What I've Been Reading Online No 19

Bynack More & Beinn Mheadhoin. May 11.

Another collection of pieces I've enjoyed reading online recently. The pandemic dominates the world at present so as last time many of the articles are about Covid 19 or reference it. One theme I've noticed in some of these and other pieces is the solace provided by nature and an increasing joy in its details.

Alex Roddie also posts interesting links to his online reading. He's more organised than me and manages to post weekly.

What I've been reading this week 


HILLWALKING, MOUNTAINEERING, & THE OUTDOORS

A Very British Bog

Ronald Turnbull on his experiences with "quagmires, morasses, bogs, fens, flows, sloughs and other soggy bits of Britain".

Covid Dreams 15: Glory and madness

One of a daily vignette about the Cairngorms by Neil Reid - they're all worth reading but I particularly enjoyed this one about a wander on a frozen Loch Avon.

The gear that I would have taken on the 2020 TGO Challenge

Alex Roddie describes the gear he'd selected for this years TGO Challenge before lockdown caused its cancellation.

I've Never Climbed ...

Dan Bailey asks some outdoors folk which "blindingly obvious" hills they haven't climbed

Central Buttress of Scafell - Mabel Barker & C. D. Frankland. August 1925

Mabel Barker's account of the first female ascent of a major rock climb from a 1925 climbing club journal.

What I Learned From Walking Round The World

After a year and a half walking 10,000km as part of his walk round the world Tom Fremantle why he's doing it.

The Grahams: a journey I never intended to take

Multi-Munroist Anne Butler discovers the Grahams aren't as dull as she thought and to her surprise climbs them all.

The bittersweet story of Marina Abramović's epic walk on the Great Wall of China

A long-distance walk as performance art, by David Bramwell.

NATURE & CONSERVATION

Sunlight in the Forest. May 6.

The Bureaucrats and the Beavers 

A powerful polemic by Derek Gow about what's wrong with Natural England's plans for beavers.

Guest blog: Kevin Cumming project leader Langholm Community Buyout

Kevin Cumming describes the wonderful and inspiring project to buy Langholm a grouse moor in Southern Scotland for regeneration and ecological restoration.

Beautiful creatures in breathtaking close-up

Ben Dolphin watches a hare family right outside his house

Fungi's Lessons for Adapting to Life on a Damaged Planet

Merlin Sheldrake, author of fascinating-sounding new book about fungi Entangled Life, talks to Robert Macfarlane.

The opulence of confinement light and the determination of dandelions

On her croft in NW Scotland Annie O'Garra Worsley finds hope and solace in nature and the coming of spring.

'The bliss of a quiet period': lockdown is a unique chance to study the nature of cities

With cities in hibernation we can look at what is happening with nature in them says Phoebe Weston. 

Muir's legacy lives on

Central Scotland Green Network Trust Chair Keith Geddes reflects on Muir’s relevance today.

Garden birds. May 15

LOCKDOWN

 'Savour solitude - it is not the same as loneliness'

Sara Maitland praises solitude and says she's enjoying lockdown.

Listening, noticing, knowing  

David Lintern enjoys the details of his local natural spaces.

The voices of birds: a greening of lockdown

Lockdown has created the chance to build a closer relationship with the wildlife all around for Alex Roddie.