sukhema delights in the surprise
of himalayan seed pods exploding
in his mouth by the River Kelvin,
Glasgow.
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Delighted by the crop of cherry tomatoes,
on Sunday David harvests the overhanging
rose-hips in the back garden of Friendly Street.
Waste not…
Sunday 28 August, 2022
Gerry's delighted by a big haul
of chanterelles today. Enough
to give away some.
Secret location, Isle of Bute.
Wednesday 31st August, 2022
Gerry is pleased to see jet black clusters
of Stag's horn fungus on a decaying log
Skeoch Wood, Isle of Bute.
Monday 5 September, 2022
Gill is happy and relieved to see
her river foam flecked and swirling
chestnut after heavy rain.
The heron back fishing
by the Kindie burn confluence,
dippers on their rocks and ducks
fluttering in Garlic Island's
reed beds, by the River Don,
Glenkindie.
Friday 23 September, 2020
Gill is spooked by the sound of stags
rutting in the forest below,
Tam Beith, Glenkindie.
Friday 23 September, 2020
Gill notices all the willowherb
has gone to seed. A skein of geese
overhead, coming from the north,
River Don, Glenkindie.
photos by David Connearn and Gill Russell
