MPoaF: The Cryptozoological Edition
I’ve got a passing interest in cryptozoology. Not in the sense that I actually believe there are dinosaurs living wild in the Congo, or hairy hominids roaming the North American continent, or...
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A Touch of Seasonal Colour
Photos from a week spent out of town, savouring the season. Autumn’s by far the most characterful time of year, by my reckoning (at least in this corner of the world): all bluster and colour and...
View ArticleWelcome to a New Epoch
Sometimes the world seems like one big adventure in speculative fiction. It’s 2011, obviously, but that’s not a very epic scale to be thinking on for those of a fantastical or science fictional bent....
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Ent Encounter
Was on holiday last week. Here. The only report of consequence I have from a jolly pleasant week is this: I met an ent. Cool dude. Didn’t get formally introduced, unfortunately, so I don’t know his...
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A Few Days in Pictures
Last weekend provided a nice few days around these parts. Small pleasures. Which I will now, of course, insist upon sharing … An Unexpected Visitor Putting out food for the little birds in the garden...
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Yggdrasil Faces Its Ragnarok
Yggdrasil is the world tree of Norse mythology, more or less the cosmological centre of their universe. Vast, supporting or penetrating or anchoring – or at the very least co-existing with – the Nine...
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Time for a Pre-Christmas Miscellany
In years gone by, I’ve tended to pop out a Miscellany post to mark the festive season. Don’t know why. Don’t know why I’m about to do it again, but here I go. For Likers of Sketches D(ungeons) &...
View ArticleMPoaF: Climbing the Tallest Tree in the World
I just like this. Anything that reminds us, now and again, that the natural world is full of marvels is a good thing. We’re small and ephemeral things, us humans, compared to some of the life we...
View ArticleMPoaF: Lancet Liver Fluke
I like parasites. They do the craziest things; things that rightfully belong in sf, fantasy or horrror fiction rather than the real world. Like create zombie ants. Biology’s a great place to trawl...
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Life on the Cusp
Last week, I was pretty sure it was Spring. Sunshine, blue skies, birds singing their little hearts out. All that. Yesterday, not so much: It’s on the cusp of a change in season that the world –...
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Perusing the Podverse: Monsters!
Two of my very favourite podcasts this time around. Paradoxically, the two specific episodes I’m going to point at are not exactly typical of the podcasts concerned (if anything, they’ve kind of...
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Easter in Edinburgh …
… looked like this for me: And since it’s a reasonable time of year for a bit of reflection, here’s a piece I discovered the other day that I reckon is rather well-written, and although it might not be...
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Owls
Owls must be right up there amongst the groups of birds most heavily loaded with myth and folklore and romance. And they are rather magical creatures. If you watch an owl for long enough – especially...
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The Frosts Have Come
The weather’s given us an occasional glorious Edinburgh day in the last week or so. If, at least, there’s a certain kind of weather you like (as I do). Pristine blue skies, still air that’s clear and...
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What I’ve Been Watching, What I’ve Been Reading
Aaaand I’m back on the blog treadmill after a festive break that ended up being a bit longer than intended. Busy, you know. Holidaying, working, thinking up new stuff. Got plans and hopes for 2014 – as...
View ArticleMPoaF: Mount Tamalpais, The Invisible Peak
A long while back, I highlighted the lovely film A Day in the Life of a Fire Lookout by Gary Yost in a Moving Pictures on a Friday post. You never know who’s watching when you do internet stuff, of...
View ArticleA Smörgåsbord: Parrots, Ruins, Comics, Podcasts, Corporate Leviathans
Here’s some stuff I’ve harvested from around the web of late: The Nerdist Podcast put out a couple of interesting/fun interviews that caught my ear: Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, talking about the...
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Ancient Trees: The Birnam Oak and Britain’s Biggest Sycamore
Long, long ago I had a job that occasionally involved looking at old trees. There’s not much in Nature that speaks with a richer, stronger voice to us, I think. Was up on the banks of the River Tay...
View ArticleMPoaF: How Wolves Change Rivers
Moving Pictures On A Friday. Offered without comment, this one, except to say – for those curious about the inner life of writers – that it touches (in, for once, a relatively positive and encouraging...
View ArticleMPoaF: Awesome Army of Giant Crabs
Post title kind of says it all, really. Spider crabs en masse. Cool (rather than creepy, as the video calls it, if you ask me).
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