Saturday 2 August 2008

Death in the Air

The croft was strangely quiet. A solitary wood pigeon perches statuesquely atop the windvane, eying the leftover rice. "What's up?", i ask the Old Man. "There's a pair of buzzards nesting in the Castle Grounds." As i looked back out, the vane was empty, rice untouched. Walking round the side of the house, a small black dot is visible against the thunderous clouds. My eyes, drawn by the motion quickly makes out the ragged wing-ends. Only seagulls are big enough to risk taking to the air. Behind me, the cat is sitting on a fence-rail, waiting to pounce on birds moving close to the ground. Every cloud has a silver lining for the hunter.

11 comments:

Alan Sloman said...

Nice piece Dunc.

Thanks

Martin Rye said...

Nature is great. No political correctness or grey arrears to worry about. Just life and death, the ebb and flow of the seasons. Wonderful to watch horrible if you’re lower down on the food chain.

Anonymous said...

Bonjour, Aktoman. Ca va? :)

AktoMan said...

Helloooo, PW.

Och, I'm nae in a good shape, lass. Leg still itching after the bout of cellulitis. Then came down with cold, which once recovered, too myself off to see the folks on Lewis.

I've only been under canvas 7 nights this year. Only bagged 1 Munro, and been up Bennachie once. As a result, belt has gone from 4 notches to 1.

Looking forward to reading your write-up. TGOc is being featured on tonight's "The Adventure Show" on BBC2 Scotland at 1800hrs. It may be on iPlayer sometime after.

Anonymous said...

I'm v. sorry indeed to hear that you're not 100%. Your leg sounds v. painful :( How long should it take before back to normal?

I'm sure you'll soon get back to fighting weight as soon as you can start getting out again, though. It's a pain to put on some weight, but v. satisfying to feel it drop off again.

I scoured all my TV channels earlier today to try to find a place to watch the Adventure Show, and almost cried with frustration when I couldn't. I hope they'll make it available somehow. Bloody BBC :(

Alan Sloman said...

Why do the BBC in Scotland think that it is just the Scots who like the Great Outdoors? I seem to recall that there are just five million Scots and 50 miliion English. You would have thought that (like the BBC weather forecast) that they would have catered for the English?

Oh No....

I think we should complain to the Race Relations Board (what is it called nowadays?)

Barmy if you ask me... but there again - how many of the people in the BBC Grauniad Readerhip Officer Corps are hill walkers?

Not many I fear...

AktoMan said...

After 4 weeks, it was well enough for the Doc to send me back to work. Aqueous solution and anti-histameens keep swelling and itching at bay. Leg back to normal bar some itching. That's been about 2 months now.

The Adventure Show was on BBC2 Scotland. It should, hopefully, appear on the BBC iPlayer within a day or so. If not, give me a shout next week. In their 'Choose region: Scotland", it says "Not available", rather than "Coming soon". Bleagh.

Maybe some Englishers should write and complain?

AktoMan said...

Alan - I fear that you may find it is down to the BBC English Region to pick up programmes.

When I lived in the North (of England), our Radio Times included schedules from the North (of the Border). Much better than the English schedules.

As I suggested to Shirley - why not write to the BBC and complain. They are supposed to be the "British" Broadcasting Corporation, after all.

Some of the Gaelic progs are excellent on BBC2 Alba. Tir is Teanga comes to mind.

Alan Sloman said...

I complain every day about the BBC and it's inarticulate chavs who present the news and weather, but Lynnie just shuts her ears and ignores me.

No change there, then.

AktoMan said...

LOL - my parents used to stop watching the news when I visited as I'd just rip into PMs who can't answer a straightforward question and when they do, it's probably all... but I've mellowed since then ;-)

As to "regional" programmes, I just recalled that we were the same with Wainwrights Walks. Shown out of sequence and never completed on BBC2 Scotland. As I don't receive BBC4, I miss the first showing of such things.

It is like the BBC has erected Hadrian's Wall.

As to Offa's Dyke: I did notice that quite a few Welsh programs were available, but it isn't something I scientifically monitored.

Fiona-Jane Brown said...

S4C gets Channel 4's space for the hours its on Welsh telly. Never got any time down in cardiff to see the welsh soap 'Pob y Cwm' (think that's it) it was great when I was in Bangor in Jan.

all telly should be available to all, free and without subscription, the advertisers pay them enough surely to peace?? Plzd that BBC4 is repeating the Arena episode about the London Underground tonight, I saw most of it on Sat, but now I'll get to tape it to keep - most excellent.