Some pictures of the flow in the new pondworks:
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Spate
Some pictures of the flow in the new pondworks:
Friday, August 07, 2009
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Digging in
The creation of enhanced trout (and other) habitat involves diverting a small portion of our main burn's flow through a series of deepish pools and small ponds before allowing the flow to spread over a lower meadow on its way to rejoin the original course of the burn.
We also hope to attract native trout and perhaps other aquatic life to add to the varieties already present on the site.
Taliesin - Whitehill Muir, to give it its proper name - is an ancient woodland site replanted by Southwest Community Woodlands Trust. As part of the trust's activities it runs courses on traditional timberworking skills, and both structures in the pictures here
- the log cabin on the right and the cruck-frame on left - were built on such courses, as was the Loo with a View!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Perishables
Grave thoughts
I've made a willow coffin (April 2003), and can only hope that when I perish, it will be deemed not to have, and that said appearance is proved mistaken somewhere halfway down the rocky path to the designated hole.
True friends will be the ones ROELOL.
Link to Photos by Simon Brooke
That much canvas did indeed prove an hostage to Fortune, and a gale-gust brought down the tipi end with me inside busily doing work I should have done (as principal designer/erector) long before. A tent stays up in exact proportion to how well it's tied down, and it wasn't.
I, of course was unmarked.
The God(s) often protect fools, as I have ample experience.
Fortunately, there was only one minor injury (mostly shock), but I took my failure (due care, etc.) very seriously. We have had no further failures.
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."
--
"When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."
-- John Muir
"I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me,
That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly,
and my blood is part of the sea...
There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute, except my mind,
and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself,
it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters.
--D H Lawrence"
True friends will be the ones ROELOL.
Link to Photos by Simon Brooke
That much canvas did indeed prove an hostage to Fortune, and a gale-gust brought down the tipi end with me inside busily doing work I should have done (as principal designer/erector) long before. A tent stays up in exact proportion to how well it's tied down, and it wasn't.
I, of course was unmarked.
The God(s) often protect fools, as I have ample experience.
Fortunately, there was only one minor injury (mostly shock), but I took my failure (due care, etc.) very seriously. We have had no further failures.
"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."
--
"When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe."
-- John Muir
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Feast of Lichens - And a Windfarm
and some pictures of the Robin Rigg Windfarm as it grows...
From November 2nd to August 27th (so far)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Just Mom
Just a couple of wee pictures of a lactating female. I hope to glimpse one or more of her litter in the next couple of weeks as she leads them out of the dray for weaning - Sunday April 19th, 2009
You can see her teat just under her right elbow. That makes you an expert spotter of a lactating Sciurus Sciurus!
Blackthorn (Prunus Spinosa) in bloom at Taliesin,
Saturday April 25th, 2009
Saturday April 25th, 2009
Prunus Avium (wild cherry, Gean)
North Glen, Saturday April 25th, 2009
North Glen, Saturday April 25th, 2009
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Kayak Workshop - October 2008
In October 2008, Sean Gallagher, who has learned the traditional kayak construction methods used by his Inupiak ancestors, came and taught a course for us. Clicking on the image will take you to a slideshow of the event.
The tradition is from King Island, a tiny island off Alaska in the Bering Sea, almost as near to Russia as to Alaska. Much more information on Sean and his kayaks can be found on his website and blog.
One Kayak Maker, Alyne Jones, writes:
When I was wee and happit up to keep out the chill of Winter, my Dad would say ‘here comes Nanook of the North’.
I had no idea who this Nanook was until this Winter when I watched the 1930’s film and realised what an impact it had had on my parents generation. It graphically told the story of the Eskimo through ethnological observation of the family and the community life of Nanook in a way documentary film had never done before for mass consumption. The simple life of these people in their daily battle with the most inhospitable climatic conditions on Earth then became embedded into the daily parlance and culture of the West.
When Godfrey said to me that day in October ‘you’ll have to come and build a Kayak,’ I accepted the hand of fate and humbly entered an unfamiliar arena; the world of tools and creating an object of beauty from wood. When I need something done with tools and wood in my house, I ring the joiner. My immediate thoughts were that I was being given the opportunity to enter a mysterious unknown world on many levels, the most obvious being the experience of working with tools and how would I manage this totally unfamiliar journey?
Godfrey Smith, the clog and shoe maker from Galloway had met Sean, an Inupiat Eskimo in Edinburgh during the Afghan film Festival in February 2008. By October that year Sean was in Galloway to teach his first class abroad.
