My reaction to a swallow alarm call is only marginally slower than the intended benefactors. I don’t always get to see the source of the concern, and there are moments when the outcome is decidedly anticlimactic (such as the summer that the swallows and woodpigeons shared eave-space), but a quick dash outside will often bringContinue reading “Everything Changes”
Author Archives: Kevin Parr
Writer, Fisherman, Amateur naturalist and sometime Idler. Author of The Quiet Moon, Rivers Run, The Twitch & The Idle Angler.
Too tired
July already. The hottest June on record (by a distance) followed one of the driest ever Mays. And, oh how the landscape responds. Cracked earth and stunted crops. Blackened nettles and trees already wearing their early autumn clothes. Insect numbers have improved from the cold spring, but such was the paucity then that the numberContinue reading “Too tired”
The Quiet Moon
My new book, The Quiet Moon, is now published and available from all good bookshops and online retailers. A selection of which may be found here. A few people have asked about signed copies. I was hoping to set something up with a local shop but that route seems more complicated than it might be.Continue reading “The Quiet Moon”
The Moon of Smoke
This morning was keen not to wake. Not fully. The ground was frosted and a cold fog hung beneath the still. Dawn crept quiet, a reluctant trudge from black into grey – and there to wait a while. I climbed into the clear of Eggardon and all around me the hills and rolls stood likeContinue reading “The Moon of Smoke”
White-tail
I was 8 years old when I saw my first eagle. We were holidaying on Arran and it rained every day for a fortnight. But it didn’t matter that Scotland was wet, I had gone with a firm belief that I would find gold in the mountains and despite the conditions, serendipity soared over usContinue reading “White-tail”
The Shortest Month
I once worked with a Sci-Fi nut who took pride in seeing everything, knowing everything and being first to everything. With a brand-new Star Wars film on the horizon he was saving pennies and beginning to bubble. And in order to ensure he saw it before anyone else he knew, he bought plane tickets toContinue reading “The Shortest Month”
Catkins
Hazel catkins hang like lanolin lanterns. Little lamb’s tails that shine against the chocolate brown of the ploughed field beyond. The leaves remain tucked up, but the season is shifting. Spring is coming but winter has yet to bite. There is a different kind of cold out there though. Clouds casting shadows where even theContinue reading “Catkins”
Slipping
It can be difficult to roll with nature’s fluctuations. Man has, after all, gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid them for himself. There is much to admire in what we have achieved as a species – science, welfare and medicine have created a world (certainly in the West) which, though far from equal, does offerContinue reading “Slipping”
Institutionalisation
I spent some time in a secure unit when I was 20. Actually, ‘secure unit’ is being generous – it was a Mental Hospital, dating back to the First World War and since bulldozed and developed (for housing, obviously – nobody gets mentally ill anymore). ‘It’s nothing like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ theyContinue reading “Institutionalisation”
Stranger Things
Despite the recent heatwave, the blistering temperatures and sweaty, sleepless nights, it still feels as though we are waiting for summer. Not a settled period of pleasant warmth and sunshine, but more the essence of the season. A sense of stopping and feeling, a pause of worry and an ease of workload. An expectationContinue reading “Stranger Things”
Kevin Parr 