Between the Echoes by Angus MacMillan

 

 A few weeks ago I attended the launch of Angus MacMillan's memoir 'Between the Echoes' which was held at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. It was a very enjoyable event and I bought a copy of the book, and even spoke haltingly in Scottish Gaelic to the author who kindly signed my book, despite my lack of ability to speak the language (we did lapse into English very quickly). 

I've just now finished reading the book, which is a beautifully written evocation of growing up in Lewis, one of the Hebridean islands where Scottish Gaelic is still spoken and the Gaelic culture still hangs on, though much less so than it did even in the author's childhood. 

The book is divided into sections and looks in turn at memories associated primarily with water, earth, fire and air. The personal anecdotes are well chosen to highlight both the freedom that the author and his friends had in growing up in a rural island community and the strong sense of community where neighbours would regularly visit each other and doors were left unlocked. Also a sense of "feeling at home on the earth":

"being fastened to the world by it's colours and shapes, and the bodily feelings created by the natural world and its contours, in the form of grasses, rocks, mud, water, slopes and hollows. Inanimate things are imbued with life, or given an entirely different imagined existence: lumps of soft peat shaped into birds and planes, sticks transformed into swords; puddles become lagoons for sailing matchstick boats"

The book ends with a chapter entitled 'Of Place and Home' which outlines some of what has been lost.  Many of the Gaelic speaking islanders have left for education or work, and have been replaced by non-Gaelic speaking incomers, which has diluted the central role of the Gaelic language itself. (Tellingly, perhaps, the author himself no longer lives on Lewis.) Culture has changed too, a Gaelic 'ceilidh' used to be an informal gathering of neighbours, where there might be storytelling and music, but now, the ceilidh is a paid for, ticketed event centred on traditional Scottish dancing.

Between the Echoes by Angus MacMillan, published (2026) by Islands Book Trust.  

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My latest Substack is all about butterflies and birds along the John Muir Walkway, with more detail than in my recent post here. You can read the Substack here.  

Butterflies and Birds at Musselburgh

We had a lovely day at Musselburgh yesterday. It's always a great place to see birds and at this time of year, a great place to see butterflies. So we went along, hoping to get some good counts for the Big Butterfly Count, which started on Friday. The Big Butterfly Count asks you to spend 15 minutes in one place noting the butterflies and day flying moths you see (the project only focuses on a selected range of species). We spent 15 minutes in each of three different places and saw a total of 65 butterflies and three Six Spot Burnet Moths. Here are some photos:

We saw a lot of Meadow Browns, the photo below shows a female (unusually, in this species, the female is brighter than the male)

lots of Small Skippers (a species not included in the Big Butterfly list of species) 

a couple of Common Blues

and a few Small and Large Whites, which we didn't catch on camera. We got several photos of the Six Spot Burnet Moths 

We saw a good selection of birds, including around fifty Curlew, which was particularly pleasing as these birds are becoming very rare.

We also had a wonderful view of a Stoat, though we didn't get a photo of it, as it dashed away so quickly. 
 

Shared for Nature Notes.  

The Big Butterfly Count is Here!

 

The Big Butterfly Count has been running for many years now. The idea is to go outside and count butterflies for fifteen minutes! This year's Big Butterfly Count starts tomorrow (Friday 16 July) and runs until 9 August. Find out more and join in at the Big Butterfly Count website. The best times to see butterflies are between 10am and 4pm and you are most likely to see butterflies in warm, sunny weather. 

I survey butterflies throughout the summer at two sites (Lauriston Farm and Corstorphine Hill, both in Edinburgh), but am always happy to go to other places to count butterflies for the Big Butterfly Count. 

The photo shows a Comma Butterfly, one of the species I hope to see during the Big Butterfly Count.  

On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the film Time and Water (directed by Sara Dosa), which looks at the life and work of Icelandic writer and environmental activist Andri Snaer Magnason. The film uses family videos and archive photos to make his arguments about the climate crisis much more personal. His family have a close personal connection with ice, his grandparents Hulda and Arni spent their honeymoon on a glacier expedition! 

Having seen the film, I was very keen to read Magnason's book, which, by coincidence or not, was sitting on my bookshelves.  