Sean’s grandparents were from King Island, 70 miles from Alaska in the Bering strait, whose whole culture revolved round the Kayak. This Island was evacuated in the 1950’s and Sean had always been fascinated with the skills of his ancestors and decided he would dedicate himself to finding out how these exceptional boats were built.
Of all the Bering Strait Kayaks, the King Island kayak was reportedly the best made and strongest. Its strength was such that the Kayak and Kayaker could be launched from a rocky overhang by two strong men. On a signal from the Kayaker, they picked up the loaded Kayak and threw it over the surf line.
These kayaks were designed to be used in the stormy waters of the Bering Strait and perfectly adapted for a person intent on distance paddling.
Plans for a Kayak Building workshop at Taliesin, our South West Community Woodland Site in Galloway were now laid and this small corner of Scotland was destined to be the first place outside of the United States of America where the King Island Kayak would be built, using locally milled timber .
As a founder member of the Community Woodland and registered as one of the ‘old brigade’, I always go along to support events at Taliesin, usually held three times a year ,by making soup, gathering wood or being general dogsbody, which is the most crucial role in any event. If anyone asks the secret of how we have successfully run courses now for over 10years, the answer lies in the team who do it and the fact that we all pitch in.
In October 2008 however, fate had detemined my destiny and I was to be a maker and builder of a King Island Kayak and others would support me as I had done for so many others in the past. After the first few days of measuring, sawing, pegging, planning and lashing, my teacher Sean asked me how I was feeling about learning so many new skills so quickly with the pressure of a limited timescale to complete the task.
My answer was not the one he expected. Each day for a week my time was consumed with creating and perfecting techniques which required a concentration of purpose. To be immersed in such repetitive tasks was a form of pure meditation,this was the peace I had glimpsed so many times in folk who used hand tools.
The inner journey that I was taking while tying hundreds of square lashings with artificial sinew was the culmination of all my life achievements and lessons accumulated in my outer journey through life.
The process was so overwhelming in fact, that I am still coming to terms with it. Curiously, the weather that week in October when we ran the kayak building course was of biblical proportion and challenged everyone concerned on a fundamental level.
It was the wettest week ever recorded and on the second day, the local burns were all running down the road and right through the middle of our workshop area at the gate. Jem,Jools and Maz didn’t hesitate,the three of them got into a 4 wheel drive with spades and set about clearing culverts up and down the country road which runs by our site. The old job of the local roadman is not done these days and the result in this case was close down our site due to severe flooding or do something yourself.
We managed to salvage our half built kayaks and moved all the tools and wood to higher ground. For our teacher Sean, the Inupiat Eskimo, who had come from Seattle it was very difficult, squelching through deep mud holes as he worked with his four kayak builders. This course was proving to be a test for everyone on so many levels we had never experienced before or anticipated. Our cook Jools was magnificent, keeping our spirits up as she had realised the enormous task it would have been to relocate our whole workshop.
Each Kayak is 15 feet long and constructed in Galloway timber which had been cut from a wood in Wigtownshire and milled the weekend before. The long stringers which made the outline shape and the ribs which formed the body of the kayak were pinned together with wooden pegs and reinforced and tied together with lashings of artificial sinew. This sinew was light and incredibly strong and with over 500 square lashings needed to hold it all together a test of how tough the hands were. I often used to wear a pair of fine leather gloves while lashing when the skin on the hands became too tender.
So, I am now a kayak builder and have had the complete immersion therapy. After years of observing how healing working with wood is, how the transformation occurs as the external persona fades away, and the powerful act of quietly shaving away at wood fulfils some deep desire.
I now know that feeling and can only compare it to times in a life where there has been a complete release from external worries and the notion that somehow you are in control. Nursing an infant, or working with others in a common task is the nearest I can come to analysing the experience. The job that week was clear, nurture and help to grow more beautiful and complete every day.
That inner journey is still to be absorbed and imprinted in the psyche; the outer one remains: I was a Kayak builder for a week in my life, What a privilege!
Alyne is currently preparing an exhibition of photographs and storyboards, illustrating the Indigenous Folk Culture of Scotland. Dates for the touring event available. Visit her website: www.vanishingscotland.co.uk
The above account appeared in the Reforesting Scotland Journal, issue 39 (Spring/Summer 2009).
We operate workshops and courses twice yearly at Taliesin Community Woodland Centre. For more information click here. or for general information about Southwest Community Woodlands Trust, click here
Do pay Taliesin a visit anytime and enjoy the space.
(click for map)
The tradition is from King Island, a tiny island off Alaska in the Bering Sea, almost as near to Russia as to Alaska. Much more information on Sean and his kayaks can be found on his website and blog.
One Kayak Maker, Alyne Jones, writes:
An Eskimo comes to Galloway
When I was wee and happit up to keep out the chill of Winter, my Dad would say ‘here comes Nanook of the North’.
I had no idea who this Nanook was until this Winter when I watched the 1930’s film and realised what an impact it had had on my parents generation. It graphically told the story of the Eskimo through ethnological observation of the family and the community life of Nanook in a way documentary film had never done before for mass consumption. The simple life of these people in their daily battle with the most inhospitable climatic conditions on Earth then became embedded into the daily parlance and culture of the West.
When Godfrey said to me that day in October ‘you’ll have to come and build a Kayak,’ I accepted the hand of fate and humbly entered an unfamiliar arena; the world of tools and creating an object of beauty from wood. When I need something done with tools and wood in my house, I ring the joiner. My immediate thoughts were that I was being given the opportunity to enter a mysterious unknown world on many levels, the most obvious being the experience of working with tools and how would I manage this totally unfamiliar journey?
Godfrey Smith, the clog and shoe maker from Galloway had met Sean, an Inupiat Eskimo in Edinburgh during the Afghan film Festival in February 2008. By October that year Sean was in Galloway to teach his first class abroad.
Sean’s grandparents were from King Island, 70 miles from Alaska in the Bering strait, whose whole culture revolved round the Kayak. This Island was evacuated in the 1950’s and Sean had always been fascinated with the skills of his ancestors and decided he would dedicate himself to finding out how these exceptional boats were built.
Of all the Bering Strait Kayaks, the King Island kayak was reportedly the best made and strongest. Its strength was such that the Kayak and Kayaker could be launched from a rocky overhang by two strong men. On a signal from the Kayaker, they picked up the loaded Kayak and threw it over the surf line.
These kayaks were designed to be used in the stormy waters of the Bering Strait and perfectly adapted for a person intent on distance paddling.
Plans for a Kayak Building workshop at Taliesin, our South West Community Woodland Site in Galloway were now laid and this small corner of Scotland was destined to be the first place outside of the United States of America where the King Island Kayak would be built, using locally milled timber .
As a founder member of the Community Woodland and registered as one of the ‘old brigade’, I always go along to support events at Taliesin, usually held three times a year ,by making soup, gathering wood or being general dogsbody, which is the most crucial role in any event. If anyone asks the secret of how we have successfully run courses now for over 10years, the answer lies in the team who do it and the fact that we all pitch in.
In October 2008 however, fate had detemined my destiny and I was to be a maker and builder of a King Island Kayak and others would support me as I had done for so many others in the past. After the first few days of measuring, sawing, pegging, planning and lashing, my teacher Sean asked me how I was feeling about learning so many new skills so quickly with the pressure of a limited timescale to complete the task.
My answer was not the one he expected. Each day for a week my time was consumed with creating and perfecting techniques which required a concentration of purpose. To be immersed in such repetitive tasks was a form of pure meditation,this was the peace I had glimpsed so many times in folk who used hand tools.
The inner journey that I was taking while tying hundreds of square lashings with artificial sinew was the culmination of all my life achievements and lessons accumulated in my outer journey through life.
The process was so overwhelming in fact, that I am still coming to terms with it. Curiously, the weather that week in October when we ran the kayak building course was of biblical proportion and challenged everyone concerned on a fundamental level.
It was the wettest week ever recorded and on the second day, the local burns were all running down the road and right through the middle of our workshop area at the gate. Jem,Jools and Maz didn’t hesitate,the three of them got into a 4 wheel drive with spades and set about clearing culverts up and down the country road which runs by our site. The old job of the local roadman is not done these days and the result in this case was close down our site due to severe flooding or do something yourself.
We managed to salvage our half built kayaks and moved all the tools and wood to higher ground. For our teacher Sean, the Inupiat Eskimo, who had come from Seattle it was very difficult, squelching through deep mud holes as he worked with his four kayak builders. This course was proving to be a test for everyone on so many levels we had never experienced before or anticipated. Our cook Jools was magnificent, keeping our spirits up as she had realised the enormous task it would have been to relocate our whole workshop.
Each Kayak is 15 feet long and constructed in Galloway timber which had been cut from a wood in Wigtownshire and milled the weekend before. The long stringers which made the outline shape and the ribs which formed the body of the kayak were pinned together with wooden pegs and reinforced and tied together with lashings of artificial sinew. This sinew was light and incredibly strong and with over 500 square lashings needed to hold it all together a test of how tough the hands were. I often used to wear a pair of fine leather gloves while lashing when the skin on the hands became too tender.