The book is a much more wide ranging thing than the film. While the film physically remains in Iceland, the book includes Magnason's travels and his meetings with the Dalai Lama. The book also goes into more detail about environmental issues than does the film, while taking in a wider range of subjects including spirituality, that are only touched on in the film. The film is well worth seeing, and if you get the chance, do see it (it seems to have finished its current run in Edinburgh cinemas, but I'm sure it will come back at some point). Whether or not you've seen the film, the book is a must-read.  

The review became longer than my standard book reviews on this blog, so I decided to post it on my Substack, and you can read it here.  

On Time and Water, by Andri Snaer Magnason, translated by Lytton Smith, published (2020) by Serpent's Tail  

I've been making postcards

Last year I had the unenviable task of clearing out a friend's flat after she died (you can read my post about house clearances over on my Substack here). In amongst all her stuff, were loads of unused postcards. I wondered what to do with these until I recently discovered Postcrossing. This website basically links people up to send postcards around the world. It's fun, it keeps alive the old fashioned habit of sending real mail and I also find it a good way of practising my languages (I've written and received a few postcards in German, a couple in French but none so far in Italian and don't expect to ever write any in Scottish Gaelic.) I've got lots of card making supplies and have taken out the card that's the right size, shape and thickness and made some postcards to send, with more on the way no doubt. I may use some of the postcards to send to people outwith Postcrossing. Here are a selection, all made from paper scraps and craft supplies purchased from second hand shops: 

 

Moths and Caterpillars on Corstorphine Hill

 We had a lovely walk on Saturday, around Edinburgh's Corstorphine Hill. It was very misty, with a heavy haar (sea mist) hanging over the hill, which was very atmospheric.

 

Before we even got onto the hill, we saw this beautiful Magpie moth in a hedge

On the hill we were very happy to find plenty of Cinnabar Moth caterpillars munching their way through the Ragwort. I very rarely see Cinnabar moths themselves, but at this time of year, the distinctive orange and black striped caterpillars are easy to find on Ragwort.  

There were also several Red Soldier Beetles in amongst the Ragwort - I haven't seen as many of these beetles as I would expect to see at this time of year.

 This post is part of the Nature Notes meme

A Customised T-shirt

This plain black t-shirt was still in perfect condition, except for a hole! So, I chose some nice fabric from my stash and covered the hole and made the repair into a feature.

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Meanwhile, over on my Crafty Green Poet Substack, today's post shares a collage and a poem on the theme of disappearing animals. 
 

Woodland Walks

On Saturday we had a lovely walk around Blackford Pond (where we saw a Kingfisher, a first for the pond, at least in our experience) and into the Hermitage of Braid. Here are some photos:

The photo above shows Blackford Pond, the photo below shows the Braid Burn, which flows through the Hermitage. 
 

Yesterday, I carried out my weekly patrol, picking litter and recording wildlife along the Water of Leith, where I saw another Kingfisher (not uncommon along the river, but always lovely to see)! Kingfishers rarely pose for my camera, so here's a photo of the area where I saw the Kingfisher. If you look carefully you may be able to see a Grey Heron...

If you click on the image, you should get a larger version. Clue: the heron is in a tree. 
 

The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley

Twelve year old Gussie needs a heart and lung transplant, but doesn't know how long she'll need to wait before she gets the surgery. So she focuses on living and enjoying life as much as she can. She's well-read with an insatiable curiosity in the world around her. She loves spending time with her cats and watching the wildlife around her new home she shared with her Mum in Cornwall. She also wants to find out about her relatives. 

I really enjoyed this book, though I did feel it lost energy and direction about half way through.  

Gussie is a great character, to inspire anyone who is living with uncertainty around health issues. I wasn't sure though what age group this book is written for. Given a main character of age 12, you'd think perhaps the book is written for youngsters of around 10, but it feels too grown up and too slow moving for that age group. However, the style of writing means it doesn't feel like its written for adults, rather as a children's book that adults can also enjoy. 

It's the sequel to The Burying Beetle (which I haven't read) but does stand alone.  

The Bower Bird by Ann Kelley, published (2007) by Luath Press.