So, I am now a kayak builder and have had the complete immersion therapy. After years of observing how healing working with wood is, how the transformation occurs as the external persona fades away, and the powerful act of quietly shaving away at wood fulfils some deep desire.
I now know that feeling and can only compare it to times in a life where there has been a complete release from external worries and the notion that somehow you are in control. Nursing an infant, or working with others in a common task is the nearest I can come to analysing the experience. The job that week was clear, nurture and help to grow more beautiful and complete every day.
That inner journey is still to be absorbed and imprinted in the psyche; the outer one remains: I was a Kayak builder for a week in my life, What a privilege!
Alyne is currently preparing an exhibition of photographs and storyboards, illustrating the Indigenous Folk Culture of Scotland. Dates for the touring event available. Visit her website: www.vanishingscotland.co.uk
The above account appeared in the Reforesting Scotland Journal, issue 39 (Spring/Summer 2009).
We operate workshops and courses twice yearly at Taliesin Community Woodland Centre. For more information click here. or for general information about Southwest Community Woodlands Trust, click here
Do pay Taliesin a visit anytime and enjoy the space.
(click for map)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Discussion and recommended reading
All friends and anyone who wants to can post 'comments' (see below) on this blog
Thursday, May 31, 2007
A Rich Diet?
I got some interesting pictures yesterday of a red squirrel female who is obviously nursing young. A close look at her right side
between fore and hind leg will show two teats.
I first noticed because of the cleavage from the front view. She's eating peanuts about five meters from me while a CD is playing quite loudly (Rory McLeod).
It seems to make the wildlife quite calm
to have either the radio or some other sound source going.
I shall keep the blog posted if/when she chooses to bring the young around.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
The View from Bed
Sunrise is in my face every morning,
and the birdsong is intense from well before Dawn.
Looking South, late morning
Looking North, late morning
And, a pheasant Hen, sitting tight in the afternoon sunlight
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sleeping Smooth
A couple of views of the new treehouse with canvas cover contrived out of secondhand marquee canvas.
Sides can be swept up or pinned down, depending upon weather, and back curtain can be easily lowered to give a window on the sunset.
A 'new' bed, contrived from reclaimed timber and a good futon reclaimed from someone who wanted a softer bed. It was beautifully comfortable last night (26/7 Feb).
Added March 1st, after a wonderfully stormy night. It was wonderful, and, so long as the wind doesn't come from the East (it hasn't yet), BRING IT ON!!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Global Warming in an early Spring
Early Spring yet again? Wild Narcissae in woodland litter Feb 18th, 2007
And, some of the romneys as requested. Sadly, they wouldn't consent to being photographed while riding the quad bike...
And one of my favourite (among many) rocky outcrops on the honorary stockman's rounds.
And an old friend. Sometime soon I'll post a picture taken looking up from the centre. It's around 200 years or older and is shaped to its hillside for minimum wind resistance (or maximum survivability).Sunday, January 28, 2007
A New Treehouse?
Does it qualify as a treehouse? Good view out over the valley, anyway.
Pretty low to the ground, but only at one end, 
and it's right at the top of the wee wood, backed up to the granite hilltop.
Yeah, I reckon it's gonna be a treehouse. Spruce roundwood free from forest operations and planking reclaimed from Tom's big treehouse.Now to think about an awning roof using secondhand marquee canvas. More developments anon.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Frontyard Christmas Campfire.
Who documents the documentors?
The Gods smiled upon our Carol singing gathering, providing a truly stille nacht - Not a breath of wind,
truly 'acoustic' music accompanied by a foot-powered harmonium.
And a smokeless fire of ashwood. Much song and conversation and very little digital camera use....Monday, December 18, 2006
Everything in Season
Season's Greetings!Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all . . .
and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Scotland great, (not to imply that Scotland is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only country in Great Britain), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)
Monday, December 11, 2006
Finally Got Images to Work!
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Two Beardies
This posting is simply a method of getting images onto blogger so that one of them can be used for profile. The editing of this supposedly 'beta' version is atrocious! Perhaps it will improve, but who knows.....
Friday, December 08, 2006
Windows On Your World
This is my contribution to the BBC Radio 4 PM Programme "Windows On Your World" mass observation exercise. 4000 pictures taken at 17:00 GMT December 5th, 2006.
What are you seeing right now?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